Do you use the backup camera on your car?

Sometimes I forget its there. Yes, I use it when I remember. I’m short enough I can’t see much looking out the back window. Absolutely it would be useful if it recorded at all times. If I was rear ended and there was a question such as the other car driving off, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

@LuckyGuy I’ve had a backup camera for less than a year. I use the backup camera and check the side mirrors so I can see what’s directly behind me but…I still look back over my shoulder so I don’t miss someone coming from the rear side.

I have a 2015 Honda CRV. Back up cameras were standard in all Hondas starting in 2015. My camera has two views – a view straight out and a view straight down. I don’t use the view straight down – the salesman showed me how but I forgot. I guess I could google it.

I always turn and look both ways when backing into a spot or out of a spot. After I look both ways I will use it when I back straight out, to see if there’s something like a pole there to make sure I am not too close to the pole. I will or may also continue to look myself by turning my head.

My backup camera has lines on it to show you where the back of the vehicle is and to show you if you open the trunk tailgate where you’ll hit. That way, if you’re close to a pole or a wall and you want to open the trunk it won’t scrape.

I don’t use it as much as some people. I guess not totally trusting it comes from learing to drive in an era where there were no such things as backup cameras. Maybe young people now will totally rely on and trust them.

Last night on NPR radio (Freakonomics) they were talking about automated driving systems and how in some ways they’ll be better than human driven cars because they’ll never drive drunk or anything like that. They said when there’s an accident, the manufacturer of the system that’s driving the car that’s at fault will be the one to pay. I was thiking it’s hard to imagine living in that world but it is here and will be more commonplace, the way backup cameras used to be so strange and high tech and now they’re commonplace.

One more thing – I remember many moosn ago when we just had two brake lights. When we started having the third center brake light and then it became standard, that felt weird too but now not having that third light would be weird. What was once way out and high tech becomes something we don’t think twice about.

I have one and I use it but I live in the UK and car parking spaces are about half the size of those in the UK so any extra help is a bonus but you still have to turn round and look.

I have only had occasion to use backup cameras on a few vehicles from time to time – others’ cars in rare circumstances, that is – since my own car predates the widespread application of that tech.

However, since I have a lot of experience docking boats, usually with less than optimal views of clearances or totally blocked sightlines, I’ve learned methods of coping and judging landing spots – and since then, parking spaces – with non-optimal views, including missing passenger side mirror, blocked rear-view mirror and sometimes no view at all out of the rear window (such as when driving a U-Haul single-body truck, for example). Given those various constraints and less than ideal views, I’ve taken to rear-view cameras like a duck to water; I love them! And I was able to use them with great effect right off the bat. (I’m a little afraid of possibly growing over-reliant upon them someday, though, and losing my fair to good or very good dead reckoning skills at backing up. But I’ll worry about that when it happens, I suppose.)

On the other hand, and this may be a surprising admission from someone who trailers and launches boats so often, I can’t back up a trailer for shit. That’s one reason why I’m always inclined to sail dinghies, where I can detach the trailer from the vehicle and launch by hand.

I don’t have one on our car (‘96) but rentals all seem to have them lately.
I like the backup cameras but with this occasional use I have not felt like I could trust them completely, instead I also check over my shoulder and out the back window.

I only use mine to check to see how well I parked.

I check it, but I look over my right shoulder when the car is moving in reverse.

They are good to get a sense of what is behind you, but not for awareness of anything moving into view, or for nearness of obstacles. The wide angle distortion requires too much mind adjustment for me to trust it.

I use both. When I’m backing in a parking spot I like the feature that has the lines to tell me I’m near the wall because I can’t really tell by just looking how close I am.

Both look and use my back-up camera. But my car also has a “rear parking assist” which has sensors in the back bumper and rear side panels for sensing people or moving cars. So it alerts me if there is someone or thing on the sides/rear too.

I have never had one in any vehicle I have driven, but we had a Cat Loader that had one,it was interesting but still looked over my shoulder and the mirrors more.

Never in place of looking behind me. But it is nice it that you can see things immediately behind the car and lower than the trunk….like kids on trikes.

I usually forget about the camera’s existence. I’m too busy turning around and looking with my actual eyes.

The camera view is grossly distorted; close objects appear to be very small and far away. I don’t know if this distortion happens with every back-up camera, or if it’s unique to the 2015 Prius camera, but the images are very unhelpful.

I am trying to use it. But mostly I just forget about it and look over my shoulder. It does have green, yellow, and red zones but I can figure that out without the camera. I grew up without one so it just seems to be a silly extra.
I also grew up before cell phones so I don’t feel the need to constantly check in with people.

Maybe if I were just learning to drive I’d use it more.

@LuckyGuy Maybe if I were just learning to drive I’d use it more.

Reminds me of a recent parking lot incident. The driver was backing out of the space and hit my wife’s car as she was stopped in the exit lane. As he pulled his Bluetooth ear buds from his ears, he said, ”Sorry! I didn’t hear the sensor!”

We just got a new car with a reversing camera. The first time I drove it, I had to back into a parking spot and I tried using the camera. I made a complete dog’s dinner of it and it took me a few attempts to get lined up. I ended up ignoring the camera and using my mirrors etc. as I normally would. I don’t bother the camera in that way now. I’d look to make sure nobody/nothing was behind me that isn’t visible using my mirrors, but I find it easier to just use the tried and true methods.

I can’t use it to reverse down my driveway either. I end up all over the place.

I use it and also the mirrors as well as looking over my shoulder. Modern cars have horrible rearward visibility, a result of improvements in aerodynamics needed. Without the camera, I don’t think you have the whole picture (e.g. Kids on trikes as mentioned above).

I forgot that I also use it when I park at work, every day in a narrow assigned spot. When I’m putting the car into “Park” I will stop with the lever briefly on “reverse” so I can see that I’m lined up evenly between the lines.

After reading the responses I see that some people use them a little but most do not.
Clearly they add to the price of the car. They also need to be maintained (cleaned), and replaced if damaged in an accident. Is it worth it? I wonder how much we would be willing to pay for them if they were an option.
I would pay $100 to have mine record like a dash cam. That would be worth it. Maybe insurance companies and law enforcement would like it, too.

I have one on my work vehicle and only use it when the rear view is obscured. When I was a teenager I had a job driving forklifts. They required us to drive them backwards for safety reasons. To this day I can drive backwards with ease as long as I am looking that way.

I have driven in reverse at relatively high speeds using only the rear view mirror so I could do reverse 180s or spin and go maneuvers.

The rear camera is useless for this type of driving.

The roads shown in this video are in the south eastern part of Western NY in the Southern Tier. It is about 200 miles 300km from NYC – half way to Western NY.

^Such a guy thing.

Come on! Honestly, haven’t you wanted to try that?!

We do stuff like this in school parking lots in the winter. I took my son out when his was 13 and we did all kinds of maneuvers in the snow. It is fun and you learn something about handling a car under less than idea situations.

No.

EXACTLY!! @LuckyGuy you get a feel for what would happen if it happened when you were not planing for it, and how to correct it without crashing .
@chyna you might consider it a guy thing, or playing but it does make one a better driver, as long as the (guys) doing it learn it in vacant parking lots or deserted back country roads.
I have encouraged my wife and sister to try it, and they both have become better drivers for it.

@SQUEEKY2 Decades ago as part of my job we practiced high speed and extreme driving maneuvers. We practiced jumping up curbs, recovering from total loss of tires, high speed handling, sudden engine cut-offs, transmission disconnects, and other things. Test cars were equipped with special tires that could be rapidly deflated by the instructor without warning. You had to be on your toes all the time.
I loved it – and learned a lot!

Wish this was in social. When I taught my son to drive, after a few practices, on a snowy, icy day, I took him to the empty high school parking lot to show him how to do donuts and how to recover from a slide. But mostly how to do donuts. He started looking at me all crazy, while I’m insisting that you NEED to know how to go round and round on ice, also how to pull out of slides, but especially round and round. I finally let him take the wheel, and he actually did learn a lot.

@Dutchess_III When you were doing donuts would you have been using a backup camera.
You are on the subject. I am questioning the value of the camera. I know there are cases where it is a good thing. But for the 15 million new cars on the road every year it seems like a huge expense for not much value. If they are “only” $100 per car over the life of the car that is $1.5 Billion every year.
Don’t most cars now have obstacle detection? I’d like to see the cameras do more than just tell you if you are parking correctly.

No, I would not have. When you’re kind of out of control you have to see all around you, to the sides and front. A camera would have been a distraction.
The only thing I find it useful for is seeing the ground directly below the trunk, so I always check it for that. I use my eyeballs for the rest.

Come to think of it, I do use mine when backing out of driveway in child-intensive neighborhoods. Being able to make sure there are no little teeny ones zooping about is a good thing.

@canidmajor When you look at the monitor aren’t you looking in front rather than in back. Do you just glance at once you are in reverse and then turn around and look behind you or do you only trust the camera and continue to stare ahead?
When I am backing up I am turned with my hand over the passenger seat looking out the back window. The monitor is in front so I don’t see it at all.

It is @canidmajor, but it doesn’t show you what’s coming from the side.

I’ve been driving for 45 years. I don’t analyze. I probably glance to make sure nobody’s snuck in back as I go about my usual reversing process.

@canidmajor You know me well enough to know I asked this for a reason. It seems to me the display is in the wrong place. I physically look behind me when I am backing up. I check my front peripherally but mostly I am looking behind me. I am not staring at the display in center of the front console.
i wondered if it was just me or do other people feel the same way.
i also wonder how many people will have those cameras repaired when, (not if), they start breaking or are damaged in minor accidents.

@LuckyGuy, OK, a little background. For a long time I have been driving taller vehicles, and a small child can dart into the out-of-sightline area pretty fast. I like having that one extra “eye” for their safety. Maybe the camera will break someday, but I haven’t heard of that happening with any regularity, and I don’t know anyone (including my younger friends) who relies solely on the camera, or stares at it.

@Dutchess_III so what? I have mirrors for the side. Don’t you?

@canidmajor I’m sorry. I got the impression you use the back up camera exclusively.

I do use it and resent getting into a car that doesn’t have it.
Damn analog driving!
I hate having to use a key too.

@Blueroses You like keyless? Tat drives me crazy. I just don’t see the point.
I am not a total Luddite. I like ABS and acoustic backup warnings. I might even enjoy automatic braking for crash avoidance – i have not tried it yet.
But some systems seem virtually useless to me. Like:
BMW entertainment panel. Try to adjust the temperature or turn up the radio volume. You have to take your eyes off the road and go through a touch screen menu. Ridiculous. Two knobs would do it.

I do like the keyless feature on our new car. I can have my keys in my handbag and just press a button on the car and the door opens. Then once in, I press a button on the dash and it starts. No digging in the bottom of my handbag for wherever my keys have descended to.

I agree on the various entertainment and environmental controls. They can be more complicated than is necessary.

I agree with @Earthbound_Misfit. Times I’ve rented a car with keyless entry, I loved it. No frantically searching for the keys in the bottom of the pocketbook. No lost keys. No keys at all, just knowing they’re there somewhere.

I love my keyless!

Me, too! And my…HEATED SEATS!!!

Honestly, though, I wonder why people object to new safety measures on modern cars. When I got my first car, right-hand side mirrors were not standard, and everyone I knew was delighted when they became the norm. My parents weren’t used to automatic transmissions, but liked the ease of them when they came out. My grandmother, who was born in 1885, was thrilled when the automobile became a normal thing, as cars don’t tend to shy at leaves and squirrels.
Being a good driver and paying attention to one’s surroundings are enhanced by more ways to notice what’s out there, using the technology stupidly is not the fault of the technology.

@Dutchess_III, just FYI, if you are using the back-up camera exclusively, you really should revisit your driving technique.

Love my butt warmer too!

@canidmajor, let us revisit my comment. What I said, was, @canidmajor I’m sorry. I got the impression you use the back up camera exclusively.” Perhaps you should revisit your reading comprehension skills.

I call my heated seats my “Egg McMuffin warmers.” Man, by the time I got to work my food was warmer than it was when they handed it to me!

We have a 2005 Buick that we gave to Rick’s daughter to drive back in 2007. She just turned it back over to us. It’s crazy how out of date it is. You push down on the window button to roll it up. It’s not recessed. Well, then we had too many kids left unattended in cars who would hang out the window and step on that button and get killed when the window rolled up on them, so now a days they are recessed and pushing down rolls the windows down.

It even has an ash tray in it!!!

@Dutchess_III, I was under the impression that if you make such assumptions about anyone, you think something is the norm, and do it yourself. Perhaps you should revisit your basic social comprehension skills. geez

I apologized. Chill.

Maybe the keyless entry and ignition is more of a chick thing.
I didn’t think I’d care at all about those features, but I so take them for granted now. As @jca said, no digging in the endless well of a handbag (which suddenly becomes the library of receipts for all purchases since 2002 and a bright pink lipstick with the top off and so, your hand comes out pink & stuck with papers but bereft of keys)
However. I am a curmudgeon in one tech area. I have never let my car park itself, though I do let it scout for parking spaces!