Cars are cars

    I read somewhere relatively recently that cars are now being fitted with cameras and monitors such that the driver would have a more nearly 360 (well, 180) degree view of what's behind the car, in hopes of preventing having people, especially children, accidentally run down. This might be a good idea or it might be just an added distraction; I would have to see the monitors.
    But a situation that comes up arguably more often is when you come up to an intersection and you can't see if there is traffic coming because there is shrubbery or other vegetation (or signs, or whatever) occluding the view. Of course a person with common sense would just put the window down. But who among us has common sense? Instead, we just nose out into the street, giving its drivers occlusions of their own. A good use of this tiny camera and monitor technology might be to put a camera on either side of the front of the car, so the driver wouldn't have to nose out as far. Dontchathink?
    Meanwhile, it is a continuing bewilderment to me that car manufacturers aren't making more vehicles targeted to the very old. Or for that matter, the not very old, but mildly handicapped. I would have bought a new car by now to drive my dad and Margaret around, but there doesn't seem to be anything particularly better fitted out there. He needs something with sliding doors (or gull-wings, say) rather than swinging doors. For that, you'd have to get a minivan, but then he would have to step up to get in and then hit his head.
    The baby boomers are all getting old at the same time, and they and their elders have all the money. You would think that automakers would take this into consideration. Just think: the new 2013 Lincoln I Don't Get Around Town Like I Used To Car. It'll be great!