Do you have a dash cam?
Do you like your dash cam? What model is it?
I recently was rear-ended by a 20 year old woman. No injuries.
My 2017 Ford F-150 had only $2,471 in damage (bent the back bumper). The 2002 Honda Accord that hit me was petty much totaled.
I was lucky the other driver’s insurance (Progressive) accepted the liability and paid for a new bumper for my pickup.
I don’t feel lucky now. There are so many distracted, impaired, impatient drivers out there. Also drivers who have bad attitudes. One driver in a small sedan not long ago blew through a stop sign with her cellphone up to her face. I slammed on the breaks of my big pickup so hard that it changed the radio station. I missed hitting her by inches. She literally had no idea that she came very close to going to the hospital or worse.
Anyway. I feel an urgent need for a dash cam (with front and back cameras).
Do you have good experience with your dash cam operation and function?
Thank you!
Stay safe!
“The distracted drive is not driving the car. He/she is aiming it”.
-Dan Mathews (Highway Patrol)
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11 Answers
I do not. I have been involved in one accident in the past 40 years, and the dash cam would not have helped.
Though I do immensely enjoy the spectacular dash cam videos posted online.
When I was delivering beer and wine, we had dash cams in all the trucks. They were probably more than what you would need as they recording both what was in front of the truck as well as what was going on inside the truck. I don’t remember what type they were.
The cameras were operating as soon as you started the truck and continued to record until the truck was turned off. The camera was “triggered” by something that changed the inertia of the camera: taking a turn too sharply, hitting the brakes too hard, something hitting the truck hard enough to shake it. Things like that. When that happened, a signal was sent to the monitoring company we used. They would then go back and look at the event and send us a video clip starting 7 seconds before the event until about 7 seconds after the event. We could use these clips to go back and evaluate if our drivers were doing something wrong at the time or not. We would get probably 20 recordings per day and most of them were triggered by the driver hitting a bump. The cameras could also be triggered by the driver if they felt there was something worth recording.
We did have some that were quite memorable. Had a driver that dozed off and woke up as his truck went off the road, hit the guard rail, flipped on its side and slid into a tree. Had another one (from another branch) that recorded our driver rear ending a line of cars at 55 mph. He had blocked the camera looking into the cab so we couldn’t prove he was asleep but the camera recorded the event complete with speed of the truck. It was impressive. We also had one where a driver was being threatened by another driver in a road rage incident. The driver triggered it himself and recorded the entire thing. We saw the other driver trying to hit the truck, then getting out at a light to threaten him. This footage was given to the police for their investigation.
No dash cam. I think it’s a distraction and a crutch. Like a prenup. It’s an excuse not to be your best.
Thanks for all the responses.
It would be good to have a small (hardly noticeable) but powerful dash cam that has constant loop recording (automatically records over the old recordings with GPS (to collect location, time, date and speed). I’d spend a pile of money for that.
A GoPro 7 or a GoPro Max 360 camera can do most of what I want but it doesn’t do loop recording or start and stop automatically with the vehicle.
I don’t.
When I used to commute to work, some people in a local commuter group would talk about their dash cams and post videos of jerky driving that other commuters did.
It would be good if you’re in an accident and the person takes off, although it probably wouldn’t help you if the preson hit you in the back.
I was on the highway a few days ago and someone was signaling to come in front of me from another lane, and there was no room for him, but he pushed himself in anyway. I was thinking if I was stubborn and didn’t slam on the brakes, and we were in an accident and he decided to leave the scene, it would have been helpful.
Yeah, I have had one for years now, haven’t regretted it at all.
It’s an inexpensive one called Reload.
Nope. Just not interested. My husband tried to put one in his car and it messed up the car computer because it wasn’t compatible. Cost us 500 dollars to have our car towed and have an It guy figure out what it did and fix and update our car’s computer system. If you do get one, hire a professional who knows how to handle it and knows how to operate your car computer. Nope, he said it was 800.
@Pandora Sorry that you had the car computer compatibility problem. I didn’t think that any of the dash cams that I’ve looked at mess with the vehicle’s computer system. I thought that it just taps power from the the cigarette lighter source. I wasn’t going to hardwire the dash cam.
Anyway. This morning I was monkeying around with a GoPro Max 360 camera with a suction clam on above the rear view mirror. Set it up for loop recording. I never touched the camera or mess with it in any way while driving. I use voice commands. Check out a 1 minute clip that I did today while hauling a 32 foot long canoe on top of my Ford F-150 pickup. The GoPro max captures all action (back, sides and front. See here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/48774809@N07/
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