Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

I don't know about all that other stuff, but I firmly believe the backup camera is the single greatest automotive invention ever.

 

I leased a Civic and loved it. I reluctantly parted with it when we decided to downsize to one car and the wife wanted an SUV for practicality reasons.

 

For good drivers they are amazing. My dad tows a Wrangler behind a big-ass motorhome and it’s game changing for him.

But…I was in the back seat as my father in law almost ran over a jogger because he trusted the camera and alarm system and failed to look over his shoulder.

Then I realized every dumbass driver in America implicitly trusts their cameras and doesn’t look anymore.

The problem is not the technology, but the laziness it breeds. Just like driver assist and self-driving cars will do.

 

NJDMV allows drivers to use the backup camera during their license road tests.

I found backup cams with perspective outlines, such as Honda's, the most useful.

 

I don't know what kind of camera he had, but the ones I've had show me a much wider angle than I can see by craning my neck and looking. I see people and cars in the camera I couldn't see myself.

And they have the graphics that show which way my back end is heading and where my bumper is so I can back up straight (always a problem for me before) and not run into things.

 

That's the graphic I was referring to above.

 

I failed my first driver's license test seconds after it started because I bumped into the curb when they told me to back out of the driveway.

 

I was stopped at a light in a Miata when the Lincoln Navigator in front of me decided to back up and pull into a parking space. There are few things as terrifying as an SUV three times bigger than your car backing up on top of your hood. She had a back-up camera. Couldn't see me.

Totaled my favorite supercharged Miata, the idiot.

 

My sister failed because she pulled out into an alley too far to the left five seconds into the test.

My mom screamed at the BMV tester, “You couldn’t have told her that before making her go through the rest of the test?”

Only time I ever truly saw my mom angry.

 

My guy didn't make me take the rest of the test. He told me to stop the car right there and said I had failed.

 

My Dad drove me down to Newark for my road test. A few blocks from the place we pull over and switched, so I could get a feel for behind the wheel. I checked the mirror, a tanker semi and van behind it coming up on me. I wait for the tanker to pass and, expecting the van to pass, I start to pull out into traffic. But just as a I pull out the van turns sharply in front of me into a driveway, smashing my fender and ripping a hole in the front corner of my Chevelle Malibu wagon. We weren't hurt and Dad didn't raise his voice. We exchanged insurance and any nerves I had were gone. I drove my damaged car to the DMV where I passed the road test.

 

Until cars drive themselves.