The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has pushed for car-makers to include reverse cameras as standard. Starting from the 1st of May 2018, it is now a legal requirement as reported by Car and Driver. It has taken the government almost 10 years to get it as a standard as the ruling was made during the Bush administration.
Seeing that the US has started on that, it would be great if it also becomes a standard here in Malaysia where car-makers are required to equip their cars with reverse cameras as well. Additional features such as automated emergency braking, blind spot warning and forward-collision alerts are technologies which are being pushed by safety advocates.
Having these features will no doubt save more lives as well as reduce crashes. This will definitely benefit road users, as well as insurance companies as currently large number of deaths, are due to road accidents. While it took Malaysia a while before enforcing rear-passenger seat belt rules, we still are lacking in certain enforcement such as mandatory child-seat for children of 8 years and below as well as other safety precautions.
Hopefully, the issue of road safety is taken into account whoever becomes the new government starting tomorrow.
