Is having GPS on the dash cam important?

[jokiin]

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.

We added one touch parking mode to our last model a couple of firmware versions ago based on user feedback, can be toggled on and off while the camera is recording as needed

We'll be doing an automated parking mode on some new models as the hardware is built to support this, we'll probably leave the quick toggle on/off anyway as it seems useful to have regardless

 

[Gurkha9]

Let's hope you'll have something ready by the end of the year!

 

[jokiin]

Let's hope you'll have something ready by the end of the year!

Let's

 

[niko]

We added one touch parking mode to our last model a couple of firmware versions ago based on user feedback, can be toggled on and off while the camera is recording as needed

We'll be doing an automated parking mode on some new models as the hardware is built to support this, we'll probably leave the quick toggle on/off anyway as it seems useful to have regardless

Me personally ( being "lazy" / convenient ) person, - don't like even doing 1 touch solution for parking mode.
First of all: many of us mounting dash cams behind the mirror, where is hard to reach to operate few time per day even 1 button for parking mode.
Second: some time I am in a hurry having busy day parking 5-10 times per day and each time seting ON and switching OFF a parking mode for me can be frustrating and some time I can forget to do that.
We all want some major functionality things to be simple and automated without thinking of pushing On / OFF button. It's the same with all dash cams auto start / stop recording upon ACC ( ignition ) switch on. It would be very uncomfortable to manually start / stop recording every time you start / stop driving car. Same way I see things with auto-parking / motion detection functionality. I just want one time install dash camera, set and forget, to concentrate more on safe driving rather than thinking / remembering " have I pushed parking mode button, or not " ?

 

[jokiin]

For people that want to use parking mode the they'll just need to leave it on, the toggle is really for those that wouldn't regularly use it but may want to without having to drill through multiple menus and without having to stop an active recording

 

[Gurkha9]

Exactly, I don't need parking mode all the time.

 

[niko]

Best if dash camera would allow via menu settings for each user to chose them selves what they want:

1. standard on / off recording
2. short press of dedicated parking / motion detection button will set dash camera for one-time parking mode. When driver is back, switch ignition on, then dash cam goes into standard rec mode and one-time parking mode selection is "forgotten" by device. SO, in this case selection of parking mode will be reset to standard mode after ignition switch on ( hope I can explain correctly .... my english is not that good )
3. long press of some dedicated button for parking / motion detection mode, will set dash camera for permanent parking / motion detection mode, where after you switch on ignition then dash camera goes into normal rec mode, but after you switch off ignition, then dash camera goes back automatically into parking / motion detection mode.

 

[mrted]

My reasons for wanting GPS:

- to potentially fight a speeding ticket
- in case of an accident to prove that I was not driving in an unsafe manner
- for any legal purposes, to be able to provide independent verification that I was in a certain place at a certain time

mrted

 

[dpick1947]

Hi I asked a copper about this as my old car was cloned I received a speeding ticket for speeding in wales and was lucky enough to have a doctors appointment at approx. same time in Middlesbrough some 300 miles away. I had this as evidence to prove not my car so police later caught the cloned car.

When talking to friendly cop neighbour(just his opinion not the law) about GPS on dashcam he said is dashcam a fixed item in car can it be removed when I answered it can be removed he said then that only proves where the dash cam was not where your car was. He said that the least you would need is a dual lens dashcam with yourself on one lens and the other lens on road to prove where you were. IE I have video showing GPS speed / location if I say location/ speed not same as offence.

Please note this is just his opinion he is not a traffic cop and is not up on recent legislation changes re dashcam etc. he is going to check for me.

dpick1947

 

[GJHS]

My reasons for wanting GPS:

- to potentially fight a speeding ticket
- in case of an accident to prove that I was not driving in an unsafe manner
- for any legal purposes, to be able to provide independent verification that I was in a certain place at a certain time

mrted

The problem here is looped recording, depending how much you drive and your SD card size. Sure if a cop pulls you over then you know to keep the footage. Something becoming very very common where I live and a good way for the cops to make money is red light cameras. If that ticket comes in the mail a week later, depending how much you drove that week, it may be too late to prove because that day/time was overwritten. You never knew it happen so you would never think to keep the footage. I had a crazy driver morning last week then drove far that day. When I got home I wanted to check the footage of that morning, it was gone and I have a 32GB card. I just drove a over 3 hours that day, which leads me to think I need to get another SD card or keep a daily download.

As far as speeding proof, in the US one defense is trying to prove the radar gun was not calibrated and inaccurate. How could you prove your GPS is accurate?

 

[sludgeguts]

Over the Christmas period I was asked to take a family away for the holiday period - 2 journeys, each being a 300 mile round trip.
On my phone I like to use an app called "waze", you can get reasonable up to date traffic info - but I don't like it for navigation so for the journeys, I used my garmin satnav.
Now, bearing in mind my bus has a limiter fitted, I am restricted to 62mph (100kph), there were times when both the satnav AND waze were showing me travelling at 80+mph. Fortunately, the tacho showed a max of 100kph for the whole time I was on the motorway.
What would happen if there had been a problem in front of me & I offered up my footage? I imagine plod would be very interested to see my speed clearly stamped on the footage!
Interestingly, whilst my speedo didn't go above 62mph (and you could feel the limiter kicking in and out), the two gps machines often didn't agree with my speed - and, at times, with each other.

Until such a time as these devices can agree with what is actually happening, I will not be paying anything extra for something I will ever be using.

 

[mrted]

Hi I asked a copper about this as my old car was cloned I received a speeding ticket for speeding in wales and was lucky enough to have a doctors appointment at approx. same time in Middlesbrough some 300 miles away. I had this as evidence to prove not my car so police later caught the cloned car.

When talking to friendly cop neighbour(just his opinion not the law) about GPS on dashcam he said is dashcam a fixed item in car can it be removed when I answered it can be removed he said then that only proves where the dash cam was not where your car was. He said that the least you would need is a dual lens dashcam with yourself on one lens and the other lens on road to prove where you were. IE I have video showing GPS speed / location if I say location/ speed not same as offence.

Please note this is just his opinion he is not a traffic cop and is not up on recent legislation changes re dashcam etc. he is going to check for me.

dpick1947

Technically true. But, GPS data + video corroborates your story and places the GPS inside your car.

mrted

 

[mrted]

The problem here is looped recording, depending how much you drive and your SD card size. Sure if a cop pulls you over then you know to keep the footage. Something becoming very very common where I live and a good way for the cops to make money is red light cameras. If that ticket comes in the mail a week later, depending how much you drove that week, it may be too late to prove because that day/time was overwritten. You never knew it happen so you would never think to keep the footage. I had a crazy driver morning last week then drove far that day. When I got home I wanted to check the footage of that morning, it was gone and I have a 32GB card. I just drove a over 3 hours that day, which leads me to think I need to get another SD card or keep a daily download.

As far as speeding proof, in the US one defense is trying to prove the radar gun was not calibrated and inaccurate. How could you prove your GPS is accurate?

I read that case last night and the guy was convicted because he was pro se and the prosecutor spent $15,000 on a GPS expert to pick apart the system. The guy didn't have the financial resources to prove the technical data. This was the first of inevitably many legal cases. The GPS *is* accurate, it just needs to find it's place in the system through more case history.

AFIK, for speeding tickets in the US you have to be cited on the spot. They can't just send you a ticket in the mail a few weeks later. For a red light issue, the video would probably be gone by the time I received it in the mail.

mrted

 

[GJHS]

AFIK, for speeding tickets in the US you have to be cited on the spot. They can't just send you a ticket in the mail a few weeks later. For a red light issue, the video would probably be gone by the time I received it in the mail.
mrted

They're not speeding tickets, they're tickets for running a red light. These cameras are now almost everywhere and not arguable. The tickets come a week later. Too late to know to save the footage
I had an officer pull me over for passing a red, which actually turned yellow as I passed. He wasn't even close to the light. A dash cam would have proved both.

 

[blink]

We added one touch parking mode to our last model a couple of firmware versions ago based on user feedback, can be toggled on and off while the camera is recording as needed

We'll be doing an automated parking mode on some new models as the hardware is built to support this, we'll probably leave the quick toggle on/off anyway as it seems useful to have regardless

For people that want to use parking mode the they'll just need to leave it on, the toggle is really for those that wouldn't regularly use it but may want to without having to drill through multiple menus and without having to stop an active recording

What product are you selling? Is the parking mode product ready now?

 

[kamkar]

True a dashcam can be removed and or put in another car, but then it would film another dashbord and another color hood of the car.
It will be highly questionable if a camera was removed put in a same kind of car and aligned in the same way, i think that will be hard to do.
So if any one would dare to argue that in court i think that can be shot down pretty fast.

I like having GPS myself and stamped on the footage, but its not really anything i use.

I did notice some weeks ago on a drive from my sisters house to my friends house, its 80 km/h highway most of the time and i must have been sleeping cuz i hit 100 km/h for a short time, was so bad i had to look at footage from another camera, but it said the same

So it seem i still have some work to do with me and the posted speed limits.

Dont mind doing 85 or even 90 some times, but 100, thats 20 km/h over and will cost me a hefty fine i cant really afford though i might be able to get it halved as a pensioner / retired person.

Regarding parking mode i might use it once in a while, even if i dident have a CCTV camera on my car, and if it was well lit at night i still wouldn't use parking guard all the time.
But once in a while parking in a "suspect" place i might use it.

 

[jokiin]

Is the parking mode product ready now?

no

 

[Kip]

I like having GPS for several reasons.

1. It can automatically update the time and date, so it's always correct on your footage. That's one less thing to check your on camera. If the time or date is wrong, how is that going to look in a court?

2. If you are involved in or witness to an incident on an unfamiliar road or a road that has no defining features (any type of road can look plain but country lanes especially) it is one less thing to worry about when reporting to insurance or Police, knowing that your dashcam has the exact coordinates saved. This bit is very important to me as I drive almost every day on unnamed rural roads that are barely wide enough to squeeze two cars past each other at times. Blind bends, hill crests and hedge rows galore. I would much rather say "The crash happened at xx.xxxxN, xx.xxxxW" than "Well, it happened somewhere on a lane between Anytown and Anyville, there were no houses to be seen, no sign posts, err, I don't know, erm, there might have been a small bridge a mile or two back, is that any good for you, sir?".

3. The speed data can be overlayed into a video to give more perspective to other people who might watch it. I don't speed myself, it's pointless, illegal and selfish. Everyone knows GPS can be inaccurate so I wouldn't worry if it showed I was over the limit for a second or two. That's only a minor fault in our driving test anyway now so nobody is going to make a fuss over it if they can clearly see in the rest of the video you are driving correctly. And of course, you don't actually need GPS data to determine your speed.

 

[SawMaster]

Everything you'd need for evidence can be had from video alone. Time/Distance can be applied to give speed, and location found similarly. GPS's known inaccuracies and glitches render it useful in only a vague manner. I'd rather go through the hassle of doing the computing work with a vid to get solid evidence than to try to explain to a jury that the GPS was showing an error and I wasn't really speeding (which would take that same computing anyway). It's easier to convince someone of something initially than to get them to believe that what they think is right is actually in error. And everybody knows clocks can be in error- most are at best only within a minute or two of correct; no two will agree perfectly and what your vid shows vs another camera is all that is needed to 'synch' the time of an event.

I'm a firm believer in the "KISS" principle. Adding more than you really need just makes for a bigger burden and more things which can go wrong. Simple is more easily understood by more people and easier to prove as correct. Until GPS is much more accurate in this use (which it wasn't intended for) it's just another flashy gimmick to me.

Phil

 

[sludgeguts]

2. If you are involved in or witness to an incident on an unfamiliar road or a road that has no defining features (any type of road can look plain but country lanes especially) it is one less thing to worry about when reporting to insurance or Police, knowing that your dashcam has the exact coordinates saved. This bit is very important to me as I drive almost every day on unnamed rural roads that are barely wide enough to squeeze two cars past each other at times. Blind bends, hill crests and hedge rows galore. I would much rather say "The crash happened at xx.xxxxN, xx.xxxxW" than "Well, it happened somewhere on a lane between Anytown and Anyville, there were no houses to be seen, no sign posts, err, I don't know, erm, there might have been a small bridge a mile or two back, is that any good for you, sir?".

When I take a pic on my phone, it also saves the gps co-ordinates of the pic - quite a handy feature when you go on hols involving long walks in the middle of nowhere with dogs. I like to create a little montage with google earth as a backdrop & pinning each picture to a particular point on the map.
If I were involved in an incident in the middle of nowhere, any pics I take for insurance will have gps co-ordinates tagged so the incident can easily be pinned to a particular location. If there's an issue regarding my speed, well, even along country lanes you'll find identifiable features (farm gates, passing places, telephone posts, road signs etc - and if the other party's insurer wanted to take it further, a car's body computer stores information (from which, speed can be determined), my mobile phone provider is also monitoring me & I use an app called WAZE which does a bang up job of tracking my movements.