It looks like we don't have much longer to wait to find out if rearview cameras will become the next safety device to become standard on new cars. Ray LaHood and the US Department of Transportation could put this legislation to the vote by the end of the month to require all new vehicles in 2014 to be equipped with cameras in an effort to make cars safer. LaHood delayed this vote back in February.

According to The Detroit News, adding such a camera would cost up to $203 to install on vehicles without an appropriate display screen and up to $88 for cars that already have a useable display. This relatively small cost could help reduce the number of people backed over each year, which accounts for around 300 deaths (including 100 children under the age of five) and injure close to 16,000 people annually.

If passed, backup cameras would join features such as airbags, electronic stability control and tire pressure monitoring systems as recently added standard safety equipment.

This is great!

 

Indeed, that is a feature that I could appreciate. It's getting harder to turn the head as I age. I am already relying more on the rearview mirrors than just a few years ago.

But: the accumulation of legal requirements keeps adding to the cost of vehicles and keeps homogenizing them. In the end they will be all alike....

In the 90's they equiped the cars with these awful motorized belts. I swore i would never buy one with these and I never did. If they hadn't done away with them I would drive the cars of the early to mid 80's.