10 years ago
6
The Rear-View Camera Is No Longer Just An Option For Cars—It's The Law
Highway safety administrators finally acknowledge that cheap technology can save lives.
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Just to put numbers in perspective...
15,000 people injured by cars backing up is 0.004732% of the current US population.
For more perspective, more people die world-wide by slipping and falling in the bathtub than are injured by cars backing up.
This is fucking stupid.
True, but if it can be avoided why not do it? If you were able to look into the future and see yourself backing over your kid, wouldn't you accept a cheap technology that would reverse that outcome? Parents backing over their kids isn't just an unfortunate death, it has ripples through the whole family, it effects a lot more people in the long run than what the statistics may lead you to believe.
I guess my point of view is; if people aren't looking when they back up, how will putting a camera on a dash help? My Edge beeps loudly whenever there's anything behind it and it works just fine.
If the monitor on the dash was only for backing up, I'd probably shut up. However, I'm pretty confident the car manufacturers will cheerfully plug in all sorts of distracting goodies (e.g. GPS, live television, videophone, audio streaming, OMG chat with grandma while you're in traffic! etc) to the point where the dash will end up distracting drivers even more than it not existing to begin with.
The pricing documented in the article seems way off to me, too. 150 USD for a cam and a monitor. Cheap, right? I haven't seen a camera on a current-model vehicle available as an add-on for less than 500-700 bucks. Since it's now federal law, you can be sure the base price for all cars will jump by 1K. Minimum.
I don't hate everything. I think tires alerting you of being low pressure is a good idea (law passed in 2007). I just think this is an awful idea when simpler, cheaper things exist (e.g. turning your head, the 'beep' back-up alert).
I have backed over items before that I though weren't there(bike, toy rc car), luckily no living things. The problem is that if something is low enough to the ground you wont actually get a beep and lets just consider that even the BEEP technology is not installed on all new cars, its a feature that has been outdated by the backup camera (Think older BMWs). There will be situations where a family pet is laying in the shade of the car, a child that crawled behind the car for whatever reason, etc. The camera thing may breed other stupid ideas, but I'm sure in that at the end of the day its actually a good thing. Plus car manufacturers have a way to fit all of this new technology in and still make the car the same price. A good example would be a Honda Civic from 2002 compared to one from 2014. The price is exactly the same (about 22,000), but the technology in these 2 cars is vastly different (much superior in the newer model) with GPS, Heated Seats, Right turn Camera, Blind Spot Sensor, etc.
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