Why don't new cars come with Dashcams?

[MissChief]

The Dashcam thread is over 150 pages long and the 'poor driving/justify my opinion that I wasn't at fault' Dashcam footage thread is now over 30 pages which made me think about Dashcams in general. I've had a cheap one which was in the habit of destroying MicroSD cards so I took it down and put it all into the glovebox but anyway, why don't new cars come with them integrated? With reversing cameras and screens in most new cars surely it wouldn't be difficult to mount a forward facing camera behind the mirror or into the lining above the drivers sun shade or something? Have an accessible SD card slot somewhere in the glove box or in the centre console or if the car has Internet Access as some higher end cars do, upload it to the cloud or into your home Wi-Fi if it reaches outside to the car and you've got an automatic Dashcam system without having to buy on separately. They seem to be getting more and more popular but surely manufacturers are missing their usual trick of charging £300 for a £50 camera and a bit of wiring.

Or perhaps cars do come with these and I just haven't been paying attention?

[AJB88]

They aren't legal in Austria and countries like Germany and Switzerland don't like them either. Think in Germany you aren't allowed to post the videos from them.

But I do expect manufacturers will start offering them soon.

Edited by AJB88 on Sunday 21st June 03:22

[Driver101]

I think the biggest issue with dashcams is far too often they turn the diver into an agressive maniac who is hell bent in making an issue out of nothing.

They cause more issues than they actually solve in many cases.

[vikingaero]

Driver101 said:

I think the biggest issue with dashcams is far too often they turn the diver into an agressive maniac who is hell bent in making an issue out of nothing.

They cause more issues than they actually solve in many cases.

^ This.

I have dashcams in all my vehicles and initially every time something happened I was a bit of a Moaning Minnie. Now it's a faff to remove the MicroSD card and download the footage because potential incidents are so common. Now unless the incident is extremely severe I rarely download them although I may press save on the dashcam. In fact the only time I actively download footage is for pure comedy value!

But the general public armed with dashcams are general idiots. I've seen drivers argue in the street with other drivers with the wronged person claiming he's got dashcam footage of another driver cutting him up/involved in a near miss. The situation nearly turned into fisticuffs until passers by and I separated them and diffused the situation. The old boy with the dashcam would have come off far worse than the opposing meathead.

[james7]

AJB88 said:

They aren't legal in Austria and countries like Germany and Switzerland don't like them either. Think in Germany you aren't allowed to post the videos from them.

Any idea why they are not legal? Would it be the same if you were a visitor in a uk car etc?

I am not a fan of them for their intended purpose. Its almost as if some of the people who have them feel they have something to prove and because they are "right" can then prove it by crashing. But its ok as they are "right".

But I do like to watch them on youtube though!
The cyclists ones are funny for the same reason. As long as they are "right" they will prove it almost to the death.

[StuntmanMike]

They do in trucks.

[coppice]

Because , I hope, I am not the only one who thinks the dashcam mentality is turning the driving community into a self righteous bunch of idiots who take childish delight in publicising other people's bad driving (which as often as not is the type of footling error we all make sometimes ). The worst offenders are those who fall over themselves to report other people to the police; I find it hard not to smile when the police also take action against the dashcam user for his own bad driving . We all moan about speed cameras- one form of surveillance- so why be so keen to use another form of surveillance? Is it our inner North Korean that makes so many want to grass up fellow citizens ?

[Harji]

coppice said:

Because , I hope, I am not the only one who thinks the dashcam mentality is turning the driving community into a self righteous bunch of idiots who take childish delight in publicising other people's bad driving (which as often as not is the type of footling error we all make sometimes ). T

Or they can be useful in outing ppl as liars, like the chap who said I reversed into him when he drove into the back of my car.

I'm not against showing bad driving as the Police are no where to be seen on the roads so maybe the public highlighting of this will force them into action, probably not though.

[shake n bake]

coppice said:

Because , I hope, I am not the only one who thinks the dashcam mentality is turning the driving community into a self righteous bunch of idiots who take childish delight in publicising other people's bad driving (which as often as not is the type of footling error we all make sometimes ). The worst offenders are those who fall over themselves to report other people to the police; I find it hard not to smile when the police also take action against the dashcam user for his own bad driving . We all moan about speed cameras- one form of surveillance- so why be so keen to use another form of surveillance? Is it our inner North Korean that makes so many want to grass up fellow citizens ?

Nailed it.

[V8covin]

If every vehicle was equipped with front and rear dash cams fraudulent insurance claims would virtually vanish and premiums would be lower

[anonymous-user]

Surely it's better to have one implanted in your head. Then you can upload your entire life into YouTube / Facebook. That would be so cool. Ride bike & film people eating breakfast when driving and report to police . May even get some funny cat videos so you can watch them 24/7. Integrated in the car facing in 1 direction would miss all of this.

[anonymous-user]

Dashcams as a technology are a great idea. Like all technology though, it's the owners that dictate whether they are used wisely.

The new McLaren sorts series comes with the the option of a front, rear and internal camra for track recordings. It would be great if you could use such in-built systems for road use too to capture accident information when people try to apportion blame onto innocent parties.

[saaby93]

Jimboka said:

Surely it's better to have one implanted in your head. Then you can upload your entire life into YouTube / Facebook. That would be so cool. Ride bike & film people eating breakfast when driving and report to police . May even get some funny cat videos so you can watch them 24/7. Integrated in the car facing in 1 direction would miss all of this.

A dashcam has a limited view point too
There was a thread about a year ago where following a collision a guy had sent his footage in to back up his claim. However looking at the dash cam footage in isolation, youd pretty much say it was his fault. It was only when he posted what had really happened, looked at streetmap etc, you could put enough together to see that maybe it wasnt. He'd have been far better off not having a dash cam, and writing down what happened.
The camera can lie

[jmorgan]

V8covin said:

If every vehicle was equipped with front and rear dash cams fraudulent insurance claims would virtually vanish and premiums would be lower

A few years ago I would have said I anm blanking out the lens if this was fitted to cars as standard, or turning it off. Now it would appear that it would be very handy in proving what the cause of an accident is. It would appear, purely from a star poll reading threads here, that perhaps they would be most beneficial.

I can see a need for them. I also see the self appointed police post up nonsense.

[t1grm]

vikingaero said:

But the general public armed with dashcams are general idiots. I've seen drivers argue in the street with other drivers with the wronged person claiming he's got dashcam footage of another driver cutting him up/involved in a near miss. The situation nearly turned into fisticuffs until passers by and I separated them and diffused the situation. The old boy with the dashcam would have come off far worse than the opposing meathead.

Never been able to understand people getting angry or arguing about something that didn't happen, or "nearly" happened or "could of" happened. I mean what is the point? It didn't happen so end of.

Edited by t1grm on Sunday 21st June 09:15

[saaby93]

t1grm said:

Never been able to understand people getting angry or arguing about something that didn't happen, or "nearly" happened or "could of" happened. I mean what is the point? It didn't happen so end of.

Following the few threads here, can you imagine how argumentative the world would become if everyone had a dashcam?

[vikingaero]

I feel much more comfortable driving around with a dashcam fitted. Why? The exponential growth of the ME!ME!ME! generation and powerfully built company directors with goatees.

Insurance claims used to be a gentlemans agreements - you hit me/no problem Sir I hold my hands up/shake of hands and on our way/smooth claim.

Now its: fking dhead in my way, fk them, oh fk I've got a £750 excess to pay now, I'm in the right, fk the other guy I'm going to deny it. At work we have a number of younger generation colleagues who pay silly premiums. One guy pulled out in front of someone who rear ended his 3/4. All this guy is trying is trying to do is wriggle and squirm, argue with his insurers at lunchtime on the phone. He doesn't give a st about the injured lady and her 3 kids who were hurt in the accident.

[acespizee]

There's something not quite right with this forum. .....

[Tomo1971]

Not everyone who has a dash cam fitted goes and posts endless hours of 'bad driving' on youtube.

I have better things to do.

I was in a situation where I had 9 points on my licence and was driving around London and Manchester a lot for work and couldn't risk been stung for something involving one of the maniac cyclists, bus drivers, one of thousands of cameras or a cop thinking i was on the phone etc.

I had my dash cam in 2009 or 2010 i think - it had front and inward facing cameras so could clearly see my hands on wheel, if i was indicating etc. At the time I was the only person I knew had one and to an extent people did wonder why someone would bother.

Have a different one now but in all that time, having seeing hundreds of incidents of bad driving, I've only ever posted three of them on youtube - 1, a wheel coming off a HGV in front of me which then rolled from L1 to L3 of the motorway 2, someone coming down hill and sliding on ice (easy to do, we've all done it - no harm done) and 3. Some one overtaking me at great speed on a corner to then fish tail for 50 yards as the frost hadnt cleared under trees - again no harm done but was funny to watch how the driver suddenly drove a lot more carefully after that....

Personally, i think having the dash cam has helped me to be more aware of my surroundings and has certainly slowed me down (the 9 points were from speeding - 6 were from 104 in a 70).

[Hoofy]

vikingaero said:

Driver101 said:

I think the biggest issue with dashcams is far too often they turn the diver into an agressive maniac who is hell bent in making an issue out of nothing.

They cause more issues than they actually solve in many cases.

^ This.

I have dashcams in all my vehicles and initially every time something happened I was a bit of a Moaning Minnie. Now it's a faff to remove the MicroSD card and download the footage because potential incidents are so common. Now unless the incident is extremely severe I rarely download them although I may press save on the dashcam. In fact the only time I actively download footage is for pure comedy value!

But the general public armed with dashcams are general idiots. I've seen drivers argue in the street with other drivers with the wronged person claiming he's got dashcam footage of another driver cutting him up/involved in a near miss. The situation nearly turned into fisticuffs until passers by and I separated them and diffused the situation. The old boy with the dashcam would have come off far worse than the opposing meathead.

I'm confused. Aren't you supposed to just put it in and forget about it until you're involved in an accident? It's not another excuse to waste YouTube's server space.