Comment by theamazing0
2 days ago
I think legally they would need to require using an app for their back view camera. All new cars in the United States after 2018 need one and I don't see how it would work without using the phone/tablet as a display.
The article says the rear camera feed will be displayed on a screen behind the steering wheel which doubles as the speedometer and charge display.
That seems like a clever and reasonable compromise to comply with a particularly bad regulation.
The regulation did exactly what it was designed to do: take the base-model Nissan Versa off the market and prevent any low-cost vehicles from competing in the US market. (Remember when brand-new cars were available for under $10,000? Inflation adjusted, that was still less than $15,000)
Sure, ultrasonic sensors have a better outcome than backup cameras in a cost-benefit analysis (https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/nhtsa-2006-25579...) and allow you to simultaneously look out the windows and get feedback from the sensor, but allowing them would have allowed for the sale of cars too cheap to have infotainment systems, and that was not the goal of the regulators.
I don’t have a problem with the regulation. Slate is trying to build a safe, affordable, electric vehicle. Having one display for all information seems like a good way to save cost.