dash cam video

[Kevin]

My wife and I have talked about a third car for a while. Partly because we've needed one from time to time, and partly because my truck gets HORRIBLE gas mileage...like 15 mpg around town.

So, we got a new BMW. What a great car. It's green. I've only had one other green car, a 2 wheel drive Toyota Tacoma, back when they were itty bitty trucks.

But this car, being new, has all sorts of cameras and computers in it. Including a built in dash cam. The car has 4 cameras outside, and you can set the dash cam to record all four cameras. It's set to automatically record up to 30 seconds before and accident and 30 seconds after an accident. OR, you can manually press a button to start recording. You can also download the recordings, which are saved as a .TS file (transport stream) which is used in DVD's. It's basically an MPEG 2 file. (I know nothing about it, this is just from Wikipedia...but it's interesting.)

Anyway, here is a youtube video of a sample. I was at a stop light playing with the buttons.
Top left is front camera
Top Right is rear camera
bottom left is driver's side camera
bottom right is passenger's side camera (I think they are mounted on the side mirrors.)

Please let me know if you can't see the video. I tested it and it works on my computer. There isn't any sound, and it's just a sample video.

https://youtu.be/-oPtzVX2Msk

 

[Colonialgirl]

Interesting; If I had that I would have a record of two or three near accidents I've observed lately with all the snowbirds down here lately.

 

[Kevin]

It is interesting, I just wish I could capture footage without having to manually press a button. If someone cuts me off, the incident would be over before I could think to press “start.” This is the biggest drawback I can see right now.

 

[BearBiologist]

Seems like it would be distracting. My dad was a trucker and taught me to be aware of my surroundings=it might be too late to learn new tricks. My 4Runner has a back-up camera and I sometimes forget to use it and look around instead.

 

[RoninPA]

" It's set to automatically record up to 30 seconds before and accident and 30 seconds after an accident."

Not to doubt what you said, but: How does the car know you are going to have an accident 30 seconds before it happens? At 60 mph, that's a half mile, at 10 mph, that's 140 yds. As far as I can see, it would have to be recording at all times and then the computer date stamps the video backwards by 30 seconds if something (a sensor) tells it there has been a shock of a certain magnitude to the vehicle indicating an accident.

 

[Kevin]

As far as I can see, it would have to be recording at all times and then the computer date stamps the video backwards by 30 seconds if something (a sensor) tells it there has been a shock of a certain magnitude to the vehicle indicating an accident.

And then, after the fact you could download the video if you wanted via USB device, like a thumb drive.

Yes, this is what it must be doing. I've had video cameras do the same thing for slow motion effects, only it takes a lot of battery power. I also just read in Popular Mechanics magazine, that newer cars record as much as 5GB of data for every driving hour. It was in reference to a story about how Maryland and the "fix it yourself" laws. Subaru disables certain data because of the laws there. I don't remember the specifics.

And as far as being distracting. It runs in the background, and won't display any video if the car is in motion.

 

[Dan in MI]

Not to doubt what you said, but: How does the car know you are going to have an accident 30 seconds before it happens? At 60 mph, that's a half mile, at 10 mph, that's 140 yds. As far as I can see, it would have to be recording at all times and then the computer date stamps the video backwards by 30 seconds if something (a sensor) tells it there has been a shock of a certain magnitude to the vehicle indicating an accident.

That is exactly what it does. It is continually running in a buffer loop of probably two or three minutes. When it detects an accident it time stamps the event and keeps 30s of recorded video prior the time stamp and however much after.

I used data recording equipment all the time that did exactly that. We decided what the trigger event was and the computer just kept running in a loop until the trigger event. We could set up how much pre and post data of the event we wanted to see. Usually it was all pre the event to determine what caused it.

I was going to comment I would like it to have a manual trigger with user specified timing. Say 30s or a minute prior to me hitting the button and 5 minutes post. Say you see something you are nervous about. You hit the button now you have x amount of pre incident data and your chosen amount of post data. Might be good for a road rage incident, or some other issue.

 

[Jeepnik]

The same is now available on many cars and trucks. I passed on my Tacoma. But I did later install an aftermarket forward looking dash cam. It records to an SD card and basically runs whenever the ignition is on. Then it starts to rewrite the card when full. I suppose it might come in handy some day for an accident, but I've found it does pretty good recording what's in front of us when we take drives in pretty country.

 

[blume357]

My Garmin GPS has a dash camera that is constantly recording to a loop that last about 24 hours and will also record an event. Because of how I parked one morning it actually recorded me taking a dive off of a roof. I won't post the youtube video of this because it hurts a lot... unless enough folks insist.

 

[Fox Mike]

Because of how I parked one morning it actually recorded me taking a dive off of a roof. I won't post the youtube video of this because it hurts a lot... unless enough folks insist.

This crew would probably give you "style points".

 

[GunnyGene]

Because of how I parked one morning it actually recorded me taking a dive off of a roof. I won't post the youtube video of this because it hurts a lot... unless enough folks insist.

This crew would probably give you "style points".

Nah. Might hold his beer tho. :lol:

 

[Dave P.]

My Garmin GPS has a dash camera that is constantly recording to a loop that last about 24 hours and will also record an event. Because of how I parked one morning it actually recorded me taking a dive off of a roof. I won't post the youtube video of this because it hurts a lot... unless enough folks insist.

Was that the one with the Three Stooges ladder setup?

 

[Kevin]

Blume:
I’d like to see that video.
I’m guess you didn’t bounce like Willi-E-Coyote would have.

 

[Jeepnik]

The garmin is what I have different ways to wire it. I chose to have it powered by the ignition. On my truck it keeps recording a bit after you turn the truck off.