“Guilt’s a big motivator,” says Bruce Cirillo, president of Franklin, New York-based custom auto installer Movin’ On referring to the rear-view cameras and displays his firm installs for local dealers and customers.

As a parent and an SUV owner, I readily admit that horror stories recounting backover accidents, not dings and dents, prompted my interest in rear-view video cameras. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) doesn’t keep records of such accidents because most occur in private driveways, but Kids and Cars, a nonprofit safety advocacy group, estimates that every week in the U.S. two children are killed by being backed over. The culprit, says Kids and Cars founder and president Janette Fennell, is what she calls the “blind zone” behind today’s vehicles.

“When it’s 8-feet wide and 30-feet behind,” she says, “you’re hard pressed to call that a ‘spot’.” Indeed, tests by the nonprofit Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports magazine, confirm that the blind zone for minivans and SUVs ranges from 12 feet to a whopping 69 feet behind the vehicles, enough to conceal my daughter’s entire nursery school class.  

To reduce the abrasions of urban parking—and parental angst—there are several high-tech solutions available from companies like Audiovox, Delphi, and HitchCam. Ultrasonic warning systems that beep at you with increasing frequency as you approach an object behind the car have been available for many years. But installing one of these systems is awkward. Holes have to be drilled into a vehicle’s bumper to install the sensors, and the sensors can be ineffective in the rain and snow. And honestly, the persistent beeping that occurs every time you throw the car into reverse is annoying.

Better are rear-view video cameras, which can entirely eliminate the blind zone behind a car. An increasing number of mostly luxury vehicles offer cameras as an addendum to their navigation systems. When the car is in reverse, the rear-view image automatically pops up on the in-dash system’s LCD screen. In Consumers’ tests the blind spot on a 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche LT, for example, shrunk from 50 feet to zero once the optional $250 factory camera was installed.

Such cameras may be a relatively inexpensive option on new models such as the 2007 Chevrolet Suburban, but they usually require that buyers opt for the navigation system as well. And that can cost up to $2,000. Fortunately, some recent products offer those us not ready to pony up $45,000 for a new set of wheels another solution: add-on camera systems. I tested a wireless system and a rear view mirror replacement option.

The Roadmaster VR3 Wireless Backup Camera is just $140 and can be installed without professional assistance, according to the manufacturer. The package includes a camera that screws onto a rear license plate frame and a 2.5-inch square LCD screen that plugs into a 12-volt cigarette lighter up front and can be mounted in a variety of positions using a supplied stand. The display wirelessly receives the image from the camera’s transmitter, so you don’t have to run cables through the car. The catch? You still have to connect the camera in back to the car’s electrical system, meaning that you have to find the car’s reverse light circuit and ground wire.

I dutifully followed the VR3’s installation instructions, which involved taking apart a taillight, using an ohm meter and fiddling with Scotchloks. To the uninitiated, Scotchloks are finicky little clamps that one squeezes close to splice cables together.

Initially, only static appeared on the VR3’s screen, yet my back up lights still worked. After some investigation, it turned out that in my eagerness to form a secure connection with the Scotchloks, I had inadvertently sliced through the negative ground, shorting out the camera.

Once repaired with a drop of solder, the VR3 camera worked as advertised, with some caveats. The image is relatively clear, but it takes a couple of seconds to appear after the driver puts the car into reverse. So some patience is necessary. Competing wireless signals, such as those from Wi-Fi or Bluetooth devices, can distort the image, as well, so reliability is an issue.

Furthermore, the VR3’s inexpensive CMOS camera yields an 80-degree horizontal viewing angle behind a car, wide enough to eliminate blind spots in most, but not all vehicles. I could see anyone, even a toddler, standing behind the Durango but had to be careful to check my side mirrors as well. There was also the issue of where to put the display. It was too obtrusive on my dash, but I tended to forget to look at it if it was placed anywhere else.

So finding a natural viewing position for a backup camera’s display is an important consideration and one reason that Audiovox introduced a new replacement rear-view mirror last summer with a built-in 4.5-inch diagonal screen. The company’s LCMR6CT is about $440 through retailers but many drivers will find it a natural fit and cosmetically compatible with most American cars. When driving, the LCMR6CT looks like a conventional mirror, but when the car is put in reverse an LCD screen concealed behind the mirror glass illuminates to reveal the rear-view image.

It’s a nifty trick, and one that many will find idiot proof. The minute you glance in the rear view mirror, there’s the rear-view camera image. However, I was taught to back up a car by turning around and looking directly through the rear window--and never to rely on the rearview mirror. So keeping my eye fixed on the Audiovox mirror display took some practice.

Audiovox has several cameras to support the mirror, including a CCDLF model that I tested. The camera, which costs about $230, is cleverly concealed in a metal license plate frame, so no holes need to be drilled in your car’s pristine fuselage. The camera is also based on a CCD image sensor with a 120-degree view, offering an image superior to that of the Roadmaster model. However, unlike the Roadmaster camera, wires have to be snaked through the car by a professional installer to connect the Audiovox camera to the mirror.

Eventually, I got used to the camera’s slightly skewed fish-eye view and learned that some objects immediately behind the car were closer than they initially seemed. (I recommend experimenting with old tires before taking on a Manhattan parking garage.) In bright light, I needed to shift my sitting position slightly to avoid reflections in the LCD, but a brightness control made the image easy to see even on the sunniest days. The display and camera also worked well at night and during bouts of inclement weather. In the pouring rain, I easily spotted one pedestrian who imprudently walked directly behind my vehicle as I backed out of parking spot.  

For all its benefits, the Audiovox rear-view mirror display isn’t perfect. Its image is darker than conventional mirrors, partially to conceal the LCD display when not in use and partially because it cannot automatically dim to reduce headlight glare. So if you love your auto-dimming mirror, you may find the Audiovox compromise irritating particularly in vehicles with tinted rear window glass. In addition,  Audiovox doesn’t have an option for OnStar subscribers whose push-button controls are located in the factory-installed mirror. However, HitchCam’s CEO Stephanie Mendoza plans to have an OnStar compatible mirror available in November.

My experience also yields one more piece of advice: don’t install a camera yourself. Leave the job of ferreting out the correct wires to a professional who will also make sure the camera is pointed in the right direction. The are no official industry or NTHSA standards that define what should be visible in a rear-view camera, but Audiovox and Roadmaster say the cameras should be positioned so that a tiny portion of the rear bumper can be seen in the display. That may sound counterintuitive, but the idea is to get a picture of what’s immediately behind the vehicle—not what’s 100 feet away.

There is a piece of legislation in the works intended to create such rear-view standards called the Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act of 2005 (S. 1948). The bill addresses several non-traffic safety problems, but it hasn’t received a committee hearing yet.

Nevertheless, in spite of the imperfections I found with the rear-view camera systems, the bottom line is that both models made me more comfortable backing up in tight spots--and at home where my daughter plays.
J-Q.com