Page 7 - safety tips

I never learned to drive stick shift. When I turned 16 my brother tried to teach me in an empty parking lot. The first (and only!) lesson lasted about 20 minutes. I killed the car 100 times and we both got frustrated and stopped.  My parents wanted me to learn in case of an emergency that thankfully never came. I doubt I’ll ever learn. Now I don’t even own a car, rarely drive, and soon manual transmission may no longer even be an option.

According to Engadget, the end is near for 3 main reasons.

1. Growing Popularity of SUVs – Most SUVs automatic transmission.
2. Electric Vehicles - Gear boxes are...

The office is a little quieter this week. No, we’re not taking off work because of rainy weather, and I’m not working from home. A few members of our team are showing off our latest RV safety technology at The RVIA National RV Trade Show at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Here’s a video from last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdGFQDZOUWw

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. I would love to go to a show and talk about Rear View Safety and all the great things that we offer. I know it’s a lot of work, but I think I could (one day) be up for the challenge...

When I was younger I did a lot of stupid things. I’ve driven while eating soup, cereal, and even hot pockets. It’s absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. I don’t drive a lot anymore, but I when I do I am 100% committed to the task at hand, driving!

3,179 people were killed, and 431,000 were injured in vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2014. Recently the NHTSA announced their 2^nd phase of voluntary guidelines to address distracted driving.

The first phase encouraged automakers to design less distracting devices or systems at the time of manufacture. This second phase encourages...

Growing up in Kansas was loud. Sure, our family often traveled to the country or the lake for some peace and quiet, but for the most part it was pretty noisy. We lived by the highway, so the constant hum of traffic is something that I have trouble sleeping without.

Some places were louder than others. Excited teenagers would often rev their souped-up Hondas in the Golden Corral parking lot. A perfect Saturday night. I was across the street in the CD Trade Post/Taco Bell parking lot, learning how to skateboard. My yellow Subaru made a lot of noises, but none of them were impressive.

Of course, New...

There’s a big difference between spooky fun and dangerous scares. Follow these car safety tips to drive safely so that you, and everyone in your neighborhood, have a Happy Halloween! According the NHTSA, Halloween is one of the three deadliest days of the year for pedestrians, and the top deadliest day of the year for pedestrians between the ages of 5 and 14.

Even in the days leading up to Oct 31^st, children will be out trick-or-treating. Peak trick-or-treating time is 5:30pm-9pm, so it is especially dangerous this year as Halloween falls on a Monday. Kids may be distracted by all the spooky...

Last week while we were in Kansas, Kelly got the dreaded phone call. Her friend Janis called from the hospital to say she had gotten hit by a car while walking to work. She didn’t have any serious injuries but her back was hurt and she was understandable very shaken. It was early, and the driver didn’t see Janis and hit her while he was turning.

Now that we’re back in town we’re going to visit Janis. She left the hospital, but is taking another week off work.

Here at Rear View Safety we keep people safe. From backup camera systems to backup sensor systems to driver fatigue systems and everything...

I must have been around 8 or 10. My brother was playing soccer in an Oklahoma tournament when it was announced that the fire department had been called to a vehicle fire in the parking lot. The vehicle was our family van.

I’m very thankful the car caught fire in the parking lot, and not while my family was driving on the highway. I hadn’t gone to Oklahoma for this tournament, but saw the aftermath back home a few days later. It was a mess. Everything was covered with soot. The inside was almost completely unrecognizable. I remember being upset about the toys (now ruined) I left in the van. How...

Kelly (my fiance) and I are back in Kansas this week. We flew home for a friend’s wedding and hopefully the birth of Kelly’s nephew. I’m ready for the invariable question.

“Tyler, what do you do in New York?”

“I heard you have a hot dog cart!”

“I heard you work in a cheese department!”

Well, some of that is true. I have worked in a cheese department and for a restaurant that specializes in gourmet hot dogs. But my favorite New York job is the one I have now. I proudly help keep people safe. Rear View Safety offers backup camera systems, backup sensor systems, mobile DVR’s, driver fatigue systems...

For many drivers it’s hard to think back to a time without technology assisted driving apparatuses. Though there are still many vehicles on the road that lack rear-view cameras and sensors, it has now become the norm in the past couple years to equip all vehicles with one iteration of this technology or another.

A lot of this technology has had the added benefit of improving driving conditions, reducing accidents and being a safer more reliable tool. Parking cameras not only add safety to your vehicle, but more importantly the safety of any unknowing pedestrians who may be running around unseen...

It won’t stop happening. On Tuesday an 11-month-year old boy tragically died after being left in a hot car. He is the 38^th child to die this year from vehicular heatstroke. Something needs to change. NOW. This problem effects everyone, and it needs to be stopped.

I was babysitting my niece and nephew when I read the news, I immediately thought of them. They were sleeping in the other room while my fiancé and I watched celebrities make deviled eggs on the Food Network. I also thought of my other nieces and nephews, who live across the country and I should call more. I thought of my friend’s children...

Getting a driver’s license opens a whole new world. I still remember the day I got mine. I was smiling ear-to-ear for my picture at the DMV by the highway. Now I could drive to the mall myself! There was not a lot to do in my hometown. More importantly for me and my friends, it meant we could drive to Lawrence ourselves.

I’ve always loved music. From my dad playing Bob Dylan and The Beatles to my older brothers blasting The Red Hot Chili Peppers, our house was always full of music. My friends and I loved seeing live music, but all of the bands we wanted to see would never come to Topeka. They would...

My mother was the librarian at the school I attended from Pre-K to 8^th grade. It was actually pretty awesome. I rode to school with her every day and sometimes we wore matching sweaters (I’ve already texted her asking for pictures, hopefully coming soon). She also ran the summer camp program, so I spent my summers in the library until I was old enough to stay home by myself.

The school is in Topeka, KS, but some of the students lived in Lawrence, KS, (where I ended up going to college, Rock Chalk!) about 30 minutes away. These students took “The Lawrence Bus” to school, which looking back on it...

I’ve been in New York for about a year and a half. I’ve gotten a lot better at navigation. I can get on the train going the right direction and know when to transfer to a different train or bus. My first week in the city I got off a very crowded A Train to let people off with the intention of hoping back on. That didn’t happen. The doors closed and I ended up waiting for the next (crowded) train.

Because I live relatively close to where I work, I often ride a bike to work. Needless to say it’s very different than riding a bike in the Midwest. I stick to bike lanes and ride defensively. I wear a...

Autonomous vehicles are the future, and in some cases, the present. While the debate is now whether to go completely autonomous or add a feature one step at a time, many of these safety solutions already exist.

While Ford has teamed up with Mobileye and Delphi have teamed up to create an off the shelf self-driving system, The Mobileye Collision Avoidance System is available from Rear View Safety. This system features many built-in ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), including lane departure warnings, forward collision warnings and pedestrian/bicycle collision warnings.

The Lukas Dual Lens...

We are excited to announce that Jean-Paul (JP) Weaver has joined the Rear View Safety as Director of Sales. Jean-Paul will lead new sales initiatives by creating fruitful partnerships with OEM's, dealers, and customers. He comes to Rear View Safety with strong experience in business strategy and the creation of effective relationships in the consumer goods world with the use of both quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify creative business opportunities.

Prior to joining Rear View Safety, Jean-Paul spent several years as a product manager for Yamaha Motor and Avery Dennison, as well...

While Ford has been testing autonomous vehicles for quite a while, the company just dropped some huge news that will change the transportation world, and the world in general. At yesterday’s press conference in Palo Alto, California, the automotive giant announced that a fully autonomous vehicle for ride-hailing/ride sharing will be mass produced by 2021. (That’s only 5 years away!)

“The next decade will be defined by automation of the automobile, and we see autonomous vehicles as having as significant an impact on society as Ford’s moving assembly line did 100 years ago,” said Ford President and...

Drunk Driving can change multiple lives in an instant. It is a preventable problem that we all need to work together to stop. Shear Comfort has created a guide that can help keep a friend from driving drunk. Please take a look. It’s a matter of life and death.

For many adults and college-aged teens, alcohol consumption can become a part of their casual lives. At dinner, parties, or nightclubs or bars, alcohol is often used as a way to relax or enhance one's enjoyment. Unfortunately, this casual enjoyment can quickly turn deadly when the person drinking makes the decision to get behind the wheel...

First responders in a car crash need to act and think fast. Sometimes they need quickly sawing a car open to remove passengers after an accident. Mercedes-Benz have recently developed Rescue Assist, an augmented reality smartphone/tablet app that allows first responders to quickly view hidden vital systems on a wrecked vehicle.

Here’s how it works. The app shows a 3D representation of the inside of the car. First responders can use the app to quickly see fuel lines, batteries, airbags, and other potential hazards in order to best access the situation.

This app is the next step of an existing Rescue...