Why don't todays cars have dash cams facilities by Default or Option?

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Why don't todays cars have dash cams facilities by Default or Option?

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alasta

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#2400615 17-Jan-2020 12:12

Geektastic:

My wife parks her car at the station each workday. That car has accumulated more dings and scratches from mystery drivers than would appear possible. Many seem to think whacking the door open into the side of someone else's care is perfectly acceptable.

This happened to me last year and the perpetrator didn't notice that I was seated in my car at the time. I just got out and stared at her, and the look on her face made it all worthwhile.

ajobbins

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#2400696 17-Jan-2020 13:18

I'm thinking about putting a dashcam in my new car. I wish I could just tap into the (at least 4) factory camera feeds and record them somewhere, but doesn't seem to be possible.

I kind of prefer it NOT being a built in feature of the car. If I were ever to have an accident or an incident where I might have been in the wrong - I'd rather my insurance company (or the cops) didn't know I might have footage. With an external unit, I can just remove an SD card and pretend it wasn't working.

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mentor

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#2400829 17-Jan-2020 15:46

Geektastic:

I had one hardwired in my last car. I have not done the current one yet because the only place I trust to do it correctly is in Wellington and I have not been there with sufficient time and the car in the 16 months since I bought the car! At this rate I will be be biffing the car before I get that done.

Try Rapid Radio if you are Auckland based. They hardwired an Escort Max 360 in mine and it almost looks like factory!

dclegg

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#2400831 17-Jan-2020 15:47

sbiddle:

There are so many things that should be on cars as standard that aren't.

I could never survive having another car that didn't have automatic lights and wipers. Auto lighting is probably a 20c light sensor, would do wonders for road safety if more vehicles had lights that were on during low light or poor weather and and yet it only appears on high end vehicles.

They're starting to trickle down. Our 2019 CX-3 has automatic lights & wipers.

jarledb

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#2400851 17-Jan-2020 16:13

dclegg:

They're starting to trickle down. Our 2019 CX-3 has automatic lights & wipers.

My 2011 Toyota Avensis has both, didn't think that was a new thing at all. (And that car is not anywhere near a luxury car).

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ajobbins

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#2400859 17-Jan-2020 16:21

dclegg:

sbiddle:

There are so many things that should be on cars as standard that aren't.

I could never survive having another car that didn't have automatic lights and wipers. Auto lighting is probably a 20c light sensor, would do wonders for road safety if more vehicles had lights that were on during low light or poor weather and and yet it only appears on high end vehicles.

They're starting to trickle down. Our 2019 CX-3 has automatic lights & wipers.

My first car, a 1989 Nissan Laurel, had automatic headlights (and steering wheel radio controls!). Sadly the wipers were still manual.

Quite the luxury car for it's time. Start as you intend to go on, I guess

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empacher48

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#2400866 17-Jan-2020 16:41

jarledb:

dclegg:

They're starting to trickle down. Our 2019 CX-3 has automatic lights & wipers.

My 2011 Toyota Avensis has both, didn't think that was a new thing at all. (And that car is not anywhere near a luxury car).

My 2006 Peugeot 407 has both, the headlights come on automatically when the wipers start as well in low light. I have front and rear dash cams and just run the cables around the door seals to the respective 12V sockets.

Our old 2006 Toyota Caldina had the automatic headlights only, but I was aware that in low light conditions it would only turn on the park lights, but the full headlights when it was really dark. So I never used the automatic function as having the park lights on is just as bad as having no lights at all.

Geektastic

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#2402674 20-Jan-2020 19:51

See here

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/bmw-debuts-downloadable-dash-cam-technology-77620

gzt

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#2402686 20-Jan-2020 20:09

empacher48: Our old 2006 Toyota Caldina had the automatic headlights only, but I was aware that in low light conditions it would only turn on the park lights, but the full headlights when it was really dark. So I never used the automatic function as having the park lights on is just as bad as having no lights at all.

I believe most cars have an adjustment for the trigger level. That said, mine don't turn on early enough to use and I haven't got round to looking for it : )

Obraik

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#2402688 20-Jan-2020 20:10

Geektastic: See here

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/bmw-debuts-downloadable-dash-cam-technology-77620

Of course BMW will charge for it on a subscription basis lol. To be fair, if that includes storage on a cloud server somewhere then that's ok but otherwise, no thanks.

Worse though, they want you to pay to enable auto-highbeams!

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