Time for one of my periodic "the nanny state wants to hold our hands from cradle to grave" libertarian rants. Driven by consumer demand for more safety features, auto manufacturers have started making rearview cameras standard equipment -- the cameras are already standard or optional equipment on 85 percent of model 2014 cars. They will likely be on all new cars within a couple of years, all from the private sector with no government nudging. But, as Mary Katharine Ham asks, "Why allow the market to speak when you can force people to comply with your will?"
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued new regulations today requiring all vehicles weighing under 10,000 pounds to be equipped with rear visibility cameras by May 2018. The new rule is designed to protect pedestrians from vehicles backing up into them, though it has up until now faced numerous delays.
And if you're against this, you obviously hate your toddler, your grandparents, your pet dog and any other living creature that might wander thoughtlessly behind your car. You heartless conservative bastards!
Comments
I've spent my life being careful. I have three children. Yet, once in a moment of failing to check, I ran over a tricycle while backing out of the garage, a moment that still makes me cringe when I think of it.
OTOH, the only car I've driven that had a rear-view camera, was my father's and I thought it a out-of-focus picture and hard to use.
OTOH, aren't mirrors regulated? Why have them? Would the market have gotten seatbelts in every vehicle? The only reason my family is all alive today is because of seatbelts. Would we have had them without government intervention? I truly don't know. You can go on and on with these arguments and I am not one who thinks everything can be prevented, which doesn't seem to go with what some folks seem to think today.