Rear view cameras: $18M per life saved

[zsdersw]

how many people spend $$$ on things like leather seats, or those stupid rims that keep on spinning when you've stopped? Even AC.

That's not the point. The point is that you're not required to pay for those things; they're not mandatory.

This stuff is cheap. $50 per car. That's no big deal. And in addition to saving lives it probably would help with things like grocery carts or any number of things.

It doesn't matter if it costs $0.50, $5, $50, or $500... requiring something like this that is of highly dubious necessity is still wrong, no matter how much or how little it costs.

 

[lokiju]

I have a HUGE fear of this with my son being the loving two and a half year old he is and my wife not always having the presence of mind to make sure the door to the garage is properly locked. He did it once, ran out the door towards me before she realized it and before I did and thankfully she stopped him before he got behind me. I am hyper alert about backing up ever since then but nothing would let me make sure behind my vehicle is clear better than a rear view camera. But passing a law requiring one is nuts. I have a need and desire for one so I'll a) make sure whatever car I get next has one or b) find a aftermarket solution.

Until either a or b happens though I'm just very very very careful, turn my music off, put my window down and check around and in my side mirrors as I SLOWLY back up.

I knew a girl in high school that baked over her dog when she started driving and was devastated and I couldn't help but have empathy for how terrible she felt about that and there's nothing that would even come close to if it was your own or anthers child.

 

[Capt Caveman]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-rule-may-cost-18-million-per-life-saved.html

Why won't you think of the children?

Incidentally I just retrofitted one in my M3 this past weekend; it makes parallel parking around Chicago easier. I don't exactly understand their "my kids => you're buying reverse camera" argument though.

I have front and rear parking sensors on my bumpers, it makes parallel parking so much easier than a rear-view camera. You don't even need to look as the beeping sound becomes more intense as you get closer to another vehicle and my screen tells me which sensor is going off.

And fwiw - the sensors go off on any object in it's path, including people. I believe they were much less expensive to add then a rear view camera.

 

[JS80]

We should just completely ban cars, then children would never die in car related accidents. FOR THE CHILDREN :whiste:

Why ban cars when you can ban children?

 

[Howard]

Why ban cars when you can ban children?

That's not working for the Japanese though.

 

[JS80]

That's not working for the Japanese though.

Yea but they're saving children's lives by not having them.

 

[halik]

This.

The extra $500 would be better spent on a law requiring winter tires. I'm sick of people driving 20mph on crappy all season tires and everyone else flies past doing 60.

Ding. There's a negative externality of idiots driving in the winter on shit tires (rear ending other people etc). Someone running over their kid is tragic, but has no impact on anyone else.

 

[halik]

Spend $50 billion a year on silly cameras to save 300 lives.
Spend $100 billion a year on hpv shots to save (arguably) about that same 300 lives.
Spend ($XXX outrageous amount) for almost no rational reason = scam

Americans LOVE being scammed. But you know what we love even more than being scammed?

Spending $800 billion to destroy lives in other countries. Now that is the american way. Stand up, salute your backup camera and your hpv shot for boys, salute all the absurdity, all the stupidity, and then stfu and drink yer fluoride.

Cervical cancer death rates are around 5000 p.a. and rates of being diagnosed are 2-3x higher.

 

[halik]

I have a HUGE fear of this with my son being the loving two and a half year old he is and my wife not always having the presence of mind to make sure the door to the garage is properly locked. He did it once, ran out the door towards me before she realized it and before I did and thankfully she stopped him before he got behind me. I am hyper alert about backing up ever since then but nothing would let me make sure behind my vehicle is clear better than a rear view camera. But passing a law requiring one is nuts. I have a need and desire for one so I'll a) make sure whatever car I get next has one or b) find a aftermarket solution.

Until either a or b happens though I'm just very very very careful, turn my music off, put my window down and check around and in my side mirrors as I SLOWLY back up.

I knew a girl in high school that baked over her dog when she started driving and was devastated and I couldn't help but have empathy for how terrible she felt about that and there's nothing that would even come close to if it was your own or anthers child.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Ca...pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&vxp=mtr#ht_3793wt_786

 

[senseamp]

I don't think this is any bigger deal than requiring people to have rearview mirrors.
Cameras and screens are dirt cheap. LG Optimus V is selling for $50 no contract, that's screen, camera, battery, charger, wireless modem, RF, application processor, GPS, accelerometer, USB controller, selling for less than an OEM rear view mirror is selling for. So this $18M per life nonsense is just that, nonsense. The same type we hear from car makers every time there is a new regulation, be it airbags, traction control, whatever. They always exaggerate the costs to try to block the regulation, and when all is said and done, cars get better, and these costs get amortized over huge volumes and life goes on.

 

[Nebor]

I call BS on this. Nowhere are we entitled to millions in medical care if we are are sick.

I'd much rather the government give out a 100K surgery or medical treatment than mandating we spend it on a rearview camera.

Huh? I wasn't taking a stand on this issue. I was just giving you objective value of the average American life. In some parts of the world lives are worth only $20,000 USD.

 

[momeNt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0dmRJ0oWg

Ignore the movie title, it's Milton Friedman talking to some redheaded college student not Michael Moore. But what they discuss is the Ford Pinto poor engineering and how a cheap additional plate could have fixed that.

 

[momeNt]

Ding. There's a negative externality of idiots driving in the winter on shit tires (rear ending other people etc). Someone running over their kid is tragic, but has no impact on anyone else.

Ask the kid who got run over if 20mph traffic in winter bothers them...

Social action can take place everywhere, legislators have plenty of time to mandate winter tires as well as rear view cameras. The tricky part is deciding if it is part of some greater social obligation to have these kinds of laws.

 

[senseamp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0dmRJ0oWg

Ignore the movie title, it's Milton Friedman talking to some redheaded college student not Michael Moore. But what they discuss is the Ford Pinto poor engineering and how a cheap additional plate could have fixed that.

You can see where Milton Friedman's philosophy has gotten this country.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I don't think this is any bigger deal than requiring people to have rearview mirrors.
Cameras and screens are dirt cheap. LG Optimus V is selling for $50 no contract, that's screen, camera, battery, charger, wireless modem, RF, application processor, GPS, accelerometer, USB controller, selling for less than an OEM rear view mirror is selling for. So this $18M per life nonsense is just that, nonsense. The same type we hear from car makers every time there is a new regulation, be it airbags, traction control, whatever. They always exaggerate the costs to try to block the regulation, and when all is said and done, cars get better, and these costs get amortized over huge volumes and life goes on.

Rearview mirrors aren't required everywhere.

 

[momeNt]

You can see where Milton Friedman's philosophy has gotten this country.

Are you angry about the economy? Or did you own a Pinto?

 

[drebo]

Earlier this year a woman from the little hamlet of 200 i live in took her kids into town shopping. While loading all the kids back up one ducked out and was in the back of the vehicle. She got in and backed out over the child, killing her daughter instantly.

Considering its children this will save I'm all for it.

How is it this woman didn't know that one of her kids WAS NOT IN THE CAR?

Sounds like negligent homicide to me.

Parents need to be better parents, not rely on regulations and society to raise and protect their kids.

 

[mchammer187]

Huh? I wasn't taking a stand on this issue. I was just giving you objective value of the average American life. In some parts of the world lives are worth only $20,000 USD.

I was just saying that we don't really "objectively" value human life at that figure. It might be a number tossed out by the government but in the real world the value of human life is way less than 18 million.

 

[davmat787]

A swimming pool is 14 times more likely than a motor vehicle to be involved in the death of a child age 4 and under.

Source

If we are going to save all the childrens, swimming pools always come at the top, or near the top of these statistic lists. And to provide some contrast, a comparison regarding swimming pools vs. gun related deaths among children:

Again, if you do the math and let little Johnny go over to little Billy’s house to swim, he is roughly 100 times more likely to have a fatal accident vs. letting him go over to little Timmy’s house, where dad has a gun.

Source

 

[JS80]

You can see where Milton Friedman's philosophy has gotten this country.

loliberals calling socialism free market and then blaming it for socialism's failures

 

[Ns1]

Sorry, a 1 year old baby is not worth 18M.

 

[lord_emperor]

That's not working for the Japanese though.

How so? They're having more financially successful lives. What do they care if there are no more Japanese people in 100 years? It's more detrimental to me because I like looking at Japanese girls.

 

[Lanyap]

Why do you need the camera? Doesn't the backup sensors do the same thing but much cheaper? I like using sound better since that allows you to still look behind you and not at your console.

The lady in the article had a backup sensor on her SUV but said it did not work.

 

[senseamp]

Are you angry about the economy? Or did you own a Pinto?

The self-regulating free markets drivel.

 

[senseamp]

loliberals calling socialism free market and then blaming it for socialism's failures

Republicans had their chance under Reagan and Bush to implement this "free market" nonsense the way they wanted to implement it. If they chose to implement "socialism" instead that should tell you how much faith even the so called free marketeers have in Milton Friedman's approach.