Shrinking the Blind Spot!
Remember curb feelers? Popular in the 1940s and ’50s, these wire whiskeresque accessories were mounted to bumpers or the lower body of a car. When they contacted or scraped across an object like a concrete curb, the resulting scratching noise warned drivers, and helped them parallel park or avoid damaging those gleaming fenders and snazzy white sidewalls.
Nearly 75 years later, we’re still struggling to figure out what’s around our vehicles! But instead of curb feelers, we have high-tech monitors, backup cameras with night vision and parking sensors to help shrink those rear blind zones.
Of course, there are more serious consequences to blind spots beyond scraped tires. The IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) reports an estimated 292 people are killed and 18,000 injured every year in backover crashes, usually in driveways or parking lots. Young children and the elderly are the most likely to be killed. Kidsandcars.org reports there are significant front over deaths too, and indicates that depending on the size and type of vehicle, blind zones can extend as far as 8 feet in front and 50 feet to the rear.
Before we go any further, it’s important to note that even with current technology, all the aftermarket products in the world can’t prevent every crash. Parking or proximity sensors don’t have the range or sensitivity to alert to most impending crashes with people, pets or certain size and shaped objects. And if a car is moving at much more than a crawl, the driver simply doesn’t have enough time to react. Cameras can be defeated by storms and bad lighting. So don’t let your customers bask in a false sense of security after the install.
But even with those limitations, it’s been determined that cameras help significantly. In fact, the Car Connection reports cameras can shrink rear blind zones by up to a whopping 90 percent. And as a final emphasis on the importance of rearview cameras, in April 2014, the NHTSA mandated backup cameras in every new car sold in the U.S. by 2018. The agency’s report also noted that the average distance a car or SUV travels before striking a person or object is a tad under 14 feet, pickups 17 feet, minivans 31 feet and all light vehicles 26 feet.
So let’s review options that help shrink the rear blind zone.
Aftermarket manufacturers have put backup cameras in all kinds of ingenious places.
There are license plate frames and license plate bar mounts that will work on almost every vehicle. BOYO Vision, for example, offers license plate cameras with 140° viewing angles in black and chrome. These also have normal/reverse image and night vision capability plus the viewing angle can be adjusted to improve response.
BOYO Vision also has bar-mounted license plate cams that support motion detection and digital zoom. Power Acoustik even has license plate frames that not only have a camera and night vision but sensors as well. BOYO Vision also offers combo license plate frame cameras and parking sensors.
Tailgates and tailgate handles for pickups are another clever spot where cameras can be placed. For example, Crimestopper makes handles for specific vehicles, like the Ford F150, the Chevrolet Silverado and the Dodge Ram.
For larger vehicles of all kinds, including SUVs and RVs, there are lip-mount, flush-mount and hanging cameras. Crimestopper, BOYO Vision, Power Acoustik, Boss Audio and Pyle offer a broad selection.
One thing to consider is the viewing angle of the lens. The larger the vehicle, the wider the angle the lens should have. If your customer has a large vehicle, they need 180°. Smaller vehicles should be able to work with 130°. The IIHS recommends that cameras should cover 5 feet to either side of the vehicle centerline and extend at least 20 feet back, depending on the type of vehicle.
A properly placed camera in the front can also help monitor that blind spot in front of the grille. Dash cams really don’t fit that bill, but they do capture events from the driver’s perspective. And, besides the social media aspect of clips, they can provide useful information for legal proceedings and insurance claims.
Mountable on the windshield or dash, most plug into a vehicle’s 12V accessory outlet and some, like the mini HD Car Camera recorder from SecurityMan even use G-sensor technology to immediately begin recording in the case of a crash. Some include GPS to stamp footage with location, direction, speed and time, like the Garmin Dash Cam 20. Crimestopper even offers a dash cam built into a replacement-style rearview mirror.
A camera doesn’t do much good if the driver can’t see what it shows! Monitors can be purchased separately or as a part of a kit that includes a rearview camera, sensors or all three. Monitors typically mount to either the dashboard or windshield, or they are located within a replacement-style rearview mirror.
Standalone monitors range in size from about 10 and 7 inches—more suitable for RVs and large trucks—to smaller 5, 4.3 and 3.5-inch sizes that should fit most passenger vehicles. The larger the monitor, the more video inputs it will handle. The 10.1-inch and 7-inch Crimestopper monitors can handle up to four inputs and display them in quad configuration. BOYO Vision has a 7 inch that handles three inputs plus one additional A/V input on the front face. Crimestopper 5 and 4.3-inch monitors handle two video inputs and can be mounted on either the windshield or the dash.
Replacement-style mirror monitors can do more than show the rear camera. They can include Bluetooth, like the BYOVTB45M a compass and thermometer like the SecurView from Crimestopper and even a distance-scale line like this one from Pyle.
For your customers or installers who don’t want to piecemeal a system from separate components, there are lots of choices. BOYO Vision has a wireless system that uses a keyhole flush-mount camera and a 3.6-inch monitor that is ideal for all cars, SUVs, trucks and RVs. The company also has a 7-inch 2.4GHz wireless version. Pyle offers 7-inch combos that use either a license plate mount or a universal mount, complete with wireless remote and distance-scale line. They also have several petite 3.5-inch monitors that use a license plate camera, one of which is wireless.
The Stealth Cam Wireless Rearview Backup Camera System features both monitor and camera with rechargeable internal lithium batteries. The camera has a magnetic base so it’s easy to mount and remove. The monitor is designed to mount to the windshield or an AC vent.
Sensors have a wider range than the old curb whiskers, but they should not be relied upon to detect children, adults or pets in blind spots. Cameras are far better for that. But sensors might help as a parking aid or to reduce parking lot crashes with other vehicles.
Systems vary in terms of the number of sensors and if they are for front, rear or both. Some may have their own LED or LCD display and usually an audible warning. Others work with a third-party monitor. For all sensors, effective distance can be 10 feet or significantly less, so be sure to have that information on hand.
For those who are of the school that all possible warning devices should be in a vehicle, point them to the BOYO Vision 4.3″ replacement/clip-on dual-solution mirror monitor with camera and 4 black or chrome rear parking sensors.
We should note that IIHS testing concludes that rear cameras would prevent more backover crashes than parking sensors, and that the cameras worked better by themselves than if sensors were combined with them. They also indicated cameras should cover 5 feet to either side of the vehicle centerline and extend at least 20 feet back, depending on the vehicle type.
Fortunately, you don’t need to rig up several vehicles in the parking lot in order to demo various systems. Set up a display inside with simple mounting on wood and hook up the relevant components. You could also create a large rear-blind-zone chart to display in your store. Consumer Reports has developed an excellent one based on both average-height (5 feet 8 inches) and shorter drivers (5 feet 1 inch) along with the different car types they might drive. IIHS also has a great interactive chart you can display on a large screen that’s hooked to the Internet.
For additional visual impact, create a demo area with a chair or car seat and a tape outline of a small sedan, adding tape “tick marks” every foot out behind. Have a 28-inch traffic cone handy. Then it becomes easy for your sales associates to demonstrate the depth of blind zones, based on the chart. Another option would be to turn the front parking lot into a blind-zone demo area. Utilize the different kinds of cars employees have and place tape ticks behind each to illustrate the differences.
The technology exists to significantly reduce backover crashes. So demonstrate the dangers and solutions, and you’ll find the products will sell themselves.
Shrinking that blind spot is easy with all of the products mentioned above. For more information about these products and to see how to incorporate them into your business speak with your Petra sales rep today.