Jan 6, 2015
Andyw2100 This is a serious question for those of you with dashcams, as I am considering getting one, and am wondering how others are using them.
Do most of you have them mainly as "insurance policies", hoping to have some sort of proof in the event of an accident or damage to your Model S? (I think that would be the main reason I'd be getting one.)
I'm wondering what else is done with them, if anything? I mean I understand that you can record videos of your drives and save them, etc., but realistically how many videos like that do you save?
I know the good dashcams have parking modes, and record while the cars are parked, so conceivably might catch someone dinging the side of the car, but that seems somewhat unlikely, and even if the offender was caught on camera, seeking restitution would probably prove difficult or impossible.
Are there other uses I'm not thinking of?
Also, is there a potential downside? If you're involved in an accident where you're actually at fault, can the dashcam footage somehow be used against you, without your consent? (Could it be obtained via court order? I'm guessing it could be.)
Thanks for any insight you'd like to share.�
Jan 6, 2015
David99 I had several for many years. I got in a few close call situations and I realized it is a small cost compared to the high cost when having an accident and the other side is making false statements. Another reason I got it was because I was pulled over by police once and got verbally abused by an officer with anger issues. Cops these days are aware of dash cameras, they will look for it if they pull you over and look inside your car. You are perfectly legal to record and they know so they will conduct themselves professionally. So in a way it prevents being abused. So far, fortunately I have never had an accident where I would have needed it.
I never even bother looking at the video. Every once in a while I check the files on the card to see it's still working properly. Here and there I caught a few funny moments in traffic.
In case you are at fault you can try to keep quiet about the video. I'm not sure what the legal situation is. The fifth allows you to remain silent when the answer could possibly used against you. There are some exceptions to this, though. I'm not a legal expert, so I don't feel qualified to give advice. In that context, there is a good side effect on having a camera. Once I installed it I became more aware and conscious about my own driving because I knew that I was 'being watched' all the time.�
Jan 7, 2015
RiverBrick Yes, for the laughs I wish I had a 360� dash cam with mic when I was pulled over Monday for driving in an HOV lane. As a pilot project, for six weeks now, only a whopping 4-mile HOV stretch in my province is open to single-occupancy EVs and not all the police are used to it.
Officer: Hello, license and registration. You were driving in a lane reserved for buses, taxis, and car-pooling.
Me: And electric cars.
Officer: This is an electric car!??
He then walked back to look at the green license plate with EV logo (standard ones are blue), returned, apologized, and even offered an escort so I could quickly get back into traffic.
At least the forward-facing camera with no sound protects me in case of incidents like this one:
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/06/16/get-marty-man-questions-traffic-ticket-after-stop-caught-on-camera/�
Jan 7, 2015
tga In Massachusetts, people have been arrested and charged with illegal wiretapping for recording the police without their knowledge.
IANAL, so don't take this as legal advice, but I believe the outcome of Glik v. Cunniffe was that you can record the police openly in MA, but secret recording is still considered wiretapping, as you haven't received the officer's consent to be recorded. Is a dash cam out in the open considered "secret"? I don't know, but I wouldn't want to find out the hard way:
The secrecy rule: Recording police and Massachusetts wiretap law | masslive.com
Police fight cellphone recordings - The Boston Globe
7 Rules for Recording Police - Reason.com
Glik v. Cunniffe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia�
Jan 7, 2015
scottm Just got dashcams for all the cars in the family at Christmas. All the same model. Got one out of curiosity / boredom / for fun. In only a few days, wondered why I hadn't done this sooner.
Here are some tips:
- just use the cam as a possible source of evidence if needed. Think of it as a security cam nothing more. Set it and forget it. You want hands-off reliability day over day so you can forget about it. Autostart each time the car starts. Mount it where you can't notice it too much behind the mirror.
- get a battery-less model with a capacitor instead, enough to save open files and power off, that's all you need. Some cheap cams hastily switched designs over from battery to capacitor and in the process, lose all settings between drive cycles, including TIME/DATE. Don't settle for that, get one designed to retain settings designed for just a capacitor.
- get a full HD model, 1080, there is no excuse to settle for 720 these days
- get the largest SD card that fits the cam, mine is 32GB.. this is about 6 hours of driving. Class 10 card. Some cards are still Class 4 out there, don't buy that. Cheap Class 10 memory seems to work well, skip the "Gold Label" stuff.
- format the card using the camera, not a PC. Format every few weeks.
- don't go for too wide angle camera.. things get small and seem very far away with 170* cams, even when they're just a few car lengths ahead of you. About 140 degrees is what I got. This gives me A-pillar to A-pillar viewing. I see things on the videos that my peripheral vision doesn't catch or is hidden behind the A pillars. I'd say anything down to 100 degrees would probably still be perfectly fine. My camera is mounted high enough on windshield on Tesla that it actually catches my speedometer on the video showing speed clearly... and if signals are being used. Extra evidence.
- night viewing quality is important... our nights are long in winter here. Some cams lose everything into the shadows at night, and can barely show what your headlights are illuminating. CMOS is best chip technology.
- Made in Korea cams are better than China cams in general. Buy from a local source that is willing to take return if not satisfied.
- IR LEDs on cams are a gimmick, don't need them.. that is so last year.
- turn OFF the G-sensor, if it has it. It'll always be triggering no matter how insensitive you set it, and locks files and fills up your card over time, and reduces the looping span. If you've had an accident or want to extract a video, you'll know well enough to stop the recording the card out and transfer to PC.
- don't bother using motion sense feature when parked unless you are parked in a garage not pointing at sky (clouds activate camera chewing up all your space). In a very busy parking lot, every passer by triggers cam... You may as well leave it constantly on.
- I spent $90 and am totally amazed at the quality of video, even at night.. detail in the day, clarity... These things have arrived to the masses I'd say. That's why I got another for the other car. It even has a little 2" touch screen to navigate options.
- Don't bother with models that have 2 lens for catching things from 2 different directions. Just get 2 cameras instead. I am thinking of sticking another one on passenger side filming the inside of the car, pointed at driver window. And possibly a third, out the back window. ... for less than $400 you could have 360 coverage if you wanted to go crazy.
- Look for ones that that auto-dim the display after a minute of turning on. Look for the auto-record on power-up feature.
- Most have microphones, look for ones that you can turn off. I think most do. Some wiretap laws say stuff about recording conversations.. but not video.
- Neat thing about Tesla is that it is so quiet riding, and when the HVAC fan is off... the sound capture is quite good! In other cars, it's much more garbled.
- Mine is just suction cupped to the windshield for now, comes with it. I will be custom 3-D printing a bracket soon to mount it to the mirror stem instead. If demand is there I'll put it on Thingiverse.
- Most will have USB port to connect to PC for downloading video, I just pop the SD card out if there was an even of interest I want to save.
- Like the guy who drive right across the intersection in front of me on a green a light as he was running his red... heads down in texting. I turned right and caught up in a minute, to capture his license plate on the same video...
- Or like the teenager who begins doing a spontaneous burn out at the stop sign as I'm waiting behind him.. I think he spotted a hot car in his rear view mirror and testosterone took over the controls of his clapped out Mustang. Then when the cross-traffic clears he lifts his brake pedal and shoot across the intersection about 10 feet behind the trailing bumper of the last crossing car that passes by... actually it was a white van. Got his license plate number, as he drove away. I was just waiting to get a rock flung at my windshield and would have had that evidence... rock hitting and the reason caught right there on video. But it didn't happen.
You come to realize driving events like this happen EVERY DAY. "If only I had that on video..." Well, now you do. Make a library of it. Post it to your own youtube channel call it "idiots in my area". Send a link to the police station.
Cheers�
Jan 7, 2015
Andyw2100 Thanks for all the responses so far. Please keep them coming.
As for the dashcam itself, if I get one I'll probably go with the Blackvue 650, as that seems to be the model of choice among a lot of people here. I'm not all that concerned with the small differences in cost between units, in light of what I've already invested in the car, and the fact that I'm going to have to pay to have the dashcam installed somewhere. (This is not something I would attempt myself.) I'm just interested in getting the best, most useful, most unobtrusive installation possible, and knowing what I can do with it once installed.
Thanks!�
Jan 7, 2015
mknox I got mine primarily to avoid any "he said, she said" crap in the case of an accident. I've also saved a few clips of crazy or weird stuff I've seen on the roads. In one case I was cut off by a commercial van who passed me on the right on an exit ramp, then swerved in front of me back on to the freeway, causing me to have to slam on the brakes. I could see the company name and was going to follow up with the firm, but cooled down and never got around to it!�
Jan 7, 2015
pinguhk For me I use it for insurance policies and police.
I have a spare SD card ready if I need to keep that footage and if the police is involved they will take the cam away for proof.
As for the accident it dose not matter who fault the image will show who fault it will be and also they will see how you drive before the accident so yes if it is your fault then it will 99.9% against you for your own footage.�
Jan 7, 2015
Pilot_51 I've mostly used mine for Model S sightings, but have also captured one instance of road rage between two vehicles. I think of it more as a way to record interesting events on the road, with insurance benefits and whatnot being a bonus that I hope I never need to use.
Mine is a Mobius ($80) with a 64GB microSDXC card ($33). Excellent bang for the buck. The main feature that sold me is that you can use an Android device with an OTG cable to configure it, preview the image, or pull recordings. Here's Techmoan's review; be sure to check his other reviews.
I was considering the Blackvue, but the large size and price was a big turnoff. Once I found the Mobius, it didn't seem worth the extra $150 or so to basically use wi-fi instead of OTG.
I installed it the quick and easy way, very similar to how Newscutter did it except without adhesive, 12v splitter or tools, and instead over the visor and under the foot mat (starting toward the front to hide it better under the dash) directly to one of those small USB car power adapters. I'm happy with it, the cabling is not much more noticeable and don't need to disassemble the dashboard for the fuse box method (I'd probably ask Tesla to do that on my annual service if I wanted it enough).�
Jan 8, 2015
Newscutter Cool! I had a similar "loose" version until I was sure I wanted to take the extra time to really wire it in. Even so, I could uninstall in under 5 minutes with no ill effect.
I did a blog post on the camera too, with more detailed pictures: TESLA Pittsburgh.com: Getting Big Brother On YOUR Side
DO CHECK your state wiretapping laws. The concerns for privacy will overrule any accident footage you might otherwise capture. Even if your state doesn't require 2 party consent, if you regularly travel in one that does it would be wise to disable the audio just in case.
As for the "why"-- well, I outlined my reasons thoroughly in the blog post. Bottom line, with entry prices around $65 self-installed how can you not make the investment to save you from the deductible expense later?
I also get a kick out of catching the thumbs up, the waves, chasing my friend's Tesla and OF COURSE the potential for accidents.
�
Jan 8, 2015
Andyw2100 Great video you posted there. If you had hit the speeder pulling out in front of you at least the officer would have been close by to write things up!�
Jan 8, 2015
CHGolferJim If you sent video to the Highway Patrol, would that be sufficient evidence to prosecute reckless drivers? A major pet peeve is people pulling asshat maneuvers at high speed around me on the highway. Puts me into video game mode. Plus would be great for travel movies (like Bjorn).�
Jan 8, 2015
caps04 Sorry if I missed it but which models did you get/recommend?�
Jan 8, 2015
JPP I have had a Blackvue 550 (dual front/rear) HD system installed for about a year and a half. Just an added layer of insurance. I had seen a TMC member's video from a serious accident where he was t-boned and the video was valuable evidence. FWIW, I believe that in the USA and some countries you can't have a video display running while driving (some dashcams including the Blackvue 750 have built in ones), so why buy what you cannot use. Be careful to judge actual video quality--a cheap camera that does not resolve a license plate is worthless. I do use the g-force sensors (set to a reasonable threshold), and do use parking mode. Search these forums for lots of info including installation instructions. And yes, in some jurisdictions, you cannot record audio without consent (..though I keep my audio recording mode on).�
Jan 8, 2015
David99 Here in California you are supposed to report drunk drivers and I assume that same is true for anyone that poses a serious safety threat to the road. Reckless driving is one of those. I caught several crazy drivers in camera, but so far I never bothered pulling the video and reporting them. Maybe I should because it's really dangerous and the reason people do it because they feel like they can get away with it as long as there is no police around. BTW, I'm not talking about people going fast on an empty desert road. I'm talking about crazy boy racers that think they are invincible.
- - - Updated - - -
That's why these cameras have the option to automatically switch off the screen after one minute after starting up.�
Jan 8, 2015
Johan I (inadvertently) filmed my whole service appointment yesterday... Very unexciting:
[video=vimeo;116299784]https://vimeo.com/116299784[/video]
But the reason I have it is for accidents and if someone hits my car while it's parked.�
Jan 8, 2015
seandudley I use a mirror one that I can place over the existing mirror in the car. It just looks like a regular mirror until you press a button and then a display comes in the mirror, allowing you to view video, delete video, etc. I don't yet have an Tesla, but I use the dash cam on my Nissan Altima. Anyway, the reasons I like having a dash cam are:
1. If a flying saucer lands in front of the car, I'll have some killer video!
2. If I get into an accident, it is always good to have proof of what really happened.
3. There are idiots out there that intentionally throw themselves in front of your car so they can sue you.
4. If a meteor flies across the sky, I'm covered.
5. Might get some amazing video of one of those once in a lifetime things. One that comes to mind is when I was driving down the interstate one time in the left lane of 3 lanes, I started hearing this squealing sound. At first I wasn't sure what it was, and then I noticed that the card in front of me somehow started rotating in the lane ahead of me. It was so strange, they were going straight down the interstate, then squealing as the car does a 180, and is not going backwards down the interstate. The car skidded out of the left lane into the center lane right in front of an 18-wheeler truck, and was so close, the truck driver apparently didn't even see them because he never even touched his brakes. They somehow managed to skid out of the way of that truck, and into the right lane, and then onto the shoulder and stop. I looked over at the car as I was driving past, and there were 4 girls around high school age who were all just sitting there looking like they were in total shock. I'm so glad that they didn't get obliterated by the truck, and ended up being physically just fine. I still don't know what the heck happened to make the car do that. A blowout perhaps? Anyway, I've always wished I had that on video since it turned out ok, it was just an amazing thing to see happen.
- - - Updated - - -
Sorry, that should be, "now going backwards down the interstate", not "not going backwards down the interstate". Couldn't find a way to edit it.�
Jan 8, 2015
HankLloydRight While alot of this advice is good, it does vary from person to person, so don't take every piece of advice as gospel. Everyone has different experience with the one or two cameras they bought... and no experience with the hundreds of other dashcams out there.. there are units to address many of the issues posted.
For instance, I have a LUKAS 5900 duo (front/rear) dashcam... it has a parking mode with motion detection that works very well. Some people here might choose not to have/use one, but I like it, it works very well and doesn't use up memory -- the software allows you to partition how much memory is used for regular recording (driving), parking mode, and "Event" mode (triggered events). So I think I have it set for 80/10/10% so each type of event recording doesn't clobber the other.
Also, I like how both front and rear are recorded in sync, in one video file. With multiple seperate cams, you'd have to take the video and sync them up yourself.
My g-force sensor is adequate and works.. doesn't constantly trigger.. and even if it did, it can only take up 10% of storage space.
1080 is good for reading license plates, and in some cases it might be necessary. But if you're using the video for an insurance claim or proof of fault, it's not a hard and fast requirement. 720 cams work just as good. You're not watching a full screen HD movie or live action sports, you're collecting evidence in case of an accident. It's your call of course, based on your individual needs, but 1080 is not required.
The bottom line is, decide what features are important to your needs, and then find a product that fills those needs. There is no "one-size-fits-all" here, so take everyone's advice as just that -- their personal experience, not necessarily as a set of universal requirements.
My question is, if you're in a state that has such wiretapping laws, can't you just erase the audio track on the video before sending it off to the authorities or insurance companies? How can they prove their audio was recorded?�
Jan 8, 2015
jcaspar It seems it would be hard to with the quality of the video posted above. License plate appears to be unreadable. Seems it would help prove fault in an accident including the fault of the dashcam owner!
�
Jan 9, 2015
tsarlsy I noticed this too. Is this normal or just due to a budget dashcam?�
Jan 9, 2015
Zextraterrestrial I mainly got a blackvue for autocross videos (lots in my sig thread + more on u-tube.
After seeing Gasdoc's accident video I thought it would be a good idea for anything like that that could happen too.
You can potentially get the L plate # of crazy drivers without needing to write it down.
cool pictures/pretty places - Driving through Prairie creek I came upon a heard of 30-40 female and really young female elk and they just stood there on the road puzzled by my car. I starting ringing my bell and they moved a tiny bit but I was then in the heard and walking with them down the road, could have pet some out of my side window!(if I had 2 memory cards I would have this video : (
I watched video of my car coming back from service - 250 miles on a flatbed tow that was not a tesla ranger/driver. Dash camera shows speed of the car still even though the app wont since the car is in park.
+ I got to see where the driver ate and stopped. after this I kind of want the rear cam too since I was wondering if the driver got pulled over at some point (pretty sure he was just resting and checking wheels straps)�
Jan 9, 2015
Tedkidd From some reviews I watched, apparently a lot of quality is lost in the upload to YouTube. Sounds like you need 1080p, and the plates are readable.�
Jan 9, 2015
David99 When I dropped my car off for service, they unplugged the camera. I was totally fine with that. I respect their privacy. What they are talking about while working on my car is none of my business
Regarding resolution. I had many different cameras. Reading license plates is a big deal. It makes all the difference between hard evidence or just a description of a car that looks like many other in that area. I have done tests about readability of license plates and found it's often not readable on video even when I can clearly read it with my eyes. The issue is that the lenses are so wide that even when you are close to another car, it is only a small area of the image thus not enough resolution to read the letters. So I made it a point, when I get in a scary situation I read the license plate out loud so it's captured on audio.�
Jan 9, 2015
HankLloydRight Wow.. that's a great idea.�
Jan 9, 2015
Johan Second that. Brilliant. Will remember the that piece of advice.�
Jan 18, 2015
scottm bought from TheSource.ca (Radio Shack in USA) branded "Fluid" with a little research on DashCamTalk I see it is very close to MateGo MG300w which is a clone of the "best all around" awarded Panorama on that review site.�
Jan 19, 2015
Footbag When I had my BMW, I did the same thing, never thought about it. However, the day after picking my car up from the dealer for some service work, I noticed a scratch on one of the wheels. Now, I didn't know for sure that the wheel was perfect when i dropped it off, and I didn't want to blame them for something that may not have been their fault. Thus I turned to the video. Frankly, given that the wheel is obviously on the side of the car, and the camera points forward, I saw nothing of interest... until they drove the car to park it outside. The guy driving was swearing to himself that there were no spots to put my car (aside from a few specific things, I could care less what someone says... and his comments were all about finding a parking spot, no issue to me)... however, his commentary did highlight his annoyance about finding a spot, so when he finally finds one, with a great big traffic cone in the middle of it blocking it for some reason, HE DRIVES OVER THE CONE and parks my car.
Did the cone damage my car? Not that I could tell, but it was just grossly negligent. I took it up with the service manager, explained the only reason I was looking was to prove nothing indicated an issue with the wheel, and shared the video with him. He quickly wanted to know what they could do for me. I didn't push it, got a detailing, a scratch removed on the paint, and yes, the wheel got repaired, all his suggestions. Camera paid for itself that day. Still, I don't typically look over such footage, I just got oddly 'lucky' in that one circumstance.�
Jan 25, 2015
tliving I mostly just capture silly things I see on the road or that people do. I hope to never need it for theft or accident protection but its there just in case.
Today there was a table in the middle of the highway (about 1 sec into this video):
�
Nov 14, 2015
DFibRL8R I've had my Blackvue 550 about 2.5 yrs, it is a hassle (has some issues with SD card and the timestamp is always screwy) but it paid off last week when the SUV with a trailer hitch decided to back up to me while we were waiting to turn left. Front end damage to my Model S would be assumed to be my fault without honesty from both parties (unfortunately rare) or video. I uploaded the video to my insurance agent who was impressed. I suggested they should offer a discount to drivers with dashcams.�
Nov 14, 2015
Battman After reading how many on this Forum have the dual channel Blackvue 650, I looked into buying it. But after spending a lot of time on the Dashcamtalk forums, I quickly realized there are superior systems out there. Eventually I bought the dual channel Thinkware F750. Except for the slightly larger size of the front camera it is superior to the Blackvue in both features and video quality. And it is easily available to buy at my local Best Buy.�
Nov 14, 2015
SW2Fiddler This interests me. A lot.
Could you share details of how/where you mounted and wired it, which power line, and did you connect the Tesla rear cam, a Thinkware rear, or no rear?
Thanks in advance!�
Nov 14, 2015
brucet999 I wish I could see that video, but all there is is a 30 second advertisement followed by a black screen.�
Nov 16, 2015
Battman Im having it installed later this week at Mobile Solutions in Calgary. In theory it's installation should be no different than other front and rear camera systems out there. Ideally to enable the parking mode, it requires to be connected to both a constant 12V and one that turns off when the car is off. This way it knows when to switch in and out of park mode. It has a 1080P rear camera that is far superior to the Blackvue's 720P rear camera (as you can see in many YouTube reviews comparing the two cameras). So will not be using the Tesla rear cam.
I'll post again a review of the Thinkware after its mounted. I'll also be able to tell you how they wired it.�
Nov 16, 2015
LetsGoFast You are correct that it is the audio that causes you trouble. If your camera has a feature that allows you to turn off the audio you are going to
be better off with that than claiming that the audio somehow mysteriously dissapeared. For most accident situations, the audio probably won't be of another party anyhow.
FWIW, my reading of the Massachutsets case is that as long as you haven't concealed the dash cam, you are going to be OK with recording the police. I suspect that this will eventually be the settled law in all two party consent states. I think that only Illinois is a holdout right now.�
Nov 16, 2015
gizmoboy I don't understand how the Tesla rear cam relates to the Blackvue rear cam wrt the Thinkware.�
Nov 16, 2015
jcaspar They should be required to record the driver's speed and pedals activated. Would be very helpful in accidents to see if the driver of the dash cam car was speeding or not hitting the brake in appropriate time (day dreaming)�
Nov 17, 2015
Battman Was answering a question regarding using the Tesla Rear cam. I'm using the Thinkware rear camera, so obviously I wouldn't be using the Tesla cam (would even know how to hook it up to a recording device).�
Nov 17, 2015
SW2Fiddler The info was for my benefit, being a big ol' dashcam newb. I now know better after visiting a half dozen other pages.�
Nov 17, 2015
HankLloydRight Most of these are in Russia or other countries, but WTF!!
Dash-Cam Videos Thatll Make You Say: WTF! - YouTube
All good reasons to have a dashcam.�
Nov 17, 2015
loganss I installed a dashcam after an accident where the other driver lied and my insurance (Progressive) didn't do a damn thing even though they knew it wasn't my fault. Wish I would have done it sooner. I was planning to install one next year but poof accident accelerated that plan.
I highly encourage every owner to get some form of a dashcam to protect themselves.�
Nov 17, 2015
HankLloydRight The other advice is once a month or so, remove the memory card and make sure your Dashcam is recording! It's like having daily backups done, but never testing if you can restore from those backups.
My LUKAS dashcam seemed like it was working fine, but every once in a while (2 or 3 times a day) it would just reboot. Turns out that it got out of sync with itself and wasn't deleting the old files in a loop fashion, and was constantly running out of space. It hadn't actually recorded anything in about 3 weeks time. So I just reformatted the SD card and now it's working great. (The sync problem hasn't returned).
It's also good to get the memory card loaded up and make sure you have any vendor specific software loaded (and know how to use it!).. as well as any codecs that may be necessary. (A chinese dashcam I once had required a really obscure coded, which I was able to find).�
Nov 17, 2015
MassModel3 Well this just went on my Christmas short list. I'm looking forward to the follow-up with wiring and mounting.�
Nov 17, 2015
David99 +1 to Hank about testing the camera on a regular basis. I had trouble with reliability on many dash cameras. I had a total of 10 different ones over the years. Some just turned off, some recorded but the files were not readable.�
Nov 17, 2015
SW2Fiddler I guess it would also be a Good Idea to get a couple extra media cards to rotate, putting a fresh one in when you do the above monthly check, or when you have to use some of the footage. So there's something in there to record with when the first one is out of the camera.
Memory's so cheap now.�
Nov 17, 2015
brianman I have the BlackVue 5xx series (one camera) installed but it wigged out re: GPS and timestamps. I think the battery needs to be replaced but that's somewhat involved for this device, unfortunately. For the next device I get, hopefully that particular design fail won't repeat.
Thanks for sharing the name of the one you like.
Looking at the website [http://thinkware.com/Products/Dashcam/F750], I had some comments and questions:
"Continuous Recording: ... when you start the engine...."
How does this work in the Model S?
"Parking Surveillance Mode: ... protect your car from hit-and-run accidents."
Sloppy language IMO, unless it really somehow creates a protective force-field around the vehicle. (In which case, I totally want one.)
"Incident Recording: .... 10 seconds prior to and after the impact ..."
IIRC, BlackVue's is 5 seconds -- nice improvement.
"Automatic Switching between Parking Mode and Continuous Mode: ... ignition ... The optional hardwiring cable...."
I prefer BlackVue's approach of toggling based on vehicle motion rather than some notion of "on".
"Recording Time: ... supports UHS-1 microSD memory card up to 64GB"
Nice to see them explicitly list 64GB support. BlackVue only indicates 32GB is supported, though many of us found 64GB to work once you get the card externally formatted.
"Thermal Self-Protection, No Overheating"
Definitely good to see this seeming improvement over BlackVue.
I didn't see any info on this page about whether you could pull the footage off the camera directly over wifi. With my BlackVue, I could connect from a PC (two netcards -- one to the car, one to the house wifi) to extract the video from FTP and put it on a server in my house.
From the owner's manual, they appear to have iOS and Android flavored mobile apps but no love for Windows Phone. No worse than BlackVue, but no better.�
Nov 17, 2015
gizmoboy You can with the apps, but apparently once downloaded to the phone, it lives in the app only (at least on iOS) and can't be forwarded, emailed, etc. Perhaps in an update...�
Nov 17, 2015
brucet999 I read somewhere that the thing connects to two 12V power sources; one on all the time, the other on when the ignition is on, which in Tesla terms means when it is out of Park. Presumably, when it sees only the all-the-time power source it puts itself in "Parking mode".�
Nov 17, 2015
HankLloydRight The model S turns on with the brake pedal (and off after your butt leaves the seat), not the gear selection.�
Nov 18, 2015
cynix I plugged it into the constant 12V socket in the microphone grille, so it records 24/7.
I agree. The only reason I let it record 24/7 is because there's no spare "switched" 12V socket near the mic grille. I would definitely prefer not to record continuously when parked, since that reduces memory card life.
I've actually been using a 128GB microSDXC card without issue.�
Nov 18, 2015
liuping You can tap the switched 12V source for the mirror, the wire is right in front of the mic grill area (see pics here: Newer VIN constant 12v power options (dashcam)? - Page 7) I know people don't like taping wires, but a Posi-Tap is very safe and easy to use.
So far I really like the F750. I like the REC button, so you can keep events that did not trigger automatic saving (like someone doing something stupid), I use to hit my Blackview to create an event, but that just seems wrong.
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The ACC power (at least the in the rear view mirror +12V wire) seems to come on as soon as you open the door.
The F750 plays a little wake up tune when it comes out of parking mode, and tells you how many parking events there were, and it does this as soon as I open the door.�
Nov 18, 2015
HankLloydRight Yes, that is correct. My intention was that the ACC power isn't related to the gear setting.�
Nov 18, 2015
brianman Thanks!�
Nov 18, 2015
freeewilly I don't get why auto manufactures don't include dashcam as an option, implement the camera into the rear view mirror.
Many cars radio already have LCD screen build-in, just adding the map and direction cost over a thousand (hint Tesla). They can charge a ton of money and most people will still willing to pay for it.�
Nov 18, 2015
gizmoboy That does sound really convenient.
I'm going to take a look at bollar's install, and I might try adding a tapped connection to the switched cable if I decide to go with the F750�
Nov 18, 2015
loganss +1000000000000
Seems like a no brainer business-wise. I would have definitely purchased a dashcam if it was an option when buying the car.�
Nov 18, 2015
Pilot_51 The 12V accessory socket is only powered on when the screens are on. I have my Mobius plugged into it using a 15ft cable. Super easy installation with no permanent modifications and no tape. Just have the wire through the passenger visor, tucked under the door weather seal down to the dashboard, then under the mat from the back of the footwell to the side of the seat next to the socket. The wire isn't all that concealed, but good enough for me and there's pretty much zero risk of breaking something or voiding warranty.
The Mobius supports microSDXC. I have a 64GB card with a fat32 file system and it works great.
I want a rear cam, but I don't really want to disassemble parts of my car to get the wire back there and there doesn't seem to be much else that can practically be done.�
Dec 9, 2015
Whitmarsh Warranty. I expect this has been asked before but I can't find a reference to it: does fitting a dash-cam, such as the Blackvue 650, have any effect on the Tesla warranty or on whether Tesla would accept the car under the Resale Value Guarantee?�
Feb 4, 2016
mkjayakumar What should I do if I need a dashcam that would capture the dash screen and the road in front? I want to capture the AP graphics that show up and the road conditions ahead of me. A camera fixed right on top of the seat head rest should be able to do it, or two cameras on two channels that would record on a PIP mode.�
Feb 4, 2016
Andyw2100 If you wanted to use two cameras I imagine any of the two-channel cameras would work, with the main camera set up in the usual way, and the rear camera set up to shoot capture the IC.�
Feb 4, 2016
PaulR Want to see what's really happening? See what this guy has! See the TMC Thread: The 1st 8 Cameras Dash Cam capturing Autopilot V7 in public
I have the BlackVue 650-2CH - the only downside I have found is that when I put in the rear facing camera it made the rear-window removable screen un-usable, but not much of an sacrifice anyway. With BlackVue's new "Cloud" and "Wi-Fi" functions you can easily access your camera or the recordings on your smartphone or tablet or PC.
There is a problem with the Tesla front windshield in that it doesn't allow the camera's GPS and Speed functions to work all of the time. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Like so many have said before, I don't watch it every day, but just like insurance, you don't need it until you need it.....
�
Apr 22, 2016
DrTaras I'm investigating this DashCam and I came across this critique:
"Good form factor but 70 second boot time is a huge negative."
Anyone have a comment?
Thinkware F550 | Dash Cam Talk�
Apr 22, 2016
Andyw2100 I don't know anything about this particular dashcam. But I'll still comment on the criticism of the 70-second boot time.
If you're planning on using the dashcam in a Tesla, you're probably planning on having it on at all times, so that you can monitor things when you are parked as well as when you are driving. The power draw should not be an issue, since our 12V batteries recharge from the traction packs. So the boot time should not be an issue for you since you'll essentially be booting the system once, and then leaving it on. (Yes, there will be times when you will be rebooting, but it won't be a daily occurrence.)
I don't see why the long boot time would be a negative for the way you are likely to use the dashcam.�
Apr 22, 2016
Xenoilphobe I have Blackvue 650's in every vehicle - wire it up and forget it.�
Apr 22, 2016
liuping I have it wired to go into lower power "parking" mode when the Tesla is turned off. It boots in seconds from this mode.�
Apr 23, 2016
supratachophobia I use mine to dispute speeding tickets, record wrecks around me, and most recently, get a trucking company to pay for a brand new windshield because one of their trucks chucked a rock up into the air and the dash cam caught it all.�
Apr 23, 2016
TaoJones Indispensable.�
Apr 23, 2016
Andyw2100 You mention getting a trucking company to pay because their truck was responsible for launching a rock in the road into your windshield. I'm interested in how that works, and just why the trucking company was responsible, if the rock was just a hazard in the road. I ask, because when I made this video:
it never even dawned on me that if there had been damage to the car behind me, I could have been held responsible. Your post implies that perhaps I could have been, so I'm interested in learning more, as this is a subject I know little about.�
Apr 24, 2016
supratachophobia 4513.31 Securing loads on vehicles.
(A) No vehicle shall be driven or moved on any highway unless the vehicle is so constructed, loaded, or covered as to prevent any of its load from dropping, sifting, leaking, or otherwise escaping therefrom, except that sand or other substance may be dropped for the purpose of securing traction, or water or other substance may be sprinkled on a roadway in cleaning or maintaining the roadway.
(B) Except for a farm vehicle used to transport agricultural produce or agricultural production materials or a rubbish vehicle in the process of acquiring its load, no vehicle loaded with garbage, swill, cans, bottles, waste paper, ashes, refuse, trash, rubbish, waste, wire, paper, cartons, boxes, glass, solid waste, or any other material of an unsanitary nature that is susceptible to blowing or bouncing from a moving vehicle shall be driven or moved on any highway unless the load is covered with a sufficient cover to prevent the load or any part of the load from spilling onto the highway.
In Ohio at least, vehicles such as dump trucks, construction trailers, landscaping trailers are responsible for covering and/or securing their loads. So, for example, a landscaping company doing 70mph down the highway with an uncovered trailer of mulch blowing every which way would be in violation of said law. Lucky for you, no real damage from blowing mulch around.
Dump trucks/construction trailers are no different. You have mud and rocks that could either be caked onto construction equipment or being hulled in bulk from location to location. At the gravel yards, they have rumble strips the trucks drive over to dislodge any loose material so it falls off there instead of out on the road.
Now out on the road, if debris falls off the truck and hits the ground and then in turn hits your car, guess what? Your fault, you just hit a road hazard. However, if the debris falls off the truck and onto your car, causing damage, guess what? Not your fault. The trick is two-fold though. You need to prove it came off the truck and hit you directly, and you need to prove there was damage.
Fortunately or unfortunately in my case, the dash cam caught a rock falling off the back of the truck onto the spinning tire. The rock then proceeded to fly up into the air and then land at a downward trajectory about six inches to the left of the dash cam. You can see it's entire flight path on it's fateful journey.
Now the adjuster was completely up front and said that in 90% of cases he denies windshield claims like mine for lack of proof. But in my case, you really couldn't ask for a better example of why to have a dash cam. 1080p/45fps was good enough in this case. However, I think 60fps would be better for the future.�
Apr 24, 2016
supratachophobia For further reading, please note this article and the signs on the back of the truck. They specifically mention my points, "Stay Back 100ft" because in that distance, you could get hit with a rock that hasn't hit the ground yet. And second, "Not responsible for objects thrown from road", or in other words, if it hits the ground first, it's not their fault.
Rock from truck cracks your windshield: Now what?
This is why if you are in doubt about what happened, the debris ALWAYS went straight from the truck to your car. If you don't take that stance, you'll be dismissed out of hand. I'm not telling you to lie, just give it some thought and be sure of what really happened. Because if you admit there is a chance it did hit the ground, you are paying the deductible.�
Apr 24, 2016
Andyw2100 Thanks! This makes sense.
The disconnect between what I had been thinking and what happened in your case is that the rock actually came off the truck in the first place. The way you had initially written it--"because one of their trucks chucked a rock up into the air and the dash cam caught it all." made it sound like the rock--like the box in my video--had just been in the road.
So my thinking was generally correct. The trucking company was responsible because it was their rock, and you could prove it!�
May 8, 2016
Maximus8 Here's a short clip of a vehicle not stopping in a 4 way stop. You can imagine if there was a pedestrian or vehicle in the intersection, something bad may have happened. Good thing I was far enough away that I was safe. From the video, it looks as if the driver totally missed the stop sign...the vehicle did not even slow down.
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Jul 20, 2016
Soolim This is why I have a dashcam in addition to accident recording.
Here are the links to recording captured by the Blackvue in chronological order:
�
Jul 20, 2016
HankLloydRight So no events, just capturing scenery?�
Jul 20, 2016
MitchMitch @Soolim
Awesome and thanks for sharing. Made my morning.
Chopin was just the right choice for the views.�
Jul 20, 2016
Barry My Blackvue doesn't do a music background. Am I missing an update?�
Jul 21, 2016
MassModel3 Well I just did a firmware update this weekend and now my Blackvue doesn't do GPS, either. Personally, I'd be happy if I had GPS and no music (which I also don't have).�
Jul 28, 2016
Phillip L I taped the power line to my dashcam that I put in front of the rear view mirror along the upper edge of the windshield with double sided tape that I had cut into thin strips. It lasted for over a year, then this spring, when the interior of our Model S was reading about 40 degrees C it all fell down, including the dashcam itself. I used some spots of gel superglue to put it back up. I assume this is the only way to do this?
Also, was driving down the highway behind a semi when one of his front inside tires blew and luckily for me by the time it went under the length of the truck it had flattened enough so it just displaced the front and front left panel a bit. Pushed them back in and looks fine.�
Jul 28, 2016
MassModel3 Wow, close call. That could have been pretty disastrous. I had someone's detached retread redesign the front end of my old Altima.
BTW, love that profile picture.�
Jul 28, 2016
supratachophobia Uhhh, really close call. Have you seen that Mythbusters where they test that myth??? Truck tires in all forms are deadly. Deadly if one rolls over you, deadly if they over inflate, deadly if they disintegrate, deadly if they blow out. Hell, they may even kill you without even being on a truck by tipping over and crushing you.�
Jul 28, 2016
Phillip L Thanks.
Put the Model S fob on an old Thomas the Tank Engine layout.�
Jul 28, 2016
Phillip L This is actually the second time that has happened to me. A few years ago driving a little Hyundai Accent I had one roll right at me. For a split second I contemplated trying to avoid it but figured I would roll off the highway and get killed. Luckily the thing collapsed just about ten feet in front of the car and I passed right over it.�
Jul 28, 2016
lloyds My BMW was rear ended recently and my Blackvue was recording. It just so happened a police car drove by so he stopped to see if everything was all right. The guy behind me claimed that I made an abrupt stop in front of him. I immediately showed the officer my recording and he became very irritated when it showed the guy was on the phone at the time.�
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