Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

NHTSA to require rearview cameras in new vehicles

Car Camera

Shuji Kajiyama / AP

An employee of Nissan Motor Co., tries to park the automaker’s Serena equipped with four cameras at the front, the rear, and two rear mirrors of the car while looking at a monitor showing the virtual bird-eye view of the vehicle’s position during a press tour at Nissan’s Oppama plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, Monday, Aug. 6, 2007.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is issuing a final safety rule that requires rearview technology in many new vehicles. The move is an effort to reduce deaths and serious injuries caused by backup accidents.

The final rule issued Monday by the department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will require new vehicles under 10,000 pounds— including buses and trucks— to include rear visibility technology if they are manufactured on or after May 1, 2018. The rearview cameras expand the field of vision for drivers to include a 10-by-20-foot zone directly behind the vehicle.

Backup accidents cause an average of 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries a year, and victims often include children and the elderly, the government said.

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