Rear View Mirror Camera

All too often drivers innocently back up into curbs, toys, beloved pets, and most tragically children.  In fact, officials say that every year nearly 300 deaths and 1,8000 injuries are caused by backover accidents.  While auto makers strive to make a car with the fewest blind-spots as possible they have yet to come up with a car hire that has 100% visibility behind the rear bumper, that is, until the newest innovations in camera technology came along.  

I learned about rear view mirror cameras from Women and Wheels, the same great website that from yesterday's video in my blog about the Honda FR-V six seater car rental.  The Women and Wheels team were excited about these new cameras, and so are we!  They say that Gentex has already made 1.25 million in 2010 and that by 2014 we can expect them to be law in the United States.

However, you won't have to wait until 2014 to benefit from this amazing safety feature in a car rental.  Its already available in some higher end family cars and luxury car hire vehicles.  This technology is becoming more and more common, and you can expect to see it listed as a feature on many of the family or 7 seater car rentals, or possibly as an extra that you can add to your car hire reservation, similar to snow chains or a car seat.

Here I've included a video about the Gentex model, explaining how it works.  The 3 inch diagonal display appears in the left side of the rear view mirror as a bright and colorful image of what is directly behind your bumper.