Are Government Mandated Rear-View Car Cameras in Our Future?
- Posted on September 6, 2011 at 6:35pm by
Jessie Abrams
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President Barack Obama wants all cars to come equipped with a rear-view camera.
Courtesy of MotorTrend.com
It’s one of his seven requests for pending regulations — that would reportedly cost businesses $1 billion or more — that he submitted to House Speaker John Boehner earlier this summer.
The rear-view camera rule was proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to help cut down on the number of fatal accidents caused when drivers back into pedestrians. NHTSA was required to write that rule under a 2008 law passed by Congress.
“No matter how skilled a driver, you can’t avoid hitting what you can’t see” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a press release back in December 2010. “By increasing your field of vision, this rule will save lives.”
The NHTSA reports that each year some 300 deaths and 18,000 injuries are directly attributable to back up accidents. The agency also reports that in some 70 percent of the accidents, family members are responsible.
The new regulation would require all passenger vehicles weighing up to 10,000 pounds and sold in the United States to have the new technology by 2014, requiring 10 percent of all U.S. auto-makers to install the cameras in their 2012 models. The organization says the cameras could help cut these accidents by a third.
So what does this mean for the average American? An increase to base cost of a car by about $200, according to a report from Hot Air. The article estimates the technology would cost the auto industry $2.7 billion a year:
Saving lives is always a good thing and I’m not about to try to put a price tag on the value of any individual one, but there’s a larger point to be made here. You’ll note that the installation of such cameras doesn’t stop or even cut in half such accidents. Why? Because we’re not talking about a design failure or product quality issue in terms of the cars. We’re talking about bad drivers who don’t check behind them and run people down. Cameras, I’m sorry to say, are never going to overcome the sheer weight of human stupidity and carelessness.
Is this the proper role of government regulation, to say nothing of a cost-effective tool for the consumer during tight economic times? Might we perhaps save a few dollars by mandating, instead of cameras, signs on the dashboard that say, “Hey, dummy. Look behind you before placing vehicle in reverse?”
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Flyingfish
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 3:47pm3.3 million dollars per person saved per year. Sounds like a great return on investment.
I’m thinking the money could be better spent some other way like using it as toilet paper, or making it in a big pile and burning it.
People that are too stupid to not walk behind vehicles backing up deserve to get run over.
This should not be mandated.
Report Post »ingvard
Posted on September 14, 2011 at 7:17amSlackers of the U.S.A. unite, walk anywhere anytime with all your “brain” cells wraped around your social networking gizmos. Yes you now a protected class.
Report Post »TwoMinuteMan
Posted on September 8, 2011 at 8:09pmRear view cameras are already an option, if not already available on most cars. This all stems from some kids who were run over because they were playing behind a car.
This is just the governments attempt to shift more responsibility away from parents or individuals. The progressive way.
Report Post »squeaker
Posted on September 8, 2011 at 2:26amHow about giving obambam a backup mirror to fix everything behind him…?
Report Post »squeaker
Posted on September 8, 2011 at 2:24amHow stupid is this…..
Next the Gov will want to attach a Laser to every mans “johnson” so they don’t miss the bowl…..!!!
Report Post »VApatriot2
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 5:45pmThe legislation to put these backup mirrors on cars came from a child who was run over in her yard by a service repair truck. She simply was not seen by the driver of the van as he backed down the driveway. She was 3 years old. It began with Annabelle’s Angels in Richmond, Va. Her family, friends, and neighbors, lobbied state and federal lawmakers for a safety feature on future vehicles because they and others think saving the life of another toddler was worth every effort and any expense! By the way, it wasn’t under President Obama that this occurred!
Report Post »Truth1776
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 4:35pmPedestrians are responsible for looking where they are walking! I suspect that every driver there is or ever was, has had to slam on brakes because some “entitled” pedestrian stepped out in front of them just assuming the oncoming car would stop in time – and that’s from the FRONT! Stupid, stupid, stupid. Once again the benefits of public education raises it head! The person in the 1 to 2 ton (or more) vehicle is responsible for the actions of the pedestrian – PEDESTRIAN TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR STEPS AND WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING!! Use cross walks and signals correctly, keep hold of your children and beware of vehicles in parking lots! I walked to kindergarten so my parents taught me this before I was 5 – where were the parents of these ‘entitled’ pedestrians, oh yeah, they too were publicly educated and their parents drove them to school!
Report Post »tharpdevenport
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 3:56pmSOB, what did we ever DO in America before computers? I’ve ben backing up my car, driving, and somehow managed to never run anybody down without a computer aided computer MANDATED by Federal law.
Not on my car they’re not.
Report Post »ejbonk
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 3:37pmIn turn this will cost the new car buying public $2 Billion in additional price of the cars. Industry never eatys the cost,they just pass it along to the consumer and government est. of costs are always off by 50% to 200% not in the buying publics favor. GET the Government OUT of the CAR BUSINESS! They have ruin the U.S. Car Industry. Since 1968 the government has been destroying the car business. First Studebaker,then AMC, Now Chrysler and General Motors. REgulation is never the Answer.
Report Post »Do The Right Thing
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 1:12pmWhere I live, the lens of this stupid idea will covered in snow, snirt, or dust approx 360 days a year. Great idea, something else to send american cash to the ROC for. O(bama) M(ust) G(o) Period…
Report Post »jocko
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 12:31pm300 people per year are killed. After markups, these gadgets will us 6 Billion $ which is a mere $20 Million per life saved. I just don’t understand an Administration that uses tax payer money to fund international abortions (first executive order he signed), blocks every measure trying to slow abortions there by endorsing the murder of over 50 million American babies, is worried about “potentially” saving 300 lives?
Report Post »Will these cameras eventually be hooked up to the black boxes required in new cars? How long before these cameras will be broadcasting through ONSTAR so they can be used as mobile tracking devices? Ah, the possibilities are endless all in the name of saving lives, if you are lucky enough to survive the womb in America.
johnj1952
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 12:26pmI live in a cul-desac, and as such the place is loaded with children. If the government thinks I am going to depend on a rearview camera to protect the children in my neighberhood from running behind my car as I back out, it is as NUTS as the state of Calf. I look over my shoulder and slowly roll out of my driveway keeping my head on a pivot while also using the mirrors looking for kids and others cars and obstacles. I also find it better to back into my driveway, but the same problem, kids running by. This idea is not practical no matter where you are going in reverse, like Odumbo free falling down hill facing forward.
Report Post »elosogrande
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 10:33amHalf of the cost of a car today is because of government regulation. This one isn’t going to cost the auto industry $2.7 billion, it’s going to cost us more than $3 billion, after the equipment is marked up to a profitable sellnig price.
The bureaucrats in government are just as inept as the elected officials. They are responsible for every economic problem this country has suffered in the last seventy years.
Vote them all out. Insist that the new Congress cleans out the bureaucracy. Fire them all..
Report Post »islandlady
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 10:14amWho owns this technology or patent? Like the airport screening machines. is this another Soro’s product? I’d like to know.
Report Post »Karlsan
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 10:40amThis technology is probably not owned by one group or individual, it’s been around for many years (in RV’s for example). But the headline is misleading, it’s going to cost CONSUMERS billions of dollars. Obama and his gang of climate change thugs really want fewer cars on the road, thus high gas prices and these ridiculous regulations. Hey Washington, “GET OUT OF MY DRIVEWAY!”
Report Post »Brents Torts
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 9:07amYet another attempt to overwhelm the system.
Report Post »tomloy
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 9:04amBarak Obama should BUTT OUT of mandating requirements for the auto industry. A good driver does not require a rear view camera, and there is NOTHING you can do to make a bad driver a good one.
Report Post »thegodfather
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 8:03amPersonal injury lawyers celebrate…”Your honor, my client never would have run over that child if his rear view camera had been working properly. These cameras give drivers a false sense of security…. We need a NEW generation of rear cameras…with night vision, audio, and infra-red, along with loud back up warning horns, and flashing lights”. Clearly the auto industry must be sent a message”
Report Post »jkendal
Posted on September 7, 2011 at 7:57am“President Barack Obama wants all cars to come equipped with a rear-view camera.”
He simple doesn’t have the constitutional authority to do this. And neither does Congress.
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