backup cameras mandatory in all new vehicles

Yep, I fully agree. I've expressed my favoritisim towards sensors over cameras already. They are the much better way. Me thinks some NTHSA person just wants a camera on their company car and they were only given base model fords, and this was one way for her to get it...

i've never driven a car with sensors. does it just pick up moving items, or can it tell if there's a stationary item in the path of the car? will it go off if there are garbage cans close to my path, but not in it? will a clump of grass set it off?

without having that experience, i'd only guess that cameras are a cheaper and more standardized way to get to the goal (i'm assuming a basic camera and a fish-eye lens are cheaper than the sensors). i use my camera in addition to my mirrors and simply looking, but definitely miss it when i drive a car without it.

i've never driven a car with sensors. does it just pick up moving items, or can it tell if there's a stationary item in the path of the car? will it go off if there are garbage cans close to my path, but not in it? will a clump of grass set it off?

without having that experience, i'd only guess that cameras are a cheaper and more standardized way to get to the goal (i'm assuming a basic camera and a fish-eye lens are cheaper than the sensors). i use my camera in addition to my mirrors and simply looking, but definitely miss it when i drive a car without it.

this made me litterally laugh loudly in the office...which i then had to explain to my coworker.
I love when I read something especially sarcastic and witty. Our members do not disappoint..especially some of you !
And ...perfect retort..I wish I had her wit.

And then the final deathblow ...poor llama...he loved to frolic.

Its sonar, so moving or not moving it will alarm. Slow beeps when you are like 5-6 feet away and fast beeps when a couple feet away. It is tuned well enough that you can tell if there is an object or not behind you without false alerting.

Its actually the same technology that they have applied to blind spot monitoring where they took the sonars and put them on the sides of the car and it beeps if you put your directional on while a car or other object is in the lane next to you.

Mine are pretty sensitive. It goes off for tall plants and such.

that would be my second guess as to why they decided on the camera standard: for the most part, a picture is a picture. it might have a little different lens/outer field of vision than others, but it's a picture which is easily understood. the sonar sensors might have varying levels of sensitivity or effectiveness between the brands/vendors, and if some users perceive they're getting false positives, they might start ignoring it.

I agree on looking backwards, but then why need the f'n camera?

My last car just had a rear camera. The one I have now has a rear camera and front and back sensors. The sensors do help a lot. Especially when paired with the camera.

In a case like a UPS truck they must use cameras.

I find it kind of scary that you come so close to hitting things often enough that the sensors and camera help that much.

I've been driving for 30+ years and have backed into things a couple of times. A backup camera would have done little to nothing in any of those instances. The only time it would have helped is when I backed up too far lining up a trailer and the tongue scratched my bumper.

I think backup sensors would be far more important than the camera as far as safety goes if they are making things mandatory. The backup sensor is going to work whether you are paying attention or not. The camera doesn't do much good if the driver isn't looking at it. If something is going to be mandatory for safety you have to take the driver out of the equation.

As far as anti-lock brakes--I'm still not a fan.
Air bags--I've never had one save me from injury but I do like the security of the added protection.
Power steering? Not mandatory as far as I know but a car with a good manual steering box gives you a better feel of the road.

Anybody remember the fiasco of the active seatbelt idea? I know Ford used it on the Escort and Tempo and I think some Toyotas had it for a while. The shoulder belt was motorized and when you turned the ignition on the belt wrapped itself around the driver automatically. The government tried hard to make this mandatory but didn't succeed and it died out with the airbag requirement.

The biggest problem I saw with it, (other than being annoying) was that the driver still had to manually put the lap belt on. In reality people forgot to use the lap belt because with the shoulder belt in place it seemed like you were already buckled in. Either that or they just intentionally didn't use the lap belt because to a cop looking from outside it appeared that you were buckled up. The shoulder belt alone was probably incredibly dangerous in an accident. The driver would likely still be thrown forward and the shoulder belt would hang them.