New cars have a camera to help us back up safely. Why are they off when we drive?

Perhaps power considerations.

Not sure how big a drain that camera is on the electrical system and through that to the fuel expenditure.

So you’re not watching the screen rather than driving.

It would be horribly distracting, and possibly disorienting. Trying to navigate the car forward at the same time glancing at the rear camera which would be looking in the opposite direction and travel layout.

I think it would much more of a danger than a safety move.

I hate that backup camera. Only time I’ve ever hit anything backing up was when using one of those friggin cameras :P

They are turned off to reduce driver distraction. How are they different from a rear view mirror which is on all the time?
When you look at the video screen your eyes need to focus at about 1 meter. It takes your eye lens anywhere from 50 -300 ms to refocus at a distance.when you look back out the front windshield.
The image you see in the rear view mirror is already at distance so there is no refocusing delay.

As we age many people over 50 become far-sighted. We cannot focus on close objects without ‘reading’ glasses yet we can see perfectly well at distances. If we use the backup camera we would need to wear glasses to see behind us and no glasses to look out the front.

By the way, the first GPS equipped vehicles with integrated video screens turned the screen off when the car was in motion for the same reason. That did not last long.

Just what I need. I’m driving toward you from the opposite direction, and you’re watching some blonde bimbo applying her lipstick on your little fuckin’ TV back-up assistor.

Now I gotta be worried about you AND the bimbos….

@OneBadApple The camera is no better than the rear view mirror – in fact it is much worse. She looks distorted in the camera’s wide angle display. The rear view mirror is more true to life.

Most guys I know really get off on female distortion….

To eliminate the added distraction. You should be looking where you’re going, not where you’ve just been.

I agree that it would be too much of a distraction. I had a Prius with a screen on the dashboard showing power usage between the electric and the internal combustion engine. I found myself so incredibly distracted by that screen I had to force myself to keep my eyes on the road.

@LilCosmo Knowing this, if you’ve never driven through Yosemite National Park, but someday do, please be prepared for the Driver Distraction of a Lifetime.

Man, I am usually the most focused driver on the planet….but struggled mightily on THAT day…..

When designed properly they view straight down.

Not very helpful while driving.

I am not so sure that a camera to take the place of a rear view mirror(s) would be a distraction. Perhaps we need a different way to present that view. But I will wait until they sort this out before I buy my next car. Do you think our current mirrors are a distraction? Or is this a new problem?

@gary4books

I find current center and side view mirrors perfectly natural to use. Then again mine are always kept in perfect adjustment.

Video systems add performance robbing mass, something I consider unacceptable.

There have been a very small amount of concept and production cars that have employed video systems.

Usually this has been done because of limited rearward visibility due to very wide rear wheel arches or mid rear engine mounting, acceptable as these things exist for the enhancement of performance.

Well, Lexus will sell you that car which parallel-parks itself for only about $60,000. And Google is working on the GPS technology in which your car will drive itself !!

Personally, I’m holding out for one of those tele-transporters like they had on Star Trek.