All cars will have $200 rear-view cameras whether consumers want them or not ~ to save the chyldrun

See below.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703350104575653082102716698.html

Personally I'd rather have heated seats or a remote-start system if $200 is going to be added to the price of my next car without my say-so.

When you think of the costly and/or inconvenient safety systems in cars because of the chyldrun, it's beyond galling. Lock overrides, windows that only partially roll down, interior trunk escape latches, now cameras to save kids who don't have the brains to stay out from behind moving vehicles (or, if their brains aren't developed yet, parents who will properly watch them.)

I really don't see how these devices are going to improve things; kids move so fast. What's the difference between glancing into the rear-view mirror when you're backing up and looking at a video screen? The car is still in motion and video isn't going to change the speed of eye-hand coordination or a driver's response time.

Last year I almost took out 2 little brats at Kroger; I was safely exiting my parking spot but they ran at full speed behind my car, oblivious to the tail-lights and white back-up lights being lit. I was quite shaken but a wider angle view would not have prevented this moment; they ran from around the cart corral and right into the path of my car. I suppose rear-view cameras would save kids that are crawling but WTF is a child that age doing unsupervised in the driveway to begin with?

It's like kitchen stoves. We adults have to reach across hot burners to operate the controls because when the controls were in the more logical place, near the operator, the little bastards would come along and tamper with them. So now everyone suffers (I reached across a hot stove the other day and in just a few seconds my gold bracelet practically turned into a branding tool; gold conducts heat so quickly) due to ill-behaved or ill-taught brats.

Medicine safety caps. Those fucking annoy me. When I was in the US they wanted me to sign a release accepting the risk in order to get a normal cap, even though I have no kids living with me and won't let any in to the house, either.

windows that only partially roll down

That's because of the children?! I've been noticing that more cars (mine included) only do that half-down bullshit and now I understand why. Who's to say that a child will ever be in that car anyway? If the kid is old enough to not be in a car seat, it's old enough to know not to stick its stupid body out the window.

Aw, shucks. Moos and duhs will have to find a new excuse for running over their toadler by 'accident'.

Quote
yurble
Medicine safety caps. Those fucking annoy me. When I was in the US they wanted me to sign a release accepting the risk in order to get a normal cap, even though I have no kids living with me and won't let any in to the house, either.

I've posted this before, and it's faboo. I had great fun going through the house and disabling all the evil caps. smile

How to make evil childproof caps easy to open

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shauna's like a gluten-free Jim Jones for dumb, lifeless middle-aged women. I swear, this bitch could set fire to a orphanage and they would applaud her for bringing them light. ~ Miss Hannigan

My FIL has one of those video rear view things in his vehicle and it only cost $19.99. It's COMPLETELY useless too since it's no different than just doing a "head check" like has been mentioned. If they can't be bothered to LOOK behind them or glance up at the rear view mirror before they back up, then I doubt that they will take the time to look at a video camera mounted RIGHT NEXT to the rear view mirror! In fact, it could cause MORE back overs simply because it doesn't show a side view. So, WHILE they are gazing at the video thing then a kyd could be walking around their car from the driver's side and be behind the vehicle by the time that the driver is ready to back up. The ONLY answer is for people to CONTAIN their kyds in and around places where vehicles are parked and to teach the little bastards that getting run over by a car will cause a major boo boo.

I lurked on that site that somebody started up about front-over back-over awareness. The PRIMARY reason mentioned in the anecdotal evidence causing these were overwhelmingly that kyds were TAUGHT to go outside when moo or duddy were leaving to go anywhere and do that "BYE BYE" :1wv:hello shit like was mentioned on another thread. So, they automatically take it upon themselves to get in and around a moving vehicle when duddy or moo leave in order to do the "BYE BYE" thing, only they aren't old enough to understand that moo-duddy can't see them. The next most common reason that older kyds get run down is because they are allowed to PLAY around parked vehicles. That was followed by kyds who are allowed to whiz up and down sidewalks in residential areas and get backed over at peoples' driveway exits.

The video thing will NOT help at all and if anything it will give careless breeders a sense of false security. They need to 1)MAKE CERTAIN that their kyd has gone back inside or hasn't followed them out and 2)PAY ATTENTION to their surroundings when they back up and LOOK behind them. Overwhelmingly it's the PARENTS who run over their own kyds. Again, WE have to bear the expense and deal with yet ANOTHER inconvenience due to careless breeders. What's next? I am expecting a talking alarm that says, "Did you remember to check for your children?" or "Is your baybee in a car seat?" in an attempt to keep them from "forgetting" kyds who get murdered via "locked in hot car syndrome".

------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!

Quote
CrabCake

Quote
yurble
Medicine safety caps. Those fucking annoy me. When I was in the US they wanted me to sign a release accepting the risk in order to get a normal cap, even though I have no kids living with me and won't let any in to the house, either.

I've posted this before, and it's faboo. I had great fun going through the house and disabling all the evil caps. smile

How to make evil childproof caps easy to open

We don't have them here, thank goodness (oh noes, shouldn't the kyds be dying, then?), but what I did was just saved all my empty bottles with sane caps and transferred the pills to the new container, adding the instructions or else writing on the outside what was actually in the bottle. But it is good to know there are techniques for dealing with it.

I drive a Mini Cooper, and I don't live or work anywhere near toddlers. My niece, who has such technology on her SUV (and who has kids), managed to back into my other niece's FORD TAURUS (when that [childfree] niece was dumb enough to volunteer to babysit for niece the first). I don't need this crap on my Mini, I don't want this crap on my Mini, and if you want to put this crap on my Mini (or future Mini), Mr. Obama, I will gladly treat you to an impromptu colonoscopy with it. So, don't tell me, let me guess: Someone in Congress who owns stock in some big camera company started feeling jealous of that other-someone in Congress who's now raking in the dough off of those useless full-body Nazi-scanners now infesting our airports. God, I can't die soon enough....

In other words: This shit. On a Mini. Fucking. Cooper?

Fuck you, Obama. Give that goddamn Peace Prize to someone who deserves it (the guy who invented clumping cat litter would be a good choice). Fuck you, Congress. And fuck you, you stupid goddamn breeders. Fuck your stupid toddlers, too. The first fucking thing I do when I get my next Mini is going to be to disable that camera... and nail the jackboot-fascist-Obama-cop who tries to ticket me for it with a pretextual-stop case to end all pretextual-stop cases....

Quote
kidlesskim
Overwhelmingly it's the PARENTS who run over their own kyds.

Except, of course, when decide to try it the other way around, and let their kids run over them.

Great. Yet another pricey piece of bullshit to add on to the car that can and will fail and cost more to fix and maintain because of THE CHIIIIIIIIDRUUUUUUN.

Fuck that.

An extra $200, cars are expensive enough as it is these days. In addition, this is something else that could go wrong, costing more money to fix and if you live in a state that requires yearly vehicle inspections, you'll have to get it fixed so the car will pass. Another potential expense.

I think cars need safety features, but how far is too far? I agree with the inside trunk releases, because there have been cases when adults have been carjacked at gunpoint and forced into the trunks of cars and couldn't get out. I also read recently tire pressure monitoring systems were required in all US vehicles now, which means you can't use tire foam(aka FixAFlat) to temporarily patch tires because it damages the sensors. I made that mistake recently and it cost me $250. There are some safety features that are needed, but there comes a point where people are responsible for their own, and their childrens' if they have them, safety.

As for the child proof caps, kids have an easier time opening them than adults do. My mother took a medicine for arthritus pain in her hands and had to fight to open the bottle because back then, there were no options for non-childproof caps. What's the point of the medicine if you can't get the bottle open to take it. If Dad wasn't home, Mom would ask one of the kids to open it for her. Even though we knew how to open them, none of us ever overdosed on anything. Even my multivitamins have one of those caps, I might have to disable that one.

JD

The best use for those backup cameras is for lining up your vehicle's hitch with a trailer.

One of the proponents, Google cached for Troll reasons:

click here

So when someone's crotchshit inevitably gets run over despite the camera, and the parents sue the camera manufacturer because it failed to prevent their shit from Darwnining itself, will the cameras go away because no one can afford the lawsuits?

Quote
bell_flower
One of the proponents, Google cached for Troll reasons:

click here

Annabelle's Angels--some sort of web shop in memory of Annabelle. I should have known it was an Anna. That's practically synonymous with 'Darwin award'. There's something about the name...

I see Annabelle is described as having the prettiest rosy red lips. Well, that's one way to describe what I'm seeing in that picture. Another way to put it would be that her nose resembles two railway tunnels leading into Snot Street station (see the photo in 'in Memory of' rather than the home page). Of course she was also un-fucking-believably wonderful: one of the most sensitive, well-behaved, loving, adorable, precious toddlers many people had ever met. Alas, she was run over (not by her parents) while playing in the driveway behind a truck that was backing up.

So, you might wonder, how many people will be saved by this measure? 129 a year, according to that website. I suppose that's more than the number of people who die each year from slipping on ice (60), but less than, oh, say, the number of lives lost by slipping in the bathtub (341). This is not like seatbelts, where a significant number of lives would be saved. About .0000004% of the US population will benefit. Perhaps it would be more useful to invest in bike lanes, as 697 cyclists are killed annually in traffic accidents.

There is no sense of proportion in this proposal.

Quote
law1204
So when someone's crotchshit inevitably gets run over despite the camera, and the parents sue the camera manufacturer because it failed to prevent their shit from Darwnining itself, will the cameras go away because no one can afford the lawsuits?

No - we will have other cameras installed in the cab to record the driver and make sure that s/he was looking at the rear view camera at the time. If not - prosecution, and a lawsuit!

I mean - Jezuz. I'm truly sorry for Annabelle, but was she really "killed in the driveway with her mother not ten feet away"? Why the fuck was the kid in the driveway, pushing her play stroller behind the contractor's vehicle? Why the fuck didn't the mother grab Annabelle's hand when the contractor walked from the neighbor's house to his vehicle and got in? He didn't teleport into his vehicle for Pete's sake! Or why didn't the mother just keep the kids inside until the contractor left?

May I ask? Does that make me a terrible person to ask these reasonable questions?

Quote
Tiquer
The best use for those backup cameras is for lining up your vehicle's hitch with a trailer.

There ya go I drive a Big Ass Truck™ (Silverado "like a rock") and have become quite adept at backing straight up our 300 foot drive, then executing a neat 90° turn backwards into my parking space. However, we also pull a trailer with our bikes on it sometimes. Trying to get it lined up with the hitch is a pain. I'm going to have to check into getting one.

In our instance, having a backup camera would be good for watching out for the cats who always seem to dart by, but their advantage is in being able to crouch still and have the vehicle pass over them. My cat - Roadkill - is proof of surviving that encounter multiple times.

Quote
ShimmyMuse

Quote
law1204
So when someone's crotchshit inevitably gets run over despite the camera, and the parents sue the camera manufacturer because it failed to prevent their shit from Darwnining itself, will the cameras go away because no one can afford the lawsuits?

No - we will have other cameras installed in the cab to record the driver and make sure that s/he was looking at the rear view camera at the time. If not - prosecution, and a lawsuit!

I mean - Jezuz. I'm truly sorry for Annabelle, but was she really "killed in the driveway with her mother not ten feet away"? Why the fuck was the kid in the driveway, pushing her play stroller behind the contractor's vehicle? Why the fuck didn't the mother grab Annabelle's hand when the contractor walked from the neighbor's house to his vehicle and got in? He didn't teleport into his vehicle for Pete's sake! Or why didn't the mother just keep the kids inside until the contractor left?

May I ask? Does that make me a terrible person to ask these reasonable questions?

Because the mother's name is Marie France and she got Gus to impugnate her 5 times and she came up with the idea of having their house gutted while they all live in it and so the girl was chasing after Robbie because he needed a new Pampers and that is how she got run over by the truck. So after that, the Grants switched to potty whispering Robbie.

Quote
Dorisan

Quote
Tiquer
The best use for those backup cameras is for lining up your vehicle's hitch with a trailer.

There ya go I drive a Big Ass Truck™ (Silverado "like a rock") and have become quite adept at backing straight up our 300 foot drive, then executing a neat 90° turn backwards into my parking space. However, we also pull a trailer with our bikes on it sometimes. Trying to get it lined up with the hitch is a pain. I'm going to have to check into getting one.

In our instance, having a backup camera would be good for watching out for the cats who always seem to dart by, but their advantage is in being able to crouch still and have the vehicle pass over them. My cat - Roadkill - is proof of surviving that encounter multiple times.

But the issue here is that it is your choice to get the camera as an option. Those of us who don't have trailers will be stuck buying it because of the careless parunts.

These run over accidents have happened more since people bought SMooVs in place of sedans. While it did happen in the past, there were not nearly as many because the sedans had less of a blind spot and parents generally were more responsible.

i like it. now i can win at "back up pedestrian":

screaming toadler 5 points
grandma with walker 25 points

No thanks to bubble-wrapped whelps, I will have a HARDER time affording a car soon! :bawl

I used to work with this guy who had one of those things like contractors have on their equipment-big trucks when it backs up that goes, "BEEP BEEP......", only his was hooked up to a recording (LOUD) that would blare out, "My car is now backing up. (BEEP BEEP BEEP), GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!!!" in a computer generated "voice". It was SO loud that it could be heard inside when he backed out of the parking lot. Maybe we need something like that on all vehicles instead.

------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!

Quote
kidlesskim
GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!!!"

I think we just need more parents to say this to more kids.

Quote

"There is no more tragic accident than for a parent or caregiver to back out of a garage or driveway and kill or injure an undetected unsupervised child playing behind the vehicle," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement announcing the new rules.

Fixed it for 'em.

This is asinine beyond belief. The only way I'm going to back over some brat is if they are either in MY garage where they don't fucking belong, or they're not being properly supervised by their handlers in a parking lot. I don't need or want a fucking backup camera on my car.

Quote

The rules would be phased in starting in 2012 and would apply to all cars manufactured after Sept. 1, 2014.

The cost of the camera isn't the issue, it's the fact that it will be required. Looks like the last time I'll ever buy a new car will be in 2014.

===

ETA: A good one from the comments section:

In breaking news, the Obummer administration is requiring that every 5 gallon pail in America be installed with wireless internet connected webcams to prevent accidental drownings of toddlers. Given that a majority of these deaths are minority children, their parents will not be able to afford the pails, so subsidies are being set up to ensure affordability for these parents. It is still being determined which agency will be managing this program, and there are discussions in CONgress that a completely new federal agency should be created to manage the billions of subsidy dollars and hundreds of millions of dollars of fines to be collected from small businesses out of compliance with the regulation.

The proposed name for this agency is the Federal Office Of Lunacy or FOOL.

larious

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shauna's like a gluten-free Jim Jones for dumb, lifeless middle-aged women. I swear, this bitch could set fire to a orphanage and they would applaud her for bringing them light. ~ Miss Hannigan

Quote
kidlesskim
I used to work with this guy who had one of those things like contractors have on their equipment-big trucks when it backs up that goes, "BEEP BEEP......", only his was hooked up to a recording (LOUD) that would blare out, "My car is now backing up. (BEEP BEEP BEEP), GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!!!" in a computer generated "voice". It was SO loud that it could be heard inside when he backed out of the parking lot. Maybe we need something like that on all vehicles instead.

I think you're on to something, but to bad your not the one who has 'say so' on what gets imp-limited on vehicles...

---

lab mom