Perusing the news in the Los Angeles Times, I’m surprised [although I shouldn’t be] of the U.S. government wanting automakers to install back-up cameras in all new cars.  I can sure see this potentially boost certain parts of the economy, but at the same time, I can also see how this would raise the price of a car.  By how much?  I don’t know…but it took Apple an increase of $30 to the 8GB iPod Touch 4th gen to add in 2 cameras.  Cameras I guess are not too expensive.  Now, how much would LCD displays cost?  For Apple, the iPod Touch has to have an LCD so it reuses existing parts.  But what about a car?  Not too many cars I know would have an LCD display built in.  Granted, the price of the display has become more affordable as we can have GPS units that have LCD displays for anywhere between $100-$150 but that’s only for a very small size.  What size LCD display would be mandatory?  In addition, what ever happened to people looking behind their shoulder when backing up?  Are people so wreck less these days that they don’t look and just back up without turning their body and checking the rear?  Granted, yes, a camera would allow perhaps an even better view.  But let’s remember that majority of cars will not have such technology and it will take a while to phase out the older stuff….so if this gets passed, we should still always practice turning our heads…or perhaps we are being retrained so that we will be used to using that so much that we loose the basics of looking over our shoulders and turning our bodies to make sure that the path is clear.  Well, here’s to upcoming mobile technology…cameras on our wheels.

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