The price of a car just got WAY more expensive

[VoluntaryAmerican]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...meras/7114531/

NHST to require all new cars starting in 2016 have backup camera technology.

For the children.

[HOLLYWOOD]

THEN... Will everyone's insurance rates go down?

Crumble zones, safety bumpers, a gazillion airbags, 3 point mandatory seat belts... yet everyone I know, their insurance rates keep going up!

BTW, with high vehicle costs reciprocate into higher registration fees and insurance rates... It's all a scam of lobbyists and political donations in the 'Land of Fee'd'.

[phill4paul]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...meras/7114531/

NHST to require all new cars starting in 2016 have backup camera technology.

For the children.

The human race should all be dead 1000x over by now.

[Anti Federalist]

What a surprise...the self driving electric people pods will be mandatory.

[DamianTV]

How. Ever. Did. Children. Survive. Without. Mandatory. Safety. Laws?

[VoluntaryAmerican]

What a surprise...the self driving electric people pods will be mandatory.

How pissed are you from 1 to 10?

[VIDEODROME]

If somebody isn't looking in the mirror, what makes them think the same people would pay attention to the stupid camera?

[PaulConventionWV]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...meras/7114531/

NHST to require all new cars starting in 2016 have backup camera technology.

For the children.

Those little cameras aren't worth a thing. The company I work for just got new company cars with those cameras installed, but we never use them. You can't judge where you are based on that little fuzzy picture on the dashboard that gives a very incomplete picture of what's behind you. Not to mention it's hard to keep the thing clean for a couple of minutes. It's much easier and much safer to use the mirrors and a general sense of where you are in space rather than relying on a stupid camera that just stares at a little patch of ground directly behind the bumper.

[PaulConventionWV]

If somebody isn't looking in the mirror, what makes them think the same people would pay attention to the stupid camera?

It's not like it would even help if people did. It doesn't show you anything you need to see that you can't see by looking in the mirror and being aware of your surroundings. It might as well be there for entertainment purposes.

[specsaregood]

If somebody isn't looking in the mirror, what makes them think the same people would pay attention to the stupid camera?

I'm pretty sure you are supposed to use the mirror in addition to the camera. The camera sees stuff you can't see in the mirror and vice-versa. eg: a small child behind your car. Plenty of people using a mirror have managed to run over kids, pets, toys in the driveway simply because they aren't visible in the mirrors.

[VoluntaryAmerican]

Those little cameras aren't worth a thing. The company I work for just got new company cars with those cameras installed, but we never use them. You can't judge where you are based on that little fuzzy picture on the dashboard that gives a very incomplete picture of what's behind you. Not to mention it's hard to keep the thing clean for a couple of minutes. It's much easier and much safer to use the mirrors and a general sense of where you are in space rather than relying on a stupid camera that just stares at a little patch of ground directly behind the bumper.

How much? Like $100 minimum? But good point, company's will probably make cheaper once this is law.

[thoughtomator]

For the children.

For the children of the guy who owns the backup camera manufacturing company, anyway.

[2young2vote]

Once again, the comments in these articles expose how brain dead the average human being is. "God forbid the government does something to keep our children safe." They want to increase the cost of a car FOR EVERYONE so the few people who back up recklessly don't have the very small chance of hitting someone? Their wacko beliefs, once again, are the cause of the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer. Mandate this, mandate that, ITS FOR THE CHILDREN. Meanwhile, big companies reap the benefits of these people's emotional and thoughtless beliefs. The average big government shill couldn't think past his nose and is not even remotely capable of understanding the long term consequences of these policies.

[limequat]

How much? Like $100 minimum? But good point, company's will probably make cheaper once this is law.

Probably not even that. Many cars are going to center displays for infotainment. Once that's there, it's just the price of the camera, which is probably only a few bucks.

It's still a series of stupid maneuvers by NHTSA though. It's their own requirements that make the pillars so big that you can't see anything. So now we have roof crush standards that make the pillars massive. Side impact standards drive side airbags which make the pillars even more massiver. Pedestrian impact standards raise the hood (and by extension, the deck). And now we need cameras just to see OUT!

Combine that with the fact that having a backup cam doesn't mean people will look at them. I know at least two people that hit other CARS in a car with a backup cam.

[Anti Federalist]

How pissed are you from 1 to 10?

I live every day in a state of high piss-off.

[ClydeCoulter]

Hey, they can display advertisements when you're not backing up!

[ClydeCoulter]

I live every day in a state of high piss-off.

So, that would be 27.5?

[Weston White]

Wouldn’t rear-proximity sensors be more appropriate?

Rear cameras require that a lot of additional hardware be installed. And I believe center consoles are for rear passengers, or perhaps that is center-overhead consoles? But in California for example it is illegal to have video playing capable monitors in view of the driver.

Another consideration with regarding to requiring video screens is automotive theft; ultimately, this will be just one more thing to encourage vehicle burglary, which will of course lead to one more thing that police can issue you a fix-it-ticket for whenever you get pulled over (because most will not be able to afford replacing their stolen and largely useless equipment... over and over and over—of course politicians and idiots alike will just say get insurance coverage for it).

[The Free Hornet]

If somebody isn't looking in the mirror, what makes them think the same people would pay attention to the stupid camera?

Whenever car commercials show the in-car GPS or videoscreen, I'm glad my car doesn't have that.

But it is not just the camera that is mandated but the whole thing. It is the $2000-$5000 "entertainment package" that a lot of us would opt not to buy. No, it won't cost that much but I do expect it to be that annoying. FWIW, I drive with zero-to-minimal lights on the dash much of the time.

Mandating cameras in a car and a video screen pointed at my face, seems like there ought to be a word for that...

[anaconda]

Well,...according to the article our Congress passed this. Let's start looking for the roll call on this one...

[dntrpltt]

This right here is the crux of the entire issue, and angers me to no end:

NHTSA estimates that 58 to 69 lives will be saved each year (not including injuries prevented) once the entire on-road vehicle fleet has rear-view systems, which it believes will be by about 2054.

Sixty lives a year will be saved forty years from now. Sixty lives. This is government that has gotten WAY out of control.

[Mani]

How. Ever. Did. Children. Survive. Without. Mandatory. Safety. Laws?

When I was a kid, I remember in my friend's mom's car there was no backseat. Just a tire. A couple times she picked us up from school and we sat on a tire.....

No seatbelts, let alone seats....just a tire...

Yet somehow I'm hear to tell you about it.


She'd probably be in jail today for child endangerment.

[Barrex]

Once I and my father crashed 2 cars in same corner of the house in the same time.... This "mandatory camera thingy" still seems gazillion times dumber that what we did.

[MRK]

More toys for the NSA to hack into and do default video captures, especially if it's got something like Onstar. Government Motors now has Onstar on every vehicle, if I recall correctly.

[nobody's_hero]

If somebody isn't looking in the mirror, what makes them think the same people would pay attention to the stupid camera?

Winner winner chicken dinner. The cameras will be good if they have video-recording ability so you can replay the horror in the eyes of your toddler as you crushed him with your ford f-550.

Oh me, that's a bit morbid. I woke up on the cynical side of the bed this morning.

[PaulConventionWV]

This right here is the crux of the entire issue, and angers me to no end:



Sixty lives a year will be saved forty years from now. Sixty lives. This is government that has gotten WAY out of control.

And even those statistics are questionable.

[PaulConventionWV]

When I was a kid, I remember in my friend's mom's car there was no backseat. Just a tire. A couple times she picked us up from school and we sat on a tire.....

No seatbelts, let alone seats....just a tire...

Yet somehow I'm hear to tell you about it.


She'd probably be in jail today for child endangerment.

That's pretty funny. Now that I think about it, my family did some pretty weird things, too. We had a large family, and an old clunky van a long time ago that we would take everywhere. In order to accommodate other passengers, we once strapped a rocking chair in the back.

Afterward, we upgraded to a hand-crafted wooden bench that my dad made himself, seatbelts and everything, bolted to the floor. What luxury...

[Keith and stuff]

THEN... Will everyone's insurance rates go down?

Crumble zones, safety bumpers, a gazillion airbags, 3 point mandatory seat belts... yet everyone I know, their insurance rates keep going up!

BTW, with high vehicle costs reciprocate into higher registration fees and insurance rates... It's all a scam of lobbyists and political donations in the 'Land of Fee'd'.

Why would insurance go up? Mine was under $300 a year last year and I reduced it again this year. Or do you mean that people you know are buying more expensive vehicles to replace their older vehicles? Even though my insurance company just paid thousands to fix my car, after a deer ran into it, my insurance is still under $300 a year.

Edit: What was I thinking? Sorry, I meant to say my insurance is under $300 a year, not $100 a year

[fisharmor]

You can't judge where you are based on that little fuzzy picture on the dashboard that gives a very incomplete picture of what's behind you.

That never stopped anyone.
I still remember what my mother looked like after a 30mph accident. The airbag deployed right in her face, and it seriously looked like someone took a bat to her jaw.
For a 30mph accident.
The one time airbags deployed on me, I was in the passenger seat of a Roadmaster in heavy snow in the PA mountains, again, about 30mph.
My brother-in-law started planing, corrected, planed the other way, corrected, and lost it... and we floated down an embankment and into a tree.
The car was doomed, but we just sort of had a slight jostle and that was it. But the bags both deployed... and did two things.
1) Utterly crushed the windshield and dash, destroying even more of the salvage value.
2) Started spitting propellant at both of us.

Well, all we knew at that point was there was foul-smelling smoke pouring out at us and the car was probably on fire, and we exploded out of the car, practically ripped two small kids out of the mandatory shackles that did nothing to enhance their safety in that wreck, and bolted up the embankment, and across a snow-covered interstate in order to get the kids into the other car.

So that's my airbag experience: best case scenario is you're running with children in your arms across the interstate in $#@!ty weather, worst case is you look like you lost a prize fight, and absolutely zero net increase in safety.

So I doubt the actual efficacy of the cameras is ever going to be addressed.

[limequat]

This right here is the crux of the entire issue, and angers me to no end:



Sixty lives a year will be saved forty years from now. Sixty lives. This is government that has gotten WAY out of control.

It's 60 a year, so 2400 total.
There are 200 backup fatalities a year, so NHTSA figures this will prevent a third of them.
If we figure an on-cost of $100 / vehicle (averaging in those that wouldn't normally have the center screen), it comes to $2 Billion annually, or $33 million per life saved.
Ballpark numbers, but you get the idea. This is how NHTSA works. They weigh the costs/benefits and try to do the things that give the best "ROI".
Personally, I think the cameras won't even prevent a 3rd of the fatalities. Maybe more like a tenth.

You guys know why SUVs exist? It was CAFE. SUVs are "trucks" and therefore had a lower cafe requirement. That distortion in the market killed the wagon which has dramatically better sight lines. Unintended consequences piled on unintended consequences.