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I don't get dash cams at all and this felt like an STW sort of question, why do people have them?
Do any STWers use them, have they been useful?
So that if we are involved in a hit and run again at least I'll have the ****s reg number and not have to take the hit of a written off car on my insurance again.
They can help make it a lot easier to settle who’s at fault in an accident. Effectively they’re an extra insurance policy
Dark web forum, where car drivers boast how they use their metal boxes as offensive weapons against cyclists, who won't use the cycle paths. 😉
If you dot see the need for one then I guess you've never had someone crash into your car and then try to claim it was actually you that hit them.
I had that happen a few yrs back and it was an utter ball ache to sort out.
I also had a woman reverse into me, before driving off like a woman possessed. When I caught he up and flagged her down she claimed she didn't realise she'd hit me (she shunted me back about a foot) but said she thought she'd bumped into the kerb (in a car park with no kerbs). Chinny reckon...
A guy on briskoda had a plank fall off an oncoming Transit tipper straight on to his A pillar and windscreen, making a right mess of his car. The other driver hadn't even realised it had happened and was long gone. Footage was clear enough to read the numberplate, other insurer immediately accepted liability.
I bought one after that.
Our (council) fleet of minibuses all have them in now.
Doesn't bother me.
As people make false claims, they lie after the collision so the innocent party gets the blame or part of it but in my case as Owen Pugh denied all knowledge of driving into me Golf that was only a few months old ripping up the full driver’s side of the car.
I don’t get dash cams at all and this felt like an STW sort of question, why do people have them?
That’s a trick question, right?
I have one after a parked car pulled off without indicating /looking right into my pasengers door while wife was driving. We had a witness .... She had no one with her. Yet managed to produce a car full of witnesses that said wife drove into her .
My dad was driven into on his motorbike by a French van driver who came round the corner while on his phone on the wrong side f the road
He got out of his van and said to my dad's mates who were following "typical British always on the wrong side of the road he hit me etc
Lucky the lads had cameras(with GPS data) in their bikes and showed the police after the van. Driver had given his statement.
Van drivers insurance is still paying for his medical treatment and that's been 2 years. Dad no longer able to work at his job.
We came within a couple of feetof being hit head on 3 days after buying the big red bus. 2 miles from our house a car came round the corner on the wrong side of the road at speed. I managed to stop he managed to swearve. Passed that one to the police
People are just out to look out for them selves these days and will tell people what ever costs them least. **** the other guy.
For geniune incidents I can see their usefulness. The people promoting them or users with youtube channels appear to have a lot of incidents, or are incredibly bad at planning ahead and keeping out of trouble. I suspect a lot of people that buy them may be of a similar bent not realising that half the trouble may be their own driving skills.
OP, if you're having to ask the question then they're quite clearly not needed.
You never know when a meteor is going to fall from the sky...
I must admit, I'm more tempted to get a dash-cam than I am to use a bike camera.
Last week I was PROPERLY pulled out on by a woman coming across a dual carriage way junction. No time to brake, blow my horn or anything. I just shot the closing gap, (and shat my pants) the sticky out edge of the rear bumper of my van clipped the front of her Clio.
We both stopped, I was ready to give her the hairdryer, treatment, except she was already blubbing when she got out of the car, and about 6 months pregnant! I had to wait with her for 10 minutes before she was calm enough to continue her journey.
So that's another reason why.
edit - that meteor footage is mega! The con-trail is awesome.
If I'd had one a couple of years back when some fool pulled into my path on a dual carriageway I'm certain he would have been found liable rather than the split liability it ended up being. Several hundred quid that cost me, enough to buy a few decent quality dashcams.
Been thinking of getting one for a while, not had any incidents really but guess they're the sort of thing that you don't need until you do and then you're sorry you didn't get one beforehand!
No doubt there is a world of info out there but what's the reasonably priced, convenient, reliable camera of choice these days?
Years since I bought mine but http://www.techmoan.com/what-is-the-best-dashcam/
I bought a £60 front and rear for my van and at last I can see what's behind me. Brilliant for reversing too. I bought an HP branded one for £50 for the car and the images on that are excellent. Both from Amazon this week.
I have one.
I live in a country in the Middle East that has terrible drivers and also rigs the system against expats if they are unfortunate to get into an accident with a local. It's for peace of mind as hopefully the police aren't that corrupt that if the accident is recorded in 1080p that they can't see the truth.
Also, for 20 odd quid delivered, albeit with a 3-4 week wait, why not.
I have used one of these for 3+ years in the front window of a car in 45 deg heat.
Just get one. Does everything automatically and I don't even notice it's there.
Thanks for the replies, that's interesting info. Definitely got me thinking about getting one. Are they easy to install?
Not necessarily easy to install invisibly without wires everywhere. My advice would be to go to Halfords and get one, they can hard wire it in for £30 which seems like a damn good deal to me. I did my own but only because I knew the car and knew I could do it.
What are people doing for rear cameras?
Some come with an extra little camera for the rear. That I'm not convinced of the benefit. Even if someone clacks you from the back, the front camera still proves you weren't doing anything stupid.
Why? If it's anything like the guy in the white Hyundai around here it means you can put warning stickers on your car and then go looking for an argument by driving badly yourself.
I bought one after a spurious claim where someone drove in to me on a roundabout, he entered the roundabout at the junction after me, was in the incorrect lane and hit me as he tried to continue round as I exited. Very very minimal damage, from a 10-15mph coming together, a scrape on my car that wasn't through the paint and a tiny dent in his wing. Fortunately I took photos as about 9months later I was the subject of a £16k claim for a written off car and £15k for physiological truma and flashbacks.
Fortunately the photos proved his car wasn't a write off (subsequently agreed £600 damage) and ended up with a £9.5k claim against me as Zurich insurance company and Keoghs solicitors would not fight it at all (and were quite frankly awful) even though the photos showed that the damage to the car couldn't have happened if the accident occurred the way he claimed.
Had I had a dash cam at the time it would have been a simple matter.
Since I've owned one I've used it for two insurance claims, neither of them mine; both when I have been behind vehicles which have been involved in hit and runs and I've stopped and given the victim driver the footage.
I have a front and rear on the car and a front facing on the van.
Love my in-car tech so I've gone for Blackvue which can Wi Fi straight to my phone.
After being hit by an uninsured driver years ago, I wanted something to back up my statement if anything happens. That accident years ago, he ran into the back of us so 100 % his fault but it was still a nightmare to sort out so I dread to think how much hassle it would be if liability was being argued.
A lot of those Dashcam You Tubers go out looking for trouble. Most of them don't display their speed on the footage.......
in terms of installation, I just fitted mine to the windscreen then ran the wires by lifting the roof lining slightly, then down the door rubber, under the passenger seat to the Cig Lighter socket. This won't work for everyone if the Cig Lighter is on the dash etc.
Why? If it’s anything like the guy in the white Hyundai around here it means you can put warning stickers on your car and then go looking for an argument by driving badly yourself
I though you had an S-max?
it must be a must with the amount of reckless drivers around nowadays, actually felt vulnerable without it, quite sad really.. how they passed the driving test baffles me
My Dad always drummed it into me that you only start to learn to drive once you’ve passed your driving test and start out in the car on your own for the first time. Never a truer word said. I’ve never felt compelled to have a dash cam. The couple or so minor bumps and scrapes i’ve had over my driving career i’ve found sorting things out with the insurance companies to be quite painless, both when my fault and others fault. The only reason i’ve contemplated getting one is for the functionality where they detect if your car is bumped in a car park and scarper when you’re away from your car, so the detect the bump and save the precious 10 seconds or so of footage.
they’re cheap though so I guess you may as well have one than not just in case.
I think the lady who was sat on the side of the road after a van had hit her car and sent it spinning The van driver didn't stop he carried on. Luckily for her, one of my work colleagues caught it on his dash camera, maybe that's why .
I wish we had one 6 months ago in our 4 month old car. Someone ran in to the rear right side of said car whilst Mrs ws was doing all of 5mph in her lane with solid white line to right. Reported to insurance company and they immediately said it' 50/50 as you can't prove you weren't moving in to the lane to the right.
Caused no end of shit and around 6 hours on the phone the day after it happened. It was only through the decency of the other chap who admitted full liability that it didn' go 50/50.
My Dad always drummed it into me that you only start to learn to drive once you’ve passed your driving test and start out in the car on your own for the first time. Never a truer word said. I’ve never felt compelled to have a dash cam. The couple or so minor bumps and scrapes i’ve had over my driving career i’ve found sorting things out with the insurance companies to be quite painless, both when my fault and others fault. The only reason i’ve contemplated getting one is for the functionality where they detect if your car is bumped in a car park and scarper when you’re away from your car, so the detect the bump and save the precious 10 seconds or so of footage.
Even if you're a perfect driver, it can still be worthwhile. I drove cars and rode motorcycles for years, never had an accident as an adult driver, never had to make an insurance claim. Then last year someone simply drove straight down the middle of the road an into me head on.
Fortunately I had a digital SLR in the van with me and took around 50 images of the scene showing pretty graphically that I was right over to the lefthand side of the road and there was plenty of room to pass. The other driver said she didn't remember anything - I think she was texting fwiw.
It took around six months to sort out liability with her insurance company barefacedly denying liability. Our van was a write-off. I went out and bought a decent dashcam next day and feel exposed without it now. I don't post footage on Youtube or any of that rubbish, but if the same thing happens again, hopefully having footage will make it easier to sort out.
Being a 'good driver' with decent roadcraft etc makes no difference when someone is determined to drive into you and crosses onto your side of the road to do it. It's not something you can anticipate unless you're psychic. And even if you could, there's not much you can do about it. It's the reason I stopped riding motorcycles.
Anyway, my take would be that never having had an accident doesn't mean you won't have one. There are some proper idiots out there and that's before you factor in the lying, uninsured, drunk, phone-using fringe.
Why wouldn't you use a dash cam?
Surely it won't be long before all new cars come with a dash cam .It just makes so much sense .
Ah the driving god's have arrived .
Surely it won’t be long before all new cars come with a dash cam .It just makes so much sense
I totally agree . My car has a reversing camera and so it wouldn't be hard for manufacturers to have it on permanently hooked up to an SSD. Much in the same way that having a camera at the front could do the same .
To get truly burnt, and smited by the "making progress" brigade I'm all for cameras, GPS, etc limiting car speeds to the road's speed limit.
Ah the driving god’s have arrived .
If that's aimed at me, all I can say is that I'm a far from perfect driver or a driving god or whatever, I've always just been careful and a bit lucky. Sorry if my post was misconstrued in that way.
The point I was making is that even if you're very good at driving defensively, you can still get taken out by someone driving into you over the centre line, changing course with no obvious warning signs or whatever, which makes having a dash cam a pretty good idea.
I’m getting one so I can drive round Russia and film crashes, subsequently sending the footage to a reality tv channel for Tony Hawkes to do a hilarious voice over on.
Sorry if my post was misconstrued in that way
I don't think you have any need apologise. It was only a matter of time before someone rolls out the de rigueur "driving gods" crap as soon the topic discusses anything car related.
it wasnt aimed at you.
Im pro dash cam. Im as confused as anyone at why you wouldnt have a dash cam in this day and age,,,,,
it wasnt aimed at you.
Oh - colour me gutted 🙁
Wish I had one last week when somebody smashed into the rear of my brand new van. Guess what I'll be getting once it's repaired.
Normally the person who rear ends another is found liable. The odds should be with you arguing that one.
We have them fitted to our cars. I’ve used mine to send video clip on two different van drivers who I’d witnessed driving like idiots cutting other road users up on my regular commute. One driver I never come across again, the other was much more considerate to other road users. Also provided footage for another driver who was side swiped by a truck on a roundabout.
As to the question of why not have one, well in my view there are negative consequences to everyone having their lives scrutinised and recorded 24/7 and dash cams is just one more step towards having our lives monitored all the time. How long before they’re hooked upto the net and software can glean alsorts of provate information about the way we live our lives. And before someone pipes up “if you’re doing nothing wrong then you’ve got nothing to worry about” tripe, that is not the point and why should 100% of the population be continually monitored for the sake of the small percentage of the population who are committing crimes or being dicks.
i get the thing about if you do have a crash then you have the evidence, but we need to be careful what we wish for. I can’t comment on others experiences of problems sorting out crashes before, my personal experience is that if you buy good insurance with good legal cover then your lawyer argues your case and would’nt let insurance companies get away with some of the dirty tricks explained previously. Of course there is the case of hit and run, but ultimately that is what fully comp insurance covers you for - it is sort of the whole point of it.
but hey ho, I can see some benefits but remain sceptical of the whole continuous surveilance thing. But if I end up being the only person without a dash cam the. I’m being continually watched via other people’s dash cams anyway. I think we’re probably already on that slippery slidey slope and have already lost our rights to any privacy whatsoever.
Erm, yeah......
I thought most car insurance was knock for knock on claims. Therefore it doesn’t matter who’s fault it is each insurer pays out and it goes on your record and affects your premium. Has this now changed, hence the need for dash cams.
have already lost our rights to any privacy
You know that when you're on the road that's not a private place and you have no right to privacy there, don't you?
They'll be standard equipment soon.
Bails, you’re partially right but it’s all about big data, dash cams could be used to track your location and journeys if connected to the web as the inevitably will be, and that is private information. And at least with current dash cams you still control who you pass the data onto. Dashcams could be just one of many data sources that we’re mindlessly and thoughtlessly ceding away one by one without any legal or commercial protection or control how YOUR data is controlled. For a bunch of people who mistrust and slag off these companies for not paying their fair share of taxes, you seem perfectly happy to trust them with the most intimate details of your life and happily give them access to all that data for them to use as they see fit and sell onto whomever they like.
but like I said, too late now I guess, the ship has already sailed.
They’ll be standard equipment soon.
They are certainly cheap enough and the camera can go to the screen in the car (pretty much all cars now have a screen even just for a radio). However, could say the same about sat nav but the car companies like to charge £400 for that so can't see them giving away cameras on every model.
Dashcams could be just one of many data sources that we’re mindlessly and thoughtlessly ceding away one by one without any legal or commercial protection or control how YOUR data is controlled.
Except that they're not doing that. I'm guessing you don't use a mobile phone or the internet?
We are on about dash cams here....
Not alexa or Siri or ask Google.....those are data harvesters.
already on that slippery slidey slope
IMHO its quite a leap from voluntarily having a dash cam to someone observing everything i do. Could you provide the causal inks between the two events please that make this inevitable
Cyberdyne systems
Of course I use the internet, i’m on here. But we can minimise the proliferation of devices that are capable of giving up yet more of our lives. dashcams are not data harvesters.......yet. It’s just something that concerns me that’s all and the main reason I don’t have one since I can do without one. I have good insurance so not bothered about the process of what to do when or if I have a coming together with someone else on the road....I expect my insurance to take care of that, which is what insurance is for and has done in the past. I just dread the day these things become compulsory as they inevitably will. I can just about control what information I give up over the web via my devices, but it’s getting harder and harder as more and more objects get hooked up to the web covering more and more of our lives.
Go on, this is a discussion where people are offering up their points of view and the question was asked why not have a dash cam, so I offered up an opinion as flawed as it is, but that’s the thing about opinions.....none of them are right or wrong, we each have our own reasons for them.
How long before they’re hooked upto the net and software can glean alsorts of provate information about the way we live our lives.
I'm not sure this argument stands. Dash cams are essentially a personal security camera, in the same way the one would have one bolted to the wall to monitor a shed, for example. I have one to protect myself and my belongings (my car) in the case of an accident and isn't connected online.
If dash cams were, for example, mandated and controlled by insurance companies, or could accessed by government bodies, (police, SIS, etc) then it would be a different matter, but they're not.
It's private CCTV, it's not Big Brother surveillance.
NB: I believe that dash cams will be made almost mandatory by insurance companies within the next 10 years, and at £20 a pop will probably be included for free with the premium, as they will reduce fees paid to lawyers and fraud. At this point it's possible that the data could be mishandled by themselves (think for example that an insurance company could look back at all of your driving for a month previously before honouring a claim) or giving others access with nefarious motives.
This is happening right now so no problem, but worth thinking about for the future.
dashcams are not data harvesters…….yet. It’s just something that concerns me that’s all and the main reason I don’t have one
Your main reason for not having one is a function it does not have that you dont want it to have. <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Its not that rational a position </span>
none of them are right or wrong
nor do all of them make sense
I thought most car insurance was knock for knock on claims. Therefore it doesn’t matter who’s fault it is each insurer pays out and it goes on your record and affects your premium. Has this now changed, hence the need for dash cams.
No, an insurer well as far as possible look to prove fault and recoup any loss. If this can't be done then yes it's knock for knock.
A dashcam can prove vital in providing that proof. I'll be getting one - the price they are now it's a no-brainer.
Wobbliscott I think you mis-understand how dash cams work . They actually point out of the vehicle not into it 🙂
but that’s the thing about opinions…..none of them are right or wrong,
Some of them have no basis in reality. And some appeared to be influenced by David Icke.
wobbliscott, my dashcam (and I assume most) overwrites the video on a loop, unless I press a button to save the current 5 minute segment. In my case, I have a record of about the last 4 hours, but if you in put a small capacity SD card it would rewrite sooner.
I bought it after having had the car in front stop suddenly without warning (and I think without brake lights) while pulling onto a roundabout with no traffic on it. At the time I thought it was my fault, but there was other evidence that led my insurer to suspect fraud (crash for cash) and they refused to pay out to the other driver and did not increase my premium. I will be more wary in future, but the fraudsters are very clever at setting up collisions, and I want to have my own evidence.
Insurance is indeed for covering the cost of incidents, but if you're considered to be at fault, and can't prove you're not, your premium will increase by more than the cost of a dashcam.
"I have good insurance so not bothered about the process of what to do when or if I have a coming together with someone else on the road"
well you think you do , so did my dad , he had the best on test what bike recommended for foreign touring insurance with all the options packs on it.
when he came round from treatment he then was then told his insurance wasn't covering the (not small )hospital bill for him - they would cover the pillion but not the rider - in the end they only covered the total loss on the bike.
Now had the police not seen the video the french driver was going to go down the route of it being my dads fault - and with no way for him to prove otherwise ..... bearing in mind my dad doesnt remember the impact or the moments leading up to it or the weeks after it .
with the video footage from his friends bike they were able to prove without any instant of doubt that my dad was not at fault , the french driver was prosecuted and his insurance had to pay my dads not insignificant losses for the last 2 1/2 years of his life + ongoing care.
but I'm sure your great insurance would have sorted all that out without video footage.
Its a bad old world out there and people will lie through their teeth to save them spending a penny, CYA
To get truly burnt, and smited by the “making progress” brigade I’m all for cameras, GPS, etc limiting car speeds to the road’s speed limit.
The only possible way that would work, is if cars have completely autonomous driving systems, and for that to work is for the system to have LiDAR, so that cars always stay the same distance apart. Cruise control is fine, but no two vehicles will go at exactly the same speed, for a number of reasons, so it’s necessary to constantly correct the speed, and even systems like VW’s, which adjust speed if vehicles pull in front has its own issues.
Anyway, it’s been my experience over the last twenty months and tens of thousands of miles that the police never stick to speed limits, even when not on a call, and don’t care if people exceed the limit, just so long as they don’t take the piss, which is why I always set my cruise control for an indicated 80, roughly 75-76.
The reason that’s an ideal speed is it spreads the traffic out a lot more, because there will be some going faster, many going slower, which results in a spread of maybe 40 mph difference in speeds, avoiding bunching up, where there’s a greater chance of multi-vehicle pile-ups.
While humans can be unpredictable and make stupid mistakes and judgement calls, relying on technology can also bring its own issues, I’m not entirely sure I’m comfortable with having machines make decisions for me that are beyond my control, when I’m traveling at 70 mph along with a load of other metal boxes; a system-crash carries a whole other universe of hurt by comparison to losing data on a hard-drive...
I don’t get dash cams at all and this felt like an STW sort of question, why do people have them?
Do any STWers use them, have they been useful?
Cheap liability insurance.
Crash for cash schemes are curently prevelant. People are often unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions. A no fault crash can result in knock of knock if there is no evidence to support. "Independant" witnesses are known to appear after incidents.
Two reasons:
ostensibly for claims defensibility (as stated above)
if it’s a company / fleet car - mainly to influence / manage / modify driver behaviour. If you think your actions will be recorded, you’lll drive more sensibley. You could have an empty box that records nothing, but if it has a blinking red light, the driver will typically drive more cautiously as they think they are accountable. It’s why insurance companies love them on fleet cars
"The reason that’s an ideal speed is it spreads the traffic out a lot more, because there will be some going faster, many going slower, which results in a spread of maybe 40 mph difference in speeds, avoiding bunching up, where there’s a greater chance of multi-vehicle pile-ups."
And yet it's proven time and again that when average speed cameras and the speeds are lowered an leveled out are installed it reduces bunching at trafic black spots.
Multi car pile ups are reduced
Less tailgating
And generally less crashing.
I want to live in Wobbliscott's version of the future - roads with continuous wi-fi and enough bandwidth for streaming video, sounds good to me. In reality you have far more to worry about from sat-navs and cars with autonomous systems if you're concerned about big brother tracking you (let alone roadside cameras and general CCTV)
Also I think you miss the point about insurance, if you're not at fault the last thing you want is your insurance co settling 50:50 to avoid a court case as the other party has lied but you can't prove it as you have no evidence or witness. Whilst your premium may increase after a no fault accident it won't be anything like the increase you'll see resulting from a 50:50 settlement. And it could be worse, I'm sure there's plenty of people out there the have been the victims of staged accidents and ended up with 100% liability. Also I'd debate fully comp is there to protect you against that sort of thing, it's mostly there for when you are actually responsible for an accident (whether anyone else is involved or not).
Wobbliscott
Bails, you’re partially right but it’s all about big data, dash cams could be used to track your location and journeys if connected to the web as the inevitably will be, and that is private information.
Do you have a mobile phone? Because if you do, your location and journeys are being tracked at all times anyway.
