Why do cars not have dashcams already fitted?

Looking at a new or more likely, 1-2 year old second hand car.  Not one has a dashcam……why on earth not?   It seems ludicrous that the first thing you have to do when you buy a new motor is start prying off interior trim to put in another camera or have some ugly aftermarket wires sprouting out of the dash. I mean its not like they don’t have cameras all over them already – the EV6 and Ioniq 5 have about 8 cameras each showing such incredibly useful things as the roof of your vehicle….yay

And while I’m about it, why would you design a car that costs £50k new and has more tech than the ISS  (and can probably communicate with it)  yet omit a rear wiper and puddle lamps!!!!!!

Argghhhh I hate buying cars

Privacy, particularly in places like Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Why do you need a dash cam? I suspect it is easy to have it as an optional extra for manufacturers to get more money out the paying punter and not many people opt for it.
Aftermarket likely to be cheaper and then it is down to the paying punter to decide if they want one or not.
I think they are a great idea, but don’t have one and don’t want to pay for one…
Rear wiper – not really needed on a saloon-style car but definitely a hatchback/suv-style – what shape of car are you looking at?
Puddle lights – assuming you have a good look as you pull up, you won’t be parking in a puddle – again, not something I would see as a necessary accessory…

Probably cost but would make a good optional extra.

I had to search “Puddle lamp” since I hadn’t heard of them.

Probably cost but would make a good optional extra.

It wasn’t so long ago rear seatbelts, disk brakes, etc. were extra cost options. It would be pretty cheap to fit cameras as standard, but being able to charge for them as an upgrade would add up to a lot of extra cash if you’re selling millions of cars per year.

Fear of it being used to incriminate the car buyer / driver.

Kind of wished I had one yesterday when a lunatic in a big pick up tried to drive through me at a junction, ram me out of the way, scream repeatedly at me that I was an effing Tuesday, then lean out of his car and rip my mirror off.

I was on a motorbike. Absolutely not any clue what his issue was.

Absolutely not any clue what his issue was.

Based on this

a lunatic in a big pick up

I’m going with “tiny penis”.

mercedes have a built in dash cam in many models as they have a forward facing camera for sign recognition and other things. To use it as a dashcam you need to pay an additional few hundred quid to activate it. I’m assuming many other manufacturers are doing the same

I had to search “Puddle lamp” since I hadn’t heard of them.

If we all demanded them we could be Puddle Lamp martyrs

Who’s with me?

Standalone units are pretty cheap and not all that bad. Cheaper and ? bettererer than using a pre-installed factory job that loses functionality and updates after it’s been in the car for a few years.

I’ve avoided getting one for years but after a few near misses that could have been a “he said / she said” scenario I gave in and I bought a Viofo 129pro which has front, rear and hard wire kit for parking impact detection. I probably freaked myself out watching Scotty’s Dash Cams which has people upload their footage and he makes a 20 min vid of eejuts, near misses, actual hits and people getting karma from the traffic cops.

It’s not going to prevent a collision, but it’s gonna help when it gets messy and cops are involved, or insurance claims.

Unbeknownst to me, madame says her new car has puddle lamps. Although she likes to call them damp socks

I’m with the OP.

Why have one ? Simple. Too many complete **** on the road driving badly. Same reason I have one in the push bike.

That they’re not built in , and not even a manufacturer optional extra is annoying- I have to fit a crappy bolt on aftermarket on instead.

The Subaru i tried out a couple of weeks back. It’s got 3 cameras already looking forward for the anti-crash system, 1 looking back for reversing, and 2 more on the interior to monitor me paying attention.  So all it needs is the rear one and 1 of the front ones feeding into a recording device – either on board or just an SD card.

For those who don’t thing they want one… good luck proving it was the other guy and not you jumping the red light when you get T boned on a traffic light controlled crossing. Having been 0.5 seconds off my wife, daughter, dog and myself killed by some total and utter **** running a red light at 60mph+, it’s nice to know there’s some proof of who killed whom afterwards.

TBH they weren’t a thing until they were.

I do like a camera on the back of  a bike on cars I’m not so sure, all the knob head extreme driving videos don’t really help.

As long as we’ve had cars on the road we’ve had ****.

I’ve thought there are probably a couple of main reasons: that they’re illegal in some markets; that there isn’t enough demand for them to support the added cost; and that the many many people who drive like absolute cocks wouldn’t want them in their cars.

What I’d like to see by default is cameras for red light enforcement with ANPR for tax and insurance on all new traffic lights.

Bought a new VW and ordered it with the factory fitted VW dashcam front and rear. After a year it stopped working, they couldn’t fix it, so fitted an aftermarket one. That works well enough, but is fixed to the windscreen with a sticky pad that falls off in hot weather.

I drive a BMW. Why would I want to incriminate myself? 😉

What in the heck is a puddle lamp?

@johnhe I assume it’s the lights under the mirrors that light up the ground just outside the door.

I think DCS Andy Cox who’s got a national road safety remit has been campaigning for all cars to have dashcams but as above they’re illegal in some EU jurisdictions.

Lights that shine on the ground next to yhe car doors so that you can see what you’re stepping into when you get in or out. Usually in the bottom of the door or underneath the wing mirror.
Bizarrely on a KIA EV 6 they are under the edges of the rear spoiler and are functionally useless

I think I’d rather risk parking in a puddle than have a wing mirror full of gizmos that gets smashed to death by a close pass.

But I guess pretty much every mirror has gizmos in it now already. Oh well

Dashcams are illegal in some European cities. There’s a real privacy/security issue in having an internet enabled camera watching everything. I have similar concerns for home security cameras. Who owns/accesses the feed and what detail is scraped from it?

A dumb camera that records to an SD card is the way to go I think. I would never have a car with integrated cameras.

First off I have a dashcam and have for a number of years. Reason being, that I heard various stories of insurance companies settling on knock for knock unless there was evidence.

Touch wood I’ve not had to use it for it’s intended purpose yet.

As others have said most cars are built for Europe at least, if not the world. Dashcams are illegal in certain countries so I guess lots of companies don’t bother, although as some have posted above say, some companies can enable the functionality for some £££

I guess it also allows dealers to upsell the fitting of aftermarket dashcams on a new car, so a nice direct little money earner for them.

What would be more useful is something like mandating a standard power source (USB-C?) next to every front mirror and rear screen. The life of a car means technology moves on, but a power source means you can fit what you want and change it if needed.

Because the manufacturers know that it would prevent sales to the significant minority who drive like utter bellends?

You can get a usb-c by the rear view mirror as an option on the Octavia…

https://www.skoda-auto.com/models/layers/layers/octavia-smart-technology

Do you people wanting dashcams in all cars also walk around with a GoPro strapped to your head just in case you have a near-death experience walking across a zebra crossing? 😉

Good point. Modern cars have so much superfluous junk anyway.

I must live in a different world, never had a dashcam and can’t see why I would ever want one.

I’m not sure I even know anyone who has one.

Why do cars not have dashcams already fitted?

Because most people don’t pay to have them fitted now, so why should they be forced to? Because they are not mandated in European safety standards. Because some countries have privacy concerns about using them to effectively film random members of the public.

That is why.

I’ve never felt the need for one on the bike or in the car. If you want one or feel you need one then buy one. Simples.

What are some of you doing that you see them as a necessity?