Your Next Car Will Have a Rearview Camera, Whether You Want One or Not

Whether you’re backing out of
the garage in an SUV the size of a Balkan state or in a zippy
little Prius, the government doesn’t trust your ability to
not maim Little Billy or Grandpa, who are apparently
crawling around the driveway in their suburban-terrain ghillie
suits. That’s why the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) is requiring vehicle manufacturers to
include rearview camera systems in many vehicles starting in 2016
and expects full compliance by 2018.

“To reduce the risk of devastating backover crashes involving
vulnerable populations (including very young children),” explains a
report (PDF) from the
administration, “is issuing this final rule to expand the required
field of view for all passenger cars, trucks, multipurpose
passenger vehicles, buses, and low-speed vehicles with a gross
vehicle weight of less than 10,000 pounds.” The field of view needs
to be 10-by-20 feet directly behind the vehicle, which can only be
achieved with a camera.

Just how devastating are these types of crashes? The NHTSA,
which operates under the Department of Transportation, tallies 210
fatalities and 15,000 injuries every year. Each one of these
incidents is tragic, but for a federal authority to issue broad
regulations seems a little arbitrary, since about
twice as many Americans die falling out of bed each year and
four times as many die
falling off household furniture. And America’s war with
lounging devices doesn’t even scratch the surface of the top
causes of death.

The administration predicts that the rearview camera rule will
virtually wipe out the number of backover fatalities. In fact,
official estimates say there will be only 13-15 deaths annually
once the cameras become universal. They don’t anticipate that to be
reality for a few more generations of drivers, though. Phasing out
cars without cameras is estimated to take until 2054 (at which
point, presumably, the NHTSA will be struggling to regulate flying
cars, or at least self-driving ones.)

Although the report claims that forcing the hand of
manufacturers and consumers won’t cost much, the rule has already
been delayed
several times, most
notably in 2012 when Transportation Department Secretary Ray
LaHood voiced skepticism of the requirement and House Republicans
sent a letter to President Obama noting that at an estimated $2.7
billion, it was “one of the five most expensive pending U.S.
regulations.”