Play It Back

My car doesn’t have a backup cam. Here’s how it goes every time I try to parallel park:

I put on my turn signal. I take a deep breath. I say a small prayer to the god of embarrassment to please, just this once, spare me. Then I begin to reverse and turn. My hands tense on the wheel. I take it one millimeter at a time. I try and straighten out. I try and and gauge the distance in my rearview mirror. If a friend is there, guiding me in, I ignore them. I bite my lip and brace to bump the car behind me. Then, I remove the key from the ignition and and step out.

At which point I see that not only is there enough room to park a tourbus between me and the next car, but also I’m about 6 feet from the curb.

My wife’s vehicle does have a backup cam. Here’s how it goes every time I try and parallel park driving her’s:

I signal. I back up. I watch the screen. I line up my car with the curb. I straighten out. I take it slow, but not too slow, because I can see exactly where I am compared to whatever’s behind me. Then, I remove the key from the ignition and and step out. And it’s perfect.

In the most basic terms, the backup cam takes a thing about driving that is frustrating and dangerous and makes it not as frustrating and way less dangerous. It’s kind of amazing, really. Like, how often do you see something take on a real problem and so completely and utterly solve it?

Although, that does bring up another problem: what if you, like me, have a car without a backup cam?

The solution here is as simple as the backup cam itself: you buy this one. It’s weatherproof, can easily be connected to your reverse tail lights, and will transmit its image to the dashboard mountable 3.5" screen wirelessly. (This is what it means when it says it’s wireless, btw; there are some wires, but none connecting the screen to the camera.)

Wow, first backup cams solved backing up and now we’ve solved cars without backup cams! What a productive day this has turned out to be!