Is having GPS on the dash cam important?

T

twoscoops

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(I tried to search this forum, but the search function won't let me search "GPS" because it's too short. :( )

Is having GPS on the dash cam important? What are some of the common uses?

I suppose I can use it to track cheating wives or mechanics who drive my car on personal errands? :D :D :D
 
Next to the timestamp it also shows the speed on the video.
Also you can see where the car traveled on a map with seperate software.
Whether this is useful to you is entirely up to you, and yes you can hide the cam somewhere and later on spy where people drove, as long as it still can receive GPS signal :)
 
aside from seeing where you've been I think the more important detail is that it can record accurate time and location detail, if something happens it's one less thing to have to remember when your mind may be on other things
 
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You will be able to watch later on PC viewer something like this

 
GPS Data is a mixed bag. If I had workers driving around, I could use the data to see where they were. However, most of us drive a bit above the speed limit all the time. In the event of an accident, if the other side sees that you were over the speed limit, they will use this fact against you to show that you were partly at fault by speeding.

My person feeling is that GPS data isn't something I'd want on the video.


Bob Diaz
 
Re: GPS or not. I think it depends on what kind of driver you are and whether you want your speed as part of the video record. It may implicate you if you are obviously speeding or driving unsafely for the conditions. Personally, I'm looking for GPS on my next dash cam, there is value for me to having the speed as part of the video. I imagine if you have GPS you have the option of turning on or off recording speed on the video?
 
GPS Data is a mixed bag. If I had workers driving around, I could use the data to see where they were. However, most of us drive a bit above the speed limit all the time. In the event of an accident, if the other side sees that you were over the speed limit, they will use this fact against you to show that you were partly at fault by speeding.

My person feeling is that GPS data isn't something I'd want on the video.

Bob Diaz

You dont need a gps data to determine a speed.
Speed can be calculated from any dash camera which records time.
 
You dont need a gps data to determine a speed.
Speed can be calculated from any dash camera which records time.

it doesn't even need to record time, you only need to know the frame rate and be able to define two given points within the recorded video for which the distance between them could be determined, speed is just time taken to travel a given distance
 
I imagine if you have GPS you have the option of turning on or off recording speed on the video?

depends on the camera but they certainly do exist where this is a user selectable setting to embed the information or not and still collect the data regardless
 
You dont need a gps data to determine a speed.
Speed can be calculated from any dash camera which records time.

If one does go to the location of the video and make all sorts of measurements of the distances/positions of key objects, one could come up with a reasonable estimate of speed. A distance over 100 frames should get the answer to within 1% or so. This would be very costly and time consuming, but in the event of a major accident with massive settlements, it could be justified. For lessor accidents, I don't see it happening.

Bob Diaz
 
If one does go to the location of the video and make all sorts of measurements of the distances/positions of key objects, one could come up with a reasonable estimate of speed. A distance over 100 frames should get the answer to within 1% or so. This would be very costly and time consuming, but in the event of a major accident with massive settlements, it could be justified. For lessor accidents, I don't see it happening.

Bob Diaz

Actually it is not that hard to calculate a speed. You drive back to the accident place, take laptop with you along with evidence video, synchronize some point on the road with video footage point, then forward video lets say 3 sec, again synchronise place on the video with place on the road, calculate distance from A to B and convert / calculate into speed.
 
If one does go to the location of the video and make all sorts of measurements of the distances/positions of key objects, one could come up with a reasonable estimate of speed. A distance over 100 frames should get the answer to within 1% or so. This would be very costly and time consuming, but in the event of a major accident with massive settlements, it could be justified. For lessor accidents, I don't see it happening.

Bob Diaz

over a speeding ticket it's never going to happen, someone gets shot from a grassy knoll though and they'd be wanting your footage for analysis I'm sure
 
I don't have gps on either of my cams - it's not difficult or complicated to calculate your speed, simply take a fixed point on the vid & find it on google earth - there is a ruler on there to help measure. time taken to cover a measured distance gives speed. In this case, it will be an approximation but as near as makies no real odds. Also, most of us know where we are when an accident or an event happens, a quick look on google streetview will confirm this.
I had gps, google maps overlay and g-sensor data on my old t-eye. In less than a few minutes i was bored with looking at it.

Last year whilst walking my dog along a nearby canal, I had set my phone to log my journey. When I got home and checked my stats, the gps had me doing 50mph in a westerly direction starting some 5 miles off the coast of Wales!
Not bad, only a few hundred miles out!
I've also noticed some odd fluctuations when I'm driving my bus along the motorway. I'm maxed out at 62mph (100kph) and, generally, this is reflected in the speedo on my gps. However, there are times when I can reach speeds of up to 80mph (I don't feel like I'm going any faster, my speedo doesn't show this - but if that was on a video it could get me the sack!
 
Its up to you if you want gps. I use it for filling my drivelog.

In Netherland when you drive for your business you must register all your driving kilometers and where you have been. When a inspector is come to me I must let him see where I was on that moment, according my workinghours and destination.

Sent from my GT-P5100 using Tapatalk 4
 
For me GPS on dash camera is just a "toy"-accessory. Don't use it and don't see practical side in it for me. Of course there are people who's job require them, or helpful for certain tasks, but not for my everyday life, where even standard car sat-nav I am using about only 3-5% of the time.
 
I see gps, google map pointer & g-sensor (inc data) as being a toy as well.
If my boss wants to see where I've been, he can get a tracker fitted (the cam is mine so I don't have to show him footage). In any case, the video will clearly show where I've been. The only time I would wonder would be on a long motorway journey or country roads at a point where there are no visual clues.
As for g-sensor, well, the roads round here are so crap that I was filling all the lock files on my DR32 even with the sensor set to lowest.
 
It would just be a fun feature to me, not a requirement. Would rather have a decent one touch parking mode feature instead. Two each his own I suppose.
 
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