Mandatory backup cameras?

[Bamamav]

I'm on the fence on this one. I've never had one, but I can see where they could be of use. Our Expedition is hard to see behind with just the mirrors, I always have to be careful when I'm backing out of a parking spot. We're both used to using the mirrors, me especially since I am in the semi all day long. I can also see where a small child or animal directly behind you could easily be missed.

I just don't see the Govt mandating them though. If you want them, put out the bucks for them. Don't make me buy them if I don't want them.

But since it will be 2018 before they require them on everything, and I don't buy anything newer than 10 years old, it'd be 2028 before I got one. I'll be 69, so I doubt I'll be buying many vehicles then....

 

[Snake Farm]

Friends of ours bought a new Buick Enclave??? She was going on and on about all the tech features and how it wasn't a mini van and how it was so worth the nearly $70g's paid. I made the comment it was a minivan without the sliding doors, needless to say that didn't sit real well....

That reminds me of the first Cadillac Escalade I ever seen. We were on vacation at the beach and had gone out to eat. As we were walking across the parking lot a lady was getting out of a new Escalade, knowing full well what it was I excitedly exclaimed to the wife in a loud voice......"look honey it's one of those Cadillac Suburban things" [ddd Didn't get a verbal from the lady but the look she gave me was priceless.

What kinda mirrors you got to see a trailer ball on the back of a 1 ton dually, when you back up to a 40' trailer?

With the camera, first time right under it with no help at all.

That would definitely be a legitimate use for one
A friend has on similar to this http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/hitch-ball-finder/32410 that works pretty good.

 

[IronRat]

I heard that this a reaction to some 200 hundred people being kill by cars backing over them.

But, deaths from drivers using cell phones causing accidents is creeping up on the levels of DUI deaths.

I'm all for being safer but, lets think smart here. Make Blue Tooth for Cell phones mandatory 1st.

 

[echnidna]

I wonder how many of the 200 people killed by cars backing over them are adults and how many are kids killed by the nong drivers.

 

[Undercover Customs]

I think making backup cameras mandatory is insane. It induces laziness. Now I see the advantages for those who connect to trailers often or for a living and such but really, the average person that uses a trailer could use the practice of doing it w/o the camera. Mastering backing up to and with a trailer is a skill that is best learned buy judging where you are and anticipating. And how many vehicles out there ever even connect to a trailer? I can see "mandatory" things like seat belts, air bags etc, this seems more like a luxury item to me.

Funny thing is, I have two friends that have backed into a tree stump at the end of my driveway using backup cameras where if they'd turned their head and simply looked, they would have seen it and avoided the damage.