NHTSA passes ruling for Car Manufacturers to install Rear-View Cameras by Tuesday May 1st 2018

“Safety is our highest priority, and we are committed to protecting the most vulnerable victims of back over accidents — our children and seniors. As a father, I can only imagine how heart wrenching these types of accidents can be for families, but we hope that today’s rule will serve as a significant step toward reducing these tragic accidents.”

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx speaking on the new ruling handed down by the NHTSA (U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) as it relates to Rear-View Cameras by Tuesday May 1^st 2018

We’re getting closer and closer to the day when we’ll have self-driving cars, probably based on technology developed either by Google or Volvo and the SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) Project as explained in detail in my blog article entitled “Volvo Testing Autonomous Motor Vehicles in Spain in Live Traffic - EU Project SARTRE adds self-driving AI with smartphone Control”.

Now the NHTSA (U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) on Monday March 31st 2014 has decreed that as of Tuesday May 1^st 2018, all vehicles will have to have rear-view Cameras installed by default as reported in “ALL NEW CARS WILL BE REQUIRED TO HAVE REARVIEW CAMERAS”, published March 31, 2014 by Mike Flacy, DigitalTrends and “US requiring back-up cameras in cars by 2018”, published March 31, 2014 11:04 AM PDT by Wayne Cunningham, CNET News.

In other words, no vehicle produced in that year or for that year in the United States of America will be allowed on the road unless it has a camera kit installed, which will add an extra US$140 to the cost of making a Motor Vehicle. The ruling by the NHTSA targets mostly Cars, and Minivans and SUV i.e. under 10,000 lb, but 2019 Trucks and anything over that size will also have to have rear-view Cameras.

The stipulation also specifies a 10-foot by 20-foot field of view, possibly via Apple Carplay as explained in my blog article entitled “Apple to launch CarPlay at Geneva Auto Show in Geneva, Switzerland - Siri Voice Assistant and Primesense bring Hands-free Remote Control Revolution to The Grand Budapest Hotel” or other appropriate Viewing Technology, such as a dashboard embedded Tablet.

First Steps towards Self-Driving Cars – Jamaica Falling behind in Vehicle Regulations

The Americans have begun the first few tentative steps towards the legalization of Self-driving Cars. This as by adding Rear-view Cameras, it makes it easy in the future for automobile owners to buy Self-Driving DIY (Do It Yourself) kits. These DIY kits can be added to any car post-production along with an addition camera and sensor kit to make the Car self-aware and thus self-driving.

Safety is the main concern, as the stats cited by the NHTSA and the cost for the implementation of this basic feature show:

1)      210 people are killed each year while reversing

2)      15,000 injuries each year while reversing

3)      33% of the fatalities while reversing are children under age 5

4)      25% of the fatalities while reversing are adults aged 70 

Everything appears to be falling into place even while the hard research is being conducted by Google and SARTRE. I just hope that by the time they’re ready to roll out Semi-autonomous Self-Driving Motor Vehicles, they have developed a defense against hacking and virus attacks as predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Intel’s McAfee researches Virus attacks on All-Electric Vehicles as AI’s Project SARTRE hits the road”.

Otherwise hacking vehicles and taking over the system and using the vehicle’s Hard-drive to launch DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service Attacks) as explained in my blog article entitled “Proofpoint says Refridgerator hacked and used to send Spam email - Internet of Things Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines for hacker's DDOS and Spambots”, and even using the on-board Cameras to spy on you, may become another commonplace occurrence.

How long will Jamaica take to adopt this even as we cling to our SUV (Sports Utility Vehicles) that are still powered by Gasoline as pointed out in my blog article entitled “GOJ buys SUV's for Ministers of Government from Toyota Jamaica - All-Electric Vehicle Importation Support is needed from GOJ to be The Master of our Fuel Consumption”?

Not any time soon, as the GOJ has shown no signs of remorse as it relates to implementing tough regulation to keep out older Vehicles and introduce Flex-Fuel Hybrid and All-Electric Vehicles into Jamaica as stated in my blog article entitled “Minister of Justice Mark Golding Environmental Policy changes to Vehicle Importation - All-Electric Vehicles and Flex-Fuel Vehicles put Used Car Dealers on The Guilt Trip”.