DETROIT — Today marks the official start of summer and Chevrolet wants to help parents avoid situations where summer moments become tragic incidents. With school out and the weather warming up, more children are spending time outside drawing chalk pictures on the driveway, blowing bubbles into the wind or riding bicycles around the neighborhood.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, on average there are 210 fatalities and 15,000 injuries a year caused by backover crashes. Of those crashes, NHTSA estimates that 40 percent occurred in residential areas, with 24 percent happening in driveways.
“The majority of backover incidents are caused by the driver not being able to see their immediate surroundings,” says Rondell Burge, researcher of driver behavior, Chevrolet. “When you hear about backover or frontover incidents involving parents or grandparents and their little ones, your heart sinks. It’s personal and at Chevy we want to help drivers see as much of their environment as possible to help them avoid the unthinkable. That’s where Surround Vision can help.”
Surround Vision technology, available on the all-new 2018 Equinox, provides a 360-degree bird’s-eye view around the vehicle by acting like multiple sets of eyes that help drivers quickly view their vehicle’s perimeter during low-speed maneuvers such as backing up or parking.
The technology uses four cameras: the standard Rear Vision Camera, a forward-looking camera in the front grille and two side-looking cameras under each side mirror. When drivers shift into reverse, the bird’s-eye view is displayed on the center stack instrument panel, alongside an image from the forward- or rear-looking camera, providing the driver with multiple views of the immediate area.
Burge, who is responsible for analyzing how drivers interact with viewing systems like the Equinox’s available Surround Vision, takes his role very seriously.
“I have a family and think of them often when doing my research. My wife is a driver and my three young children are passengers in our vehicles. They’re also the little ones playing in our front yard, running around having fun,” says Burge. “Technology offered on the Equinox, like Surround Vision, is designed to give drivers more tools to help them see around their vehicle before they put it in gear.”
In addition to Surround Vision and standard Rear Vision Camera, the all-new 2018 Equinox offers other purposeful technology to help the driver and their passengers stay safe, comfortable and connected, including a suite of available active safety features plus Rear Seat Reminder and Teen Driver.
Chevrolet offers Surround Vision on the 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV, Equinox, and Traverse. Rear Vision Camera is available on the 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV, Camaro, City Express, Colorado, Corvette, Cruze, Equinox, Express, Impala, Malibu, Silverado, Silverado HD, Sonic, Spark, Suburban, Tahoe, Traverse, Trax and Volt
It’s important to remember that safety features are no substitute for the driver’s responsibility to operate the vehicle in a safe manner. The driver should remain attentive to traffic, surroundings and road conditions at all times. Read the vehicle’s owner’s manual for important feature limitations and information. Before getting in a vehicle, all drivers, even those without children of their own, should walk all the way around their parked vehicles to check for children, or anything that could attract a child, such as a pet or toy.
