Almost EVERYONE is Wasting Money on Dash Cams.

[Chiyawa]

I think someone has made a dash cam using Raspberry Pi. Forgotten where I found it, though. They add cooler to the chips as to not toast the whole thing.

[oiaohm]

1 hour ago, nzldbart said:

Hey James,

 

Here's a challenge, make your own dash cam using a NUC, Web Cam and surveillance software

 

Could be a fun project.

 

https://www.autopi.io/blog/how-to-install-dash-cam-instructions/

 

If you are after to use a webcam you don't have to go that far.    There are different setups using raspberry pi and other options as well.   There is something interesting there are different Raspberry pi options like this one are able to record engine management data as well as video.   So the car sensor data lined up with the video.

 

When you get into custom car cam solutions there is question how far should you go before 1) its too costly 2) you have caused yourself flat batteries.    For 1 or 2 webcams a NUC is most likely overkill.

[_Froyo]

I was just thinking about getting a dashcam, so this video was quite timely. Thanks!

[Guest]

weird that a raspberry pi and web cam solution wasn't proposed.

[schmism]

Great vid found it very informative.

 

Suggestion for the next video on this topic,  in addtion to higher priced units,  the DIY version out of old cell phones or perhaps generic gopros etc.   I feel like the space is perfect for some home grown solution with a raspberry pi and some 3d printing.

[mrMad-Cat]

IMO this is one of the worst videos LTT has made. Amazon tops never represented good devices. Why not make a much deeper broader analysis?

And what is a dashcam review without even mentioning xiaomi's 70Mai? A800/A800s uses Sony IMX415 sensor and HiSilicon Hi3559 V200 / SigmaStar SSC8629G for example and is a very decent camera for it's price.

[Action_Johnson]

I've got a Blackvue DR-900S 2-channel in my car for front and rear. Front is 4K, rear is 1080. 

 

Absolutely love it. I go through car batteries slightly quicker than usual, but otherwise it's terrific.  Got a Circular Polarizer off amazon that fits right over the lens, does well at night even with the CPL on. 

[Gen_Dave]

It would be nice to see a follow up video of alternative dashcam's for under $100. a raspberry pi W with the 12 meg camera, a gopro and an old phone would work off the top of my head. It would be nice to see the pro's and cons and comparison with the ones previously tested. 

[oiaohm]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003786974035.html

 

There is something else to consider should people be even go the dashcam route.    There are such things as 360 degree camera setups for cars.   Majority of these have loop recording.   Yes on all 4 cameras at once recording while you are driving.  No random fitting because the cameras are install once remove never.     Yes they cost to wire in and have calibrated by installer..   Take this one here it uses your HDMI in on your central console for it output.    So you have something that does the dashcam item that if person does not go looking for the 4 cameras does not appear be in the car.    Cameras are designed to be exposed to the elements.

 

Your most expensive dashcams that are really thief bate and some of them are  more expensive to buy new than 360 degree camera setups to buy and get installed.   Yes very expensive dashcams are very much putting up kick me signs you are not getting the quality of recording and you are putting up a break into me sign as if you have the money to waste on a highly expensive dashcam it likely that there will be other good things in there.

 

I would find it very interesting for the dashcams to be put head to head with the cheaper 360 degree camera setups.    The 360 degree camera setups are legal in more countries than dashcams.    Yes there are states in the USA and other countries that a dashcam is illegal because you could have effected vision of driver putting anything on the dash/windscreen.

 

360 camera setups prime job is to remove blind spots.  Secondary role is parking monitoring and video recording while driving.    Remember dashcam due to being at the drivers location does not remove the blind spot in front of car.

 

If some people are truthful with themselves the biggest to their car is themselves running into something because they cannot see it due to a blindspot than anything else.   This is not all people as it depends on where you live what the risk are.    Yes people spend money on dashcams to prevent insurance fraud interesting point 360 degree camera setup does that better because dashcams front and back of car only no side coverage in most cases.   Those doing insurance fraud stuff don't just target the front and back of car..

 

Of course the downside of wired it is that it comes part of the car.    It also comes a question should 360 degree camera setups come as stock from factory feature that all you should need to do is insert a storage device.

[OneGuy83]

Vortex Radar has responded to the LTT video. they're a great channel in the Sumas Washington area. LTT should reach out to them for more details on dashcams and radar detectors

 

 

 

[MsAnneThrope]

I chortled a little throughout LTT’s YT video, “Almost EVERYONE is Wasting Money on Dash Cams”.  

 

He’s absolutely right, of course.  It’s 2022!  Surely, we can do better.  I REALLY appreciated the technical spec’s and comparisons.  Awesome!  (I no longer shop at Amazon.ca, but it was still helpful.)  

 

Naturally, I’d love to have NASA-level imaging.  In fact, the subject has come-up many times, over the years, since I’m a security camera “enthusiast”.  (I currently have a dozen, standard, home security cameras; 8 cellular trailcams, most of which are at my remote cottage; a bodycam I wear on walks; and my one 360° dashcam, so far.)  

 

Police knocked on my door recently, because a neighbour had told them about my numerous security cameras, and they wanted to see if I had any video of the moments surrounding an incident that’d occurred up the street.  

 

‘There are two kinds of people’ and the first cop was sweet as pie, fresh out of training, and earnestly asked if he could view any video I might have.  His partner was more what one expects, these days.  Sullen and almost sarcastic, he stood there, scowling, only wanting to know if my cameras were high-enough quality to identify someone...at night...the closest point being at least 100’ away...in motion.  (Good luck with that.)  

 

Instantly perturbed by his sanctimony, I explained that security cameras aren’t JUST for identifying.  They’re useful in showing what did, and didn’t, happen.  (How prophetic that was.)  Turning my attention back towards the more civilized officer, I explained how, a few years ago, a truck plowed through several neighbours’ properties across the street, took-out a hydro pole, then took-off.  (Apparently the driver’s father forced him to return to the scene, and) he told police he’d had to avoid another vehicle.  My cameras proved there was no other traffic.  He was speeding excessively and simply lost control on a completely empty street.  (I don’t relish being a narc, but I prefer my lovely neighbours over that liar.)  

 

In the case up the street, the police had concocted a whole scenario about what they thought had occurred.  My cameras proved it couldn’t have happened that way.  The young, polite officer standing in my living room was visibly disheartened when the video didn’t show speeding vehicles and people fleeing on foot, as they’d imagined. (...at least, that’s the gist I got.)  

 

When it comes to dashcams, of course I’d love to have crystal-clear video that could identify someone at night, 100’ away, in motion.  But I suspect the bulk of their use is just documenting what happened in some incident. (Yes, it’s 2022 and they should be better.)  Apprehension, or conviction in court, are separate issues.  

 

(Even video won’t help you, if you’re dealing with police corruption.  If Yessinia Garcia had had a dashcam with parking mode, she wouldn’t have suffered the violence and life-ruining humiliation of the police officers -who KNEW she was innocent, thanks to nearby security video they viewed while still at the scene- because she could’ve watched her own video, and either not interacted with police at all, or shown her video to police, herself.)

 

(If you don’t know the Yessinia Garcia case, I encourage you to look it up, esp. the uncut bodycam video of her arrest.  In short, she went out to her car, only to find the windshield smashed.  She flagged two bicycle cops, who then immediately decided she was the driver of a hit-and-run a mile or so away, earlier that evening.  A responding officer went to view nearby security video, and saw a random man jogging down the sidewalk, jump onto her car, stomp her windshield, then jog off.  She was clearly not the hit-and-run driver.  But the officers brutalized and violated her, arrested her, “leaked” her mugshot to the media with the story she was drunk and hit someone, fled the scene then, later, made-up a story about how her car was damaged, which went international, all because cops are corrupt and she didn’t have a dashcam with parking mode to prove what actually happened.) (Admittedly, witnessing that degree of pure evil has forever changed me.)  

 

When I finally got around to installing a 360° system in one of my vehicles (with driver-facing camera), I was relieved.  (Why, in 2022, don’t all vehicles come with integrated cameras, esp. parking mode?)  It has already answered some questions and led to some fun clips.  But, in addition to the old Russian insurance scam videos, there was one video that really convinced me to get one.  

 

Several years ago, a woman posted a video of herself being pulled-over by police.  She started the posted clip prior to the appearance of the police cruiser, and let it run as she pulled over, and the officer announced she was stopped for not wearing her seatbelt.  ‘There are two kinds of people’ and, even though she was CLEARLY wearing her seatbelt the whole time, so many bootlickers commented that the cop probably saw her without her seatbelt earlier, she put it on, THEN started the recording, that she ultimately reposted the entire video, from the time she started her vehicle in her driveway, to when she was pulled over, proving the cop was lying (and the bootlickers should probably wake up to reality).  

 

The simple act of a lying cop pulling-over someone, thinking he/she would have no way to dispute the charge, is what convinced me to get full-surround dashcam coverage.  I was insistent on front, rear, and driver-facing.  There could be more, but no less.  In the seatbelt story, this was when driver-facing cameras were new.  She mentioned, to the officer, she had a dashcam.  He was unmoved.  She clarified that she had a driver-facing dashcam, and his demeanour visibly changed.  It was obviously something he hadn’t anticipated.  He immediately let her go.  I was sold.  

 

There are loads of other police interaction videos we’ve all seen, that are only known thanks to dashcam.  But there are so many other, more-likely ways dashcams can be useful.  I got close-up, daytime video of the face of a suspected burglar (a local man with a rather distinctive gait), where my home security cameras were far away and in nightvision when the suspect traversed my property at 2AM on the night of the break-in.  I have fun video from inside a very colourful carwash, and exciting video of a wolf trotting across the highway.  

 

Sure, dashcams should be better.  Absolutely!  But it isn’t all about identifying someone beyond a reasonable doubt in court.  

 

 

Summary

 Dashcam quality bad; it isn’t all about identification beyond a reasonable doubt

[Skiiwee29]

@MsAnneThrope I have merged your thread into the video thread surrounding the Dashcam discussion. 

[MsAnneThrope]

5 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

@MsAnneThrope I have merged your thread into the video thread surrounding the Dashcam discussion. 

OMG!  Thank you.  I’m brand new and looked for a previous post on this topic (but obviously not hard enough).   

 

Thanks for helping me out.   

[FatalXception]

I think the sub $100 pricepoint was a setup for the failure.  Dashcams have to be rugged for huge temperature swings, high enough resolution for license plates, work in day and night, and at high speeds without blurring and smearing.  Even outdoor security cameras and hunter cameras that can do only some of those things run in the multiple hundreds, so I hope there's a follow-up video with cameras in the $200-$450 range.  I don't think that's a huge one-time upfront cost for something that goes into your tens of thousands of dollars vehicle for many years.

 

Here are still frames from in motion driving with a mid range Garmin (old by tech standards, 4 years)... readable plates, readable names on street signs.  You usually won't make them out in the moving video because the slight vibration while driving makes things blur in video, but still frames are sharp.

 

Night Stopped

 

Sunless afternoon - can read street signs while driving

 

70km/hr easily readable plates.

 

I will note that these are also screenshots from an already compressed set of videos I made, the original video files from the camera were sharper.

 

I also love that vortex video, and how he spends the first few minutes setting the expectations around the difficulties that dashcams face in motion, temperature, light differences, and contrast.

 

 

[TheRomanSenate]

On 8/14/2022 at 12:27 PM, swimtome said:

I know everyone is going to post why u no test my dashcam:  But :

 

I was hoping to see Roav (not Rove) which is actually owned by Anker. 

I now wonder if Anker stumbled on this issue because the Roav website doesnt even list any Dashcams anymore. 

I did find this Amazon listing for the C2, and if Labs needs my Roav Duo or my C1 let me know.

 

The C1 is typically my daily driver and is at least on par with what we see here, some readable texts, some readable plates.  I think its towards the better end, but it did already let me prove fault at least once so that's what counts

Rove seems to have spun off of Roav from Anker, they use the same design language in their products.

[TheRomanSenate]

It's a shame that Linus skipped the mid-market dashcams as "too expensive" the $100-200 range is where most dash cams utilize capacitors and "quality" sensor tech, Vantrue being an example of that. Overheat protection may not matter in Canada, but it's extremely important for a majority of the population. What good is a $100 dashcam if it's shutdown due to overheat or damaged battery 100% of the time.

[Bramimond]

So what is the answer in the end?

[crad_55]

Sorry if this has been discussed or if I’m posting this in a strange place but

 

why not choose a camera that does what you want and wire it to a raspberry pie and make it do what you want? Even if an r pie couldn’t you could use a mini desktop and run windows.  That’s what I had always assumed my plan was as far as a dash cam goes but after that not even being mentioned in the video; I’m wondering if I’m just missing something ? 
This is assuming I can have full 12v ac power in my car; I can do that quite easily and even easily add an auxiliary battery that’s very basic for my wiring skills. (People do it for big subs and camper van builds they usually have the best tutorials)

So with any computer parts available what should/would I build?

ty

[swimtome]

On 8/26/2022 at 11:47 PM, TheRomanSenate said:

Rove seems to have spun off of Roav from Anker, they use the same design language in their products.

Sounds more like ripped off then spun off.

[Matttis]

It's so weird to me that this isn't a market companies like Samsung have crushed yet.
Put the main camera of the S22 Ultra in a plastic shell, add a bit of AI processing for capturing video at night. Something like that would just completely annihilate any other dashcam on the market and it could be sold at a reasonable price, too.

[bobonlinenet]

https://www.amazon.com/70mai-Dashboard-G-Sensor-Emergency-Recording/dp/B07F245PS1/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=1IDU02P4OZ797&keywords=70mai+mini+dash+cam&qid=1661893404&sprefix=70mai+mini%2Caps%2C1184&sr=8-5

 

I bought this cheap dash cam ever since i started leasing cars. the interface is kinda weird but it does the job. I’m going to check out the list and buy one of those. I guess all I need is better video quality and battery life. I’m not familiar with battery life on dash cams, but the one on this cam is really short. 

[danwat1234]

On 8/30/2022 at 9:07 AM, Matttis said:

It's so weird to me that this isn't a market companies like Samsung have crushed yet.
Put the main camera of the S22 Ultra in a plastic shell, add a bit of AI processing for capturing video at night. Something like that would just completely annihilate any other dashcam on the market and it could be sold at a reasonable price, too.

Or GoPro making a dashcam! I agree the market leaders should step up. Got to be a reason why they haven't green-lit. 

[TheRomanSenate]

On 9/2/2022 at 3:44 PM, danwat1234 said:

Or GoPro making a dashcam! I agree the market leaders should step up. Got to be a reason why they haven't green-lit. 

Right now (in the southern US at least) dashcams that are battery operated tend to explode during the summer. Tons of returns thought as defective when in reality the operational temperatures are just ignored by the average consumer.

[Navin Singh]

We all can use a Raspberry Pi Zero and a Picamera HD! :)

[Ravendarat]

On 8/16/2022 at 8:02 PM, oiaohm said:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003786974035.html

 

There is something else to consider should people be even go the dashcam route.    There are such things as 360 degree camera setups for cars.   Majority of these have loop recording.   Yes on all 4 cameras at once recording while you are driving.  No random fitting because the cameras are install once remove never.     Yes they cost to wire in and have calibrated by installer..   Take this one here it uses your HDMI in on your central console for it output.    So you have something that does the dashcam item that if person does not go looking for the 4 cameras does not appear be in the car.    Cameras are designed to be exposed to the elements.

 

Your most expensive dashcams that are really thief bate and some of them are  more expensive to buy new than 360 degree camera setups to buy and get installed.   Yes very expensive dashcams are very much putting up kick me signs you are not getting the quality of recording and you are putting up a break into me sign as if you have the money to waste on a highly expensive dashcam it likely that there will be other good things in there.

 

I would find it very interesting for the dashcams to be put head to head with the cheaper 360 degree camera setups.    The 360 degree camera setups are legal in more countries than dashcams.    Yes there are states in the USA and other countries that a dashcam is illegal because you could have effected vision of driver putting anything on the dash/windscreen.

 

360 camera setups prime job is to remove blind spots.  Secondary role is parking monitoring and video recording while driving.    Remember dashcam due to being at the drivers location does not remove the blind spot in front of car.

 

If some people are truthful with themselves the biggest to their car is themselves running into something because they cannot see it due to a blindspot than anything else.   This is not all people as it depends on where you live what the risk are.    Yes people spend money on dashcams to prevent insurance fraud interesting point 360 degree camera setup does that better because dashcams front and back of car only no side coverage in most cases.   Those doing insurance fraud stuff don't just target the front and back of car..

 

Of course the downside of wired it is that it comes part of the car.    It also comes a question should 360 degree camera setups come as stock from factory feature that all you should need to do is insert a storage device.

Ok so overlooking the fact that systems like that are terrible quality (im speaking from experience here as I have installed them before) they are excessively expensive if you get a qualified pro to install them, they often look bad, require non reversible modifications to be made to the vehicle and aren't reliable hardware. There are obviously better quality systems out there but then you are going even higher with the bill and the downside of non-reversible modifications remain. To put the cost in perspective the system you linked is about $200 shipped, install even on a lower end vehicle with an uncomplicated interior is still gonna be around 4 hours. Shop rate in my area of Canada is about $130 an hour so that brings the price up to $720 bucks to get a junk system. You can spend half of that and get a reliable brand name front and rear dashcam, it wont do your 360 parking but it will be reliable and wont leave holes in your review mirrors when you remove the 360 system when it inevitably fails