Life with a dashcam: Sadly, we saw no meteorites

Life with a dashcam is pretty unremarkable when nothing happens.

Read the whole story

 

[Svip]

Next time, try driving in Russia. That would be pretty remarkable.

Also, don't bring a nice car when driving in Russia.

Lastly, don't drive in Russia.

 

[XolotlLoki]

I'm guessing the experience would be different if the car or driver could be associated with certain ethic groups that the police feel more free to fuck with...

 

[redtomato]

Surely a non-professional road test of airbags or ABS brakes would have much the same outcome? Supremely boring, and thankfully so, with nothing to report. Until the instant (long after the road test is over) that you really really need them. Then you'll be thanking god you have them.

 

[Drizzt321]

Perhaps more relevant is gopro or similar that I've seen a lot of motorcyclists & bicyclers wearing on their helmet or mounted.

 

[PsychoStreak]

Should have done that in NYC.

How easy/hard or expletive generating is it to mount to the dash?
How stable is the mount? Would it hold up to off road use or really rough streets?

At that price, it seems like it would be a nice cheap option for autocross or track days.

 

[Colm]

After a shitload of almost getting hit by cars events I'm thinking of installing one of these on my bike helmet.

 

[mratoms]

Drizzt321[/url]":vlhi117c]Perhaps more relevant is gopro or similar that I've seen a lot of motorcyclists & bicyclers wearing on their helmet or mounted.

I wouldn't recommend anyone spend that kind of money for a dashcam. There are plenty of excellent and cheap options out there. I just picked up a Black Box G1W-CB at Amazon for $60. Shoots 1080p @ 30fps just like the model reviewed here. With my $15 statement credit from an offer with Amex, I got a nice dashcam for $45.

 

[madcow3417]

One thing every dashcam owner needs to know: If it has a microphone then you can only listen to music that you'd be caught dead listening to. If you get in an accident while Justin Bieber is playing in your car then you can bet that the footage will end up in court, played for dozens of of people. No matter how minor the fender bender, you will likely die anyway because of embarrassment.

 

[PsychoStreak]

Colm[/url]":10qz7unv]After a shitload of almost getting hit by cars events I'm thinking of installing one of these on my bike helmet.

You'd probably need 4 or an omnidirectional cam, since if you couldn't avoid the crash, it probably came from the side or rear.

Although more epic faceplant videos are always welcome.

 

[fractalsphere]

I've had a dash-cam for almost 4 years. Fortunately, never needed it to dispute an accident claim or anything, but if I did in fact need it, it would be invaluable. Periodically check and make sure it's recording correctly.

 

[Colm]

PsychoStreak[/url]":2nwk06rp]

Colm[/url]":2nwk06rp]After a shitload of almost getting hit by cars events I'm thinking of installing one of these on my bike helmet.

You'd probably need 4 or an omnidirectional cam, since if you couldn't avoid the crash, it probably came from the side or rear.

Although more epic faceplant videos are always welcome.

Eh, not entirely. And even if it's just something I have to swiftly maneuver away from at least I can look and get a quick capture of the license plate number.

 

[Drizzt321]

mratoms[/url]":23kirgvq]

Drizzt321[/url]":23kirgvq]Perhaps more relevant is gopro or similar that I've seen a lot of motorcyclists & bicyclers wearing on their helmet or mounted.

I wouldn't recommend anyone spend that kind of money for a dashcam. There are plenty of excellent and cheap options out there. I just picked up a Black Box G1W-CB at Amazon for $60. Shoots 1080p @ 30fps just like the model reviewed here. With my $15 statement credit from an offer with Amex, I got a nice dashcam for $45.

I don't know what people have gotten, it's just that it _looks_ like a GoPro, vaguely.

Although I was thinking once I build my e-bike of getting a 2 or 3 generation old GoPro and using that. Probably would be quite cheap, yet still very sturdy and weather proof.

 

[Lonney105]

I've been using an old Android phone, Daily Roads app, a large SD card and a suction mount and have it mounted on the passenger side of the rearview mirror where its out of the way, and cant be easily seen from the outside behind the tint strip.. Since 2012, I have captured nothing interesting at all.

I made a short video of driving around Fairbanks Alaska in winter for friends back home in warmer climates, grabbed frame of a road side temp sign displaying -38F while driving to work one morning. Saved the files from the 360 mile road trip between Fairbanks and Anchorage and back - mostly empty roads with the occasional car or truck going the other way. Since moving to Seattle all I capture is a lot of bad driving habits on Freeways.

 

[jdale]

Seems very obtrusive, especially if installed as directed with a cable going all the way around the windshield. Are there options that are less obtrusive?

Something so obvious seems like it is inviting theft or even having its data used against you....

 

[metarugia]

Gotta love the Palisades Parkway. Especially since they repaved the Jersey side last year.

 

[fractalsphere]

jdale[/url]":4ypg5y9h]Seems very obtrusive, especially if installed as directed with a cable going all the way around the windshield. Are there options that are less obtrusive?

Something so obvious seems like it is inviting theft or even having its data used against you....

Mine went very cleanly in the little seam between window and roof, down the left side, and between the dash and door. Then down under the carpet and into the center console where there's a second 12v connector. Once it was in place, it's only come loose ONCE, and that was in the severe heat where the cable got all loosey and droopy. (technical terms)

 

[Dr Gitlin]

metarugia[/url]":31u4ccss]Gotta love the Palisades Parkway. Especially since they repaved the Jersey side last year.

It's the GW Parkway in Northern Virginia!

 

[Chemical Tribe]

Use my broken screen phone plus auto guard to record. Also records speed and gps so worth more than more expensive models.

Tried using a cheap wp but all the programs suck for it, ie can't even take the videos off the phone. But first time I used it a jerk in an SUV cut me off. Impatient bastard.

 

[mratoms]

Drizzt321[/url]":ggu946pq]

mratoms[/url]":ggu946pq]

Drizzt321[/url]":ggu946pq]Perhaps more relevant is gopro or similar that I've seen a lot of motorcyclists & bicyclers wearing on their helmet or mounted.

I wouldn't recommend anyone spend that kind of money for a dashcam. There are plenty of excellent and cheap options out there. I just picked up a Black Box G1W-CB at Amazon for $60. Shoots 1080p @ 30fps just like the model reviewed here. With my $15 statement credit from an offer with Amex, I got a nice dashcam for $45.

I don't know what people have gotten, it's just that it _looks_ like a GoPro, vaguely.

Although I was thinking once I build my e-bike of getting a 2 or 3 generation old GoPro and using that. Probably would be quite cheap, yet still very sturdy and weather proof.

Please, please use a separate, dedicated microphone, though That's what my favorite vlogger does on YouTube and his videos sound so crisp and rat-free - I have never heard a GoPro video that didn't sound like rats scrounging around in an attic.

 

[Colm]

Dr Gitlin[/url]":3g7ft8jj]

metarugia[/url]":3g7ft8jj]Gotta love the Palisades Parkway. Especially since they repaved the Jersey side last year.

It's the GW Parkway in Northern Virginia!

I hate that road. So. Much.

 

[Iphtashu Fitz]

I decided to invest in a dashcam after an off duty cop in my town was caught on another persons dashcam threatening to "blow a hole" in his head. Thanks to that video the cop was suspended and ultimately resigned. I hope to never have anything like that happen to me however.

I do wish I had the dashcam a few years earlier when I was rear-ended due to a car in the other direction pulling into my lane to pass a stopped utility truck and forcing me to slam on my brakes. The cop who stopped at that accident said that the driver who forced me to stop was fully to blame, but since they didn't stop there was no way of tracking them down. A nice HD screencap of them in my lane would have been wonderful to have....

 

[Deleted member 192806]

redtomato[/url]":h66enuqz]Surely a non-professional road test of airbags or ABS brakes would have much the same outcome? Supremely boring, and thankfully so, with nothing to report. Until the instant (long after the road test is over) that you really really need them. Then you'll be thanking god you have them.

Kind of hard to post that to Youtube though.

 

[Kurama]

Is the volume control on this video player broken? It won't keep the volume slider up to click and drag, just flash it on or off.

 

[Chemical Tribe]

http://dccommuters.tumblr.com

Kinda fun.

 

[Tiberiumkyle]

I've had a pair of dashcams mounted in my truck for a year now, one facing forward, another facing rear, as I generally have 2-3 close calls on average, every time I leave the house. So far, closest thing I've caught is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JABAiHLYcx4 and while I hope that's how it'll keep going, I know it's just a matter of time.

 

[Electrostatus]

I've found that if you speed up the video and attach a tune to it, it gets a bit more interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbd-tRc7AdE

I got lucky when parts of it lined up with the tune here, but that doesn't usually happen.

 

[Boskone]

Here's the thing about dash cams: they're worthless until you need it, then they're the best deal ever.

My Nexus 7 has been wonky ever since I had to slam on my brakes to avoid some kid from a pizza place who ran a red light; if I had dash cam footage I could probably have gotten some useful action from the company.

One of my cousins rear ended someone who did a merge-and-stop, and the dash cam saved my cousin from a ticket and insurance deductible. Just the ticket paid for the cam (and his was a nicer, professionally-installed job).

They're a bit risky as an investment, but IMO well worth it if you need the footage even once.

 

[Dave Cattran]

Okay, so slightly OT, but have you seen the checkpoint challenge videos on youtube:
Checkpoint Challenge Videos
and the associated This American Life story about them:
The Border between America and America

Amazing to watch.

 

[Bhairitu]

I've had a dashcam for over a year ever since I missed a video of an idiot cyclist I almost hit who ran through a stop sign at a blind corner. I got one of those $60 G1W dashcams which takes excellent video. Just be careful where you order those because some are counterfeit as my first order was but Amazon refunded me the money and let me keep the camera (much to the chagrin of the some folks in China). The second was ordered from a company in the US and was the genuine thing.

Since I've shared some videos and snapshots of some stupid, crazy and interesting events including on "Back to the Future Day" a DeLorean that I wound up driving behind. Gotta say these are very handy and may save you a court battle some day.

 

[Coriolanus]

I have a question for people who keep dashcams in their cars. Are they safe to leave in the car all year round?

I ask because during the summers, temperatures in the car can go in well in excess of 140 degrees F and during the winters, the temperatures in the car can go well below 10 degrees F (if not less). I don't know whether a dashcam is robust enough to leave in the car all year round. Especially since I'm too forgetful to consistently take a piece of electronics with me to and from the car everytime.

 

[ciscog33k]

Colm[/url]":ro9t3adf]After a shitload of almost getting hit by cars events I'm thinking of installing one of these on my bike helmet.

Personally after deciding that I didn't like how close cars were getting to me during my 16k commute to/from in downtown Toronto, I decided to spend some money to ensure that cars could see me. Seems a better choice than on a camera to help with litigation in the event of a hit.

I used this as my taillight:

http://store.dinottelighting.com/daytim ... -p188.aspx

and this as my headlight:
http://store.dinottelighting.com/dinott ... -p174.aspx

Yes, I spent over $700 on two lights. And yes, it was totally worth it because it made such a difference in visibility and how cars treated me on the road.

DiNotte is the gold standard for bike lights and the reviews on their site are not an exaggeration of their capabilities. Whether in daylight, fog or rain (I cycled year-round regardless of conditions), people will see you, and they will see you from FAR back giving them lots of time to adjust their driving. They'll also give you more space when you're cycling in a lane with traffic. I'm not sure if this is because they actually see you or because the light is too annoying for them to get really close.

Just to give you an idea, with the XML3 headlight I could see the reflection in stop signs 500m + in front of me during the day. The daytime red taillight can be clearly seen a km or more back if there's a clear line of sight. They are crazy bright at their max settings (you can adjust them obviously). I regularly had drivers and pedestrians comment on how awesome the lights were and that nobody will be able to miss me. The lights gave me a huge boost in confidence while riding in the middle of busy roads (not nearly enough bike lanes in Toronto).

Anyway, I've been on both sides of the bike/car divide. I drive now because I live too far to bike, and I regularly find myself shaking my head at the crappy lights people put on their bikes, expecting drivers to be able to see them. As a driver in a busy city, I can tell you most bike lights just blend in to the noisy background. The same people are often in dark clothes as if doing everything they can think of to make themselves invisible. Even worse is when those idiots start ringing their little bike bells hoping to get noticed.

If you want cars to see you and you don't want to get hit, get the DiNotte lights. Nothing comes close. You may also need to adjust your cycling if you're almost getting hit a lot. Proper road position makes a BIG difference. That said, once I had DiNotte lights I never had an issue with cars getting close.

Lastly I'm gonna say that as a driver, I regularly see bikers doing stupid things, like riding off on the side of the road within swinging distance of car doors on very busy streets, or slipping into small spaces unseen with practically nothing to help their visibility. As a former commuter by bike, I look for bikers, but damn do most of them make it as difficult as possible to see them. Don't be one of those guys

I almost hit one myself on a rainy day. Just couldn't see him in the rain. And I did stop and look before making my turn. Had he had my lights there's no question i'd have seen him.

 

[chipguy]

madcow3417[/url]"wfsbfny]One thing every dashcam owner needs to know: If it has a microphone then you can only listen to music that you'd be caught dead listening to. If you get in an accident while Justin Bieber is playing in your car then you can bet that the footage will end up in court, played for dozens of of people. No matter how minor the fender bender, you will likely die anyway because of embarrassment.

Not to mention occasional angry out loud comments about other drivers that might be far
from politically correct in tone or language. I'd definitely have to get a soundless dashcam.

 

[jnala]

I've wanted a dashcam ever since an unpleasant experience three years ago near San Diego, being harassed for an hour by a Border Patrol agent who was, at a minimum, behaving in a legally questionable manner. Unfortunately I've yet to find anything that is both reasonably priced and offers a 360' field of view.

 

[Magus`]

$120 is expensive. The G1W, and the G1W-C capacitor version (for warmer climates where an exploding battery is a concern) are ~$50 and work very well.

Just don't get a microsd larger than 32GB, it won't use anything past that.

I use 2 of them, one front-facing and one rear-facing.

 

[Dilbert]

Colm[/url]":39sxzbca]After a shitload of almost getting hit by cars events I'm thinking of installing one of these on my bike helmet.

This is what you want for a bike. https://cycliq.com/

Lights, front and rear, with built-in cameras.

I'm getting those. After a season ending crash, while on a solo training ride on a TT bike, from the aerobars straight into the pavement, I still don't quite know why I crashed. I wish I had a video of it.

I do drive with a dashcam. I would not want to go without one anymore. I use a $100 HP with built-in GPS. GPS is more for proving police made a mistake than for accidents.

 

[Brendan McKinley]

Coriolanus[/url]":2lgbxk6v]I have a question for people who keep dashcams in their cars. Are they safe to leave in the car all year round?

I ask because during the summers, temperatures in the car can go in well in excess of 140 degrees F and during the winters, the temperatures in the car can go well below 10 degrees F (if not less). I don't know whether a dashcam is robust enough to leave in the car all year round. Especially since I'm too forgetful to consistently take a piece of electronics with me to and from the car everytime.

Some are available with capacitors instead of batteries to better cope with heat. For anyone considering one, I would recommend looking at this guide at The Wirecutter.

Edit: Ninjaed, grammar.

 

[SiberX]

I don't have a dashcam in my car, but I do use a helmet camera on my motorcycle. Generally, my experience is similar; many hours of recorded footage with nothing interesting at all. For me though, two particular things make it worth the money:

Firstly, it's useful whenever I'm on a trip on the bike doing sport riding so I can capture footage of the action, and that's primarily why I bought it initially. Secondly, it's proven very useful for reviewing close calls after the fact to determine if there's anything I could have done differently to reduce my risk. Since motorcycle safety is almost entirely about riding in such a way as to never present an opportunity for an accident to a driver, this provides a useful way to improve my defensive riding techniques.

Notable incidents I've captured and was glad I had footage to review:
-A pedestrian suddenly running across the road over the blind peak of a bridge, where they ran right across my lane within a meter or two of my bike's path
-An oil slick down a mountain curve that I hit and just barely managed to not go down - one of the buddies I was riding with was not so lucky and messed up his knee
-A car failing to see a stop light and nearly rear-ending me at high speed, instead opting to quickly change lanes and blow through the red light that changed a couple seconds earlier

In all these events I was not at fault, but being able to review the footage afterwards proved helpful as feedback to adjust my riding techniques going forward to avoid those situations in the future. I have not (yet) needed to use the footage as evidence in an accident with another driver, but I do know that if it does happen I'll be very glad to have the recording available.

 

[n00bling]

Incoming DMCA for those 2 seconds of music in the beginning...

 

[Dilbert]

madcow3417[/url]":22v0r6zz]One thing every dashcam owner needs to know: If it has a microphone then you can only listen to music that you'd be caught dead listening to. If you get in an accident while Justin Bieber is playing in your car then you can bet that the footage will end up in court, played for dozens of of people. No matter how minor the fender bender, you will likely die anyway because of embarrassment.

I keep my dashcam muted. Sound isn't really useful except maybe if windows are open and the other driver can be heard yelling road rage or something before swerving into you on purpose. (The sounds of honking or turn signal clicking could be heard, but since it'd be impossible to prove the sounds actually came from your own horn or turn signals I don't see how useful that would be.)

I only wish there were a one-button to mute/unmute so I could unmute if I needed audio. But nope. On my dashcam to unmute need to stop recording, go to settings, scroll down to microphone, unmute, back out, resume recording. That's bad design.