[JRS200x]

Don't you worry.. It'll have blind spot monitoring!

 

[JRS200x]

Joking aside, I've often wondered if things like rear cameras, back up alarms and blind spot monitoring would start to have an influence on car design.

Only if those type of features become standard at some point. Remember you still have to build cars WITHOUT those options which means you still need to, in some general fashion, take in to account that some vehicles do not have those features and still need to be drivable... safely.

 

[JRS200x]

My wife and I were just talking about this yesterday. By making cars "safer" it is harder to see traffic and easier to have an accident. So you need the extra safety only because they made them safer..

Yet my daily driver for 23 years have been XJ Cherokee's. Short, narrow, no ABS, no traction control, no stability control, no blind spot sensors, no back up cameras. No flips or rolls and the only accident was getting rear ended at an intersection.

It is precisely because it has thin roof pillars, gobs of glass everywhere and little in the way of blind spots that has made it such a safe daily driver for 23 years.

If I can see it, it won't surprise me.

I know they can't build them like that anymore. I'm just saying I feel safer when I can see. And being able to see traffic makes me a better driver.

The danger isn't so much from driving on the roads it is from those driving on the road with you, hence your only accident being a rear end collision. It is also hard to argue with the fact that if, god forbid, you were to get into a serious accident, especially a roll over incident, you are statistically MUCH safer in the vehicles of today than you would be in your Cherokee.