Sept. 27, 2013—The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Tuesday that it will add rearview video systems to its list of recommended features under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP).
The addition was made to encourage improved rearview visibility for the nation's motor vehicle fleet and help prevent back-over accidents, while NHTSA continues to research the implementation of a rear-visibility rule.
"As we’ve seen with other features in the past, adding rearview video systems to our list of recommended safety features will encourage both automakers and consumers to consider more vehicles that offer this important technology," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "While adding this technology to our list of safety features is important, I remain committed to implementing the rear visibility rule as well."
NHTSA will be including rearview video systems into the NCAP program in two phases. The agency has begun to identify on www.safercar.gov vehicle models that have rearview video systems. Once the agency is able to verify that a vehicle model has a rearview video system meeting certain basic criteria, the agency will recognize those vehicle models as having this Recommended Advanced Technology Feature on www.safercar.gov. In order to be included as a Recommended Advanced Technology Feature, the rearview image must:
• Cover the 20 foot by 10 foot zone directly behind the vehicle
• Be displayed within two seconds after the reverse direction is selected
• Be large enough to enable the driver to make judgments about the objects in the image and avoid a crash with those objects.
Rearview video systems will replace Electronic Stability Control as a recommended advanced technology feature, as the latter is now standard on all new vehicles.
