U.S. Proposes Requiring Backup Cameras in All New Cars

[Byteme]

See the article below.  This is sooooo stupid, IMHO.  So someone too lazy, dumb or stupid to check before they back up today is going to check a video screen fed by a camera before they back up in 2014?   What every happened to perhaps asking that drivers work a bit on sharpening their driving skills?

From the article:  "The changes we are proposing today will help drivers see into those blind zones directly behind vehicles to make sure it is safe to back up.?    No, the changes you are proposing today will simply make drivers feel that if they looked at the monitor and didn't see anything behind them it is safe to back up.  They'll then ignore the kid on the bicycle or the 18 wheeler loaded with forth thousand pounds of bananas approaching from the side.



U.S. Proposes Requiring Backup Cameras in All New Cars
By Angela Greiling Keane - Dec 3, 2010 8:58 AM CT inShareMore

U.S. auto-safety regulators proposed requiring backup cameras on all new vehicles by 2014, under a rule released today intended to prevent drivers from backing over pedestrians.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which published the proposed rule, said an average of 292 people die each year from back-over accidents, which primarily kill children and the elderly.

?There is no more tragic accident than for a parent or caregiver to back out of a garage or driveway and kill or injure an undetected child playing behind the vehicle,? Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. ?The changes we are proposing today will help drivers see into those blind zones directly behind vehicles to make sure it is safe to back up.?

A rule to enhance rear-view visibility for drivers was required by a 2007 law named after Cameron Gulbransen, a 2-year- old from New York who died after his father accidentally backed over him. NHTSA Administrator David Strickland helped write the law when he worked for the Senate Commerce Committee.

[Submariner]

Another federal fail.

[Mustangfan2003]

Why aren't we trying to make people better drivers?

[Morris Minor]

"It wasn't me. It was the car that killed those kindergartners, Ford is to blame for putting in a faulty camera system."

[Laconian]

Why do we provide generous tax incentives to people who buy rolling blind spots to begin with?

[thewizard16]

Why do we provide generous tax incentives to people who buy rolling blind spots to begin with?

You can still park a rolling blind spot safely without a backup camera if you're not an idiot. This requirement is just stupid- back up cameras are nice I suppose, but even if I'm driving a vehicle with one, unless I'm worried about hitting something specific I know is back there (backing into the garage or what not), I prefer the mirrors and looking over my shoulder. I don't see how this will help much of anything.

[hotrodalex]

This qualifies as the worst idea of the decade.

[sportyaccordy]

How about addressing the fundamental problem

We're putting bandaids (safety devices) on flesh wounds (abysmal US license requirements)

[AutobahnSHO]

How about addressing the fundamental problem

You mean walking to check that no one is behind you before you back up?

I had a friend years and years ago run over and kill their kid. He was mad at the wife and was storming off- in the car. A little too fast, backup camera wouldn't have seen his kid on the trike.                  (later they got divorced.)

[Colonel Cadillac]

2 things:

1) Sure, it seems unnecessary, but it will have a net benefit
2) I love backup cameras. You still need to look over your shoulder for most parking situations, but there are some times when you just don't have to!

It'll help people with neck problems (should they be driving anyway, considering they can't really look well?)!

[Speed_Racer]

Here's what might happen: someone backing up will be so focused on what's on the screen that they won't realize that they are backing into a 4-lane parkway.

Then they'd mandate side-mounted radar to warn of impending parkway accidents.

[Rich]

I'd never buy a new car again.  beltlines have been rising forever, they might as well just do away with the greenhouse and just put camera all the way around.  Fuck this shit.

Thank got for Miatas

[Colonel Cadillac]

Here's what might happen: someone backing up will be so focused on what's on the screen that they won't realize that they are backing into a 4-lane parkway.

Then they'd mandate side-mounted radar to warn of impending parkway accidents.

That probably is going to happen. The backup cameras have blind spots also. The camera can't tell if Suzie is going to run right behind the car backing up, whereas if you're looking behind you it will be apparent.

[Tave]

Navigation/backup option packages typically run about 1-2 grand, correct? Obviously that would come down a little if they were mandatory, but yikes!!! My car only cost $11,300 new!!!!!

[the Teuton]

2 things:

1) Sure, it seems unnecessary, but it will have a net benefit
2) I love backup cameras. You still need to look over your shoulder for most parking situations, but there are some times when you just don't have to!

It'll help people with neck problems (should they be driving anyway, considering they can't really look well?)!

My brother drove me to wrestling practice before I got my license. He had just had neck surgery. On his way back home, he couldn't turn his head completely to check for traffic and pulled out in front of a car, thus totaling our 1992 Cutlass Cruiser.

While I didn't mind that car leaving, it became evident quickly that he shouldn't have been driving. I can't wait for more people who are in situations just like his to do the same thing.

[SVT666]

[Laconian]

Let's just cut to the chase and mandate autonomous Google cars for everyone.

[Rupert]

I'd never buy a new car again.  beltlines have been rising forever, they might as well just do away with the greenhouse and just put camera all the way around.  Fuck this shit.

Thank got for Miatas

x10

[the Teuton]

Let's just cut to the chase and mandate autonomous Google cars for everyone.

Is that what you're developing right now, Demolition Man?

[Laconian]

Hey hey, my previous protest pertaining to GM proved positively prescient:

It's yet another case of form over function with GM's sheet metal. It's gradually getting worse and worse. Eventually we'll all be driving GM panel vans that need the $20,000 Front Mounted Driving Camera Package in order to be operable.

[Laconian]

Is that what you're developing right now, Demolition Man?

Not me, but others in the company are building Johnny Cabs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html

If you forget to pay your fare, they turn burst into flames and drive into the nearest building.

[Colonel Cadillac]

Not counting the added cost (which is significant...on the options list to the consumer, but cheap for the manufacturer, and once it's a standard feature, price competition will take hold it and it will become very near cost and quite cheap), what exactly is there to be opposed to? A big ugly screen on the dash? There are a few scenarios I can think of where a screen would be ugly, but those dashboards are already ugly...

[Submariner]

This qualifies as the worst idea of the decade.

QE2?
ObamaCare?
War in Iraq?
"Summer of Recovery!"

I mean, in principle, it's terrible: it fosters the disconnect between "personal" and "responsibility" but the government has thrown some absolute abject disasters our way over the past few years...

[hotrodalex]

QE2?
ObamaCare?
War in Iraq?
"Summer of Recovery!"

I mean, in principle, it's terrible: it fosters the disconnect between "personal" and "responsibility" but the government has thrown some absolute abject disasters our way over the past few years...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole

[Morris Minor]

Average number of kids squished per year: 292
Cost of implementing backup camera requirement: $2.7bn
That works out to a cost per squished kid of: $9.2m.

Not worth it. There are far more pressing issues than this.

[Morris Minor]

When my kids were learning to drive, we'd find an empty parking lot, having taken along a plastic bucket. I'd have them sit in the driver's seat and turn around to look through the rear window. I'd go behind the car and keep walking back, putting the bucket down in different spots, until I got to the spot where they could see the it on the ground. Then they'd get out of the car and see what a long walk I'd had to take.

It really is safest to reverse into parking spaces whenever you can, & get the clear view on your exit.