A report out of Australia indicates door exit warning technology designed to prevent collisions with cyclists riding by will become pretty much standard in new cars. According to Drive, having such systems will be necessary for vehicles Down Under to capture that all-important five-star safety score. The feature is already available on some cars in every market, but this move could trigger it becoming standard not only in Australia, but also in the U.S. (RELATED: Nanny State Authoritarianism Coming Soon To A Street Near You)
The technology involves sensors in the rear bumper of the car detecting an approaching cyclist. When triggered, lights illuminate in the side mirror and door panel and a chime sounds out, warning a driver or passenger to not open their door at that moment. It would also work if there's an approaching vehicle.
Reportedly, 726 crashes involving cyclists hitting car doors happened in Victoria between July 2014 and June 2019 with one fatality. This necessitates loading another system into our growingly complex new vehicles.
A wise man once said “when it's safe enough” is code for “never” because life inherently is risky and therefore safe. This isn't to say safety isn't important or necessary, but when it is the value cherished above all else, things are out of balance. This hyper-focus on safety becomes limitless because everything is seen as a threat, including freedom.
This isn't to say a door exit warning system designed to prevent collisions with cyclists will strip away all your freedoms. Instead, this is more like death from a thousand cuts. One of the reasons cars cost so much these days is they're loaded with all kinds of mandatory safety technology. Automakers, believing everyone is as obsessed with safety as their most myopic executives, load in even more safety features to ostensibly make vehicles more attractive to shoppers. (RELATED: Another Freedom Loving State Bucks Biden's Radical Agenda)
Ultimately, you always have something, if not multiple things, squawking at you in modern cars. No wonder people fantasize about just letting the vehicles do all the driving instead of constantly being chided by a technological helicopter parent.
Another result of this safety obsession has been the misperception by too many drivers that they can text, update their social media, even watch movies while traveling down the road because the car will warn them of a problem or even prevent an accident without the driver's intervention. Perhaps that is in part what's behind the rising death toll on public roads in the U.S.
This door exit warning technology might encourage people to be less watchful of their surroundings while opening their car door. Ironic, isn't it?
Source: Drive
This article originally appeared on The Auto Wire. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News. Republished with permission.
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