Honda Insight’s starting MSRP has been unofficially released by speculators and enthusiasts of the Japanese auto maker as a mere $18,500, for your basic model. If this is true it will strike quite a blow to Toyota’s Prius crowd, which runs in the mid to upper $20,000’s. If that price remains, it means even a struggling family or half-broke college student will be able to afford an Insight Hybrid, and that doesn’t even include government tax refunds for those who drive hybrid cars. After all is said and done, your new Insight may run you around the lower ten-thousands.

Honda is hoping to produce 200,000 units for sale world wide during their first run of the futuristic vehicle. Honda’s hybrid gas-electric drive train for the Insight includes a 1.3 liter gasoline engine for the main power source, assisted by an electric motor. Honda also claims Insight will achieve fuel economy on par with the Civic Hybrid, the new Insight will also have excellent utility and light and comfortable driving.

Honda has created a new multi-camera system that displays views from multiple wide-angle cameras on the vehicle’s nav screen to reduce blind spots, support smooth parallel or garage parking, and support safe driving in something such as a 3-way intersection or on narrow roads, where there is limited visibility. This new multi-view camera system will be applied first to the all-new Honda Odyssey which is scheduled to go on sale in Japan in October 2008 of this year.

These cameras are mounted in the front, rear, side door mirrors and a will work in conjunction with a projection line (No. 4 above) which shows the vehicle’s projected trajectory, based upon steering angle.