Any crash tested dashcams?

[Dazed_and_confused]

New here to the forum. Child was recently in an accident and the VIOFO A129 Duo pro that was installed stopped recording 10 min before the accident and started recording in parking mode while the crew was cleaning up the scene.

Contacted VIOFO, basic response was sorry but it happens sometimes.

I'm wondering if anybody has any info on dash cams that are actually tested in accidents? Preferably head on collisions at 45+ MPH.

There are plenty of youtube review of how good the quality of the image is or how easy the dash cam is to use and install but all of that is useless if the video you NEED isn't recorded.

For those not familiar with this cam, it uses a capacitor not a battery. It was hardwired to the car battery. I used a 128 GB Sandisk High Endurance micro SD card (Designed for dash cams).
The card has aprox 3 weeks of video's on it in 1 min intervals. The driving footage of both the front and rear cam stop about 6 miles down the road witch is about 8-10 min with traffic.
I've tried 3 different data recovery applications and none have shown the lost 10 min before and including the accident.

 

[kamkar]

Sadly even if the card say designed for dashcam use, it dont mean it will work in any dashcam none the less.
But i also have this card and tested it in a range of cameras, viofo too, and have had no problems.
BUT ! i have also had brand new quality / brand mane memory cards die on me fast, in one case before i got to fill the 64 GB card once.

There have been some issues with the viofo hard wire kits lately, it might be that too since it did record again later on, but first of all i would copy your data off the card, and then test it using the H2testw software, maybe run it over with the SD orgs sdformatter software.
My latest memory card mystery was a brand new adata card in 256GB ( high endurance ), out of the blister pack it worked poor and testing it i found it only had about half of the read / write speed it was supposed to have, but a once over with the sdformatter restored speds, though that card it will not work in some dashcams, but it do just fine in my osmo action camera that hammer it with 4K/60 FPS footage at bitrates way higher than any dashcam pump out.

 

[Nigel]

I don't suppose the missing footage has been moved to the RO (read only) folder?

I'm wondering if anybody has any info on dash cams that are actually tested in accidents? Preferably head on collisions at 45+ MPH.

Fortunately, we don't get many such accidents, so unfortunately there is very poor test data.

Are you sure that nobody has deleted the footage, losing the last 10 files seems very odd, especially if there is nothing missing from other journeys...

 

[CaptureYourAction]

My wife was involved in a head on accident about 2-3 years ago (not her fault) and the Viofo A129 DUO didn't miss a beat. Speed was about 45-47 MPH. G-sensor locked both front and rear files in the RO folder. Camera was still recording when I arrived on the scene about 5-8 minutes after it happened (it was about 1 mile from my house).

 

[StrayCam]

New here to the forum. Child was recently in an accident and the VIOFO A129 Duo pro that was installed stopped recording 10 min before the accident and started recording in parking mode while the crew was cleaning up the scene.

Contacted VIOFO, basic response was sorry but it happens sometimes.

I'm wondering if anybody has any info on dash cams that are actually tested in accidents? Preferably head on collisions at 45+ MPH.

There are plenty of youtube review of how good the quality of the image is or how easy the dash cam is to use and install but all of that is useless if the video you NEED isn't recorded.

For those not familiar with this cam, it uses a capacitor not a battery. It was hardwired to the car battery. I used a 128 GB Sandisk High Endurance micro SD card (Designed for dash cams).
The card has aprox 3 weeks of video's on it in 1 min intervals. The driving footage of both the front and rear cam stop about 6 miles down the road witch is about 8-10 min with traffic.
I've tried 3 different data recovery applications and none have shown the lost 10 min before and including the accident.

I believe one of the most important questions which has not been asked yet is "Is your child okay?" I sure hope so! Prayers that his/her recovery from this frightening incident goes as well as possible.

It's not very comforting to hear your dashcam provider, after a serious accident say, "Sorry but it happens sometimes." Well unfortunately, your experience with dashcams is not at all unusual. Those types of incidents get reported often on this forum.

i understand that no matter what product or service one purchases, budget is always a factor. But I am amazed at how many people avoid a more expensive dashcam (ie, Blackvue, Thinkware, etc... ) when they really don't have to. - I think our children, friends and family are too important than to buy a product because it costs less and is purported to have great "bang for the buck".

Eventually dashcam consumers are awoken to how important dashcam functionality and customer service happen to be.

Btw, I'm sure there are a number of dashcam companies that have on their websites, serious accidents that have been caught on their dashcams. - I know Blackvue does, and I'm sure many others do as well.

Once again, I sure hope your son/daughter is okay.


Edit: I don't know how long you have had your A129 Duo Pro, but it is very important that SD cards get reformatted once a month.

Most new dashcam consumers think a dashcam is like a dishwasher. Plug it in and leave it. Unfortunately that's not the case. - - Much like one could understand that driving a car without changing the oil is not wise, new dashcam users need to know about the importance of dashcam maintenance.

A majority of dashcam problems, including faulty recordings can normally be traced back to the SD card. - - Reformatting the sd card will make the card much more efficient.

I hope this information helps.

 

[SawMaster]

By a large margin the two most commpn failure points of all dashcams are with the SD card and powering. I'm experiencing problems with a power socket, and one of the cams it runs sometimes shuts down on hitting a bump in the road, and may not restart itself thereafter even with the light on the power plug remaining steadily on. I've had some other cams which shut down unexpectedly for various reasons too. Same as keeping an eye on engine gauges or warning lights while driving, you have to watch your dashcam too.

Based on the OP's statement it seems to me that the cam was off during the interval when footage was missing. I'd be more suspicious of this being a powering problem than from any other source and it that is correct then any cam would have behaved similarly. In hearing of cams in hard crashes I can find no pattern to missing footage issues; usually it manifests itself as a corrupted last file or an obviously unmaintained card which was never checked. No cam seems immune and no cam seems to behave better or worse in this. All Viofo cams are normally quite reliable so I don't think this one needs replacing, but rather a thorough looking-into to find and mitigate the cause of the problem.

It's sad but the thing we need our cams for most is sometimes where they fail, and about our only defense to that is redundancy in having a second cam in operation drawing it's power from a different source. Not how it should be but the way it is.

Phil

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

I don't suppose the missing footage has been moved to the RO (read only) folder?


Fortunately, we don't get many such accidents, so unfortunately there is very poor test data.

Are you sure that nobody has deleted the footage, losing the last 10 files seems very odd, especially if there is nothing missing from other journeys...

I checked the RO folder and there were a few files there but it was all test files from when I first bought the cammera.

I believe one of the most important questions which has not been asked yet is "Is your child okay?" I sure hope so! Prayers that his/her recovery from this frightening incident goes as well as possible.

It's not very comforting to hear your dashcam provider, after a serious accident say, "Sorry but it happens sometimes." Well unfortunately, your experience with dashcams is not at all unusual. Those types of incidents get reported often on this forum.

i understand that no matter what product or service one purchases, budget is always a factor. But I am amazed at how many people avoid a more expensive dashcam (ie, Blackvue, Thinkware, etc... ) when they really don't have to. - I think our children, friends and family are too important than to buy a product because it costs less and is purported to have great "bang for the buck".

Eventually dashcam consumers are awoken to how important dashcam functionality and customer service happen to be.

Btw, I'm sure there are a number of dashcam companies that have on their websites, serious accidents that have been caught on their dashcams. - I know Blackvue does, and I'm sure many others do as well.

Once again, I sure hope your son/daughter is okay.


Edit: I don't know how long you have had your A129 Duo Pro, but it is very important that SD cards get reformatted once a month.

Most new dashcam consumers think a dashcam is like a dishwasher. Plug it in and leave it. Unfortunately that's not the case. - - Much like one could understand that driving a car without changing the oil is not wise, new dashcam users need to know about the importance of dashcam maintenance.

A majority of dashcam problems, including faulty recordings can normally be traced back to the SD card. - - Reformatting the sd card will make the card much more efficient.

I hope this information helps.

Thank you everybody for the responses.
Physically she is ok, mentally.... not so much. Were working through it though.
I understand your point on the budget cam concept and hindsight being 20/20 this makes sense. I will say at the time time I did not think spending $350 on a dashcam was the cheap option, although I was well aware I was not buying the top end cam available. I spent 3+ months doing research and this camera was on *everybodys* best cams list.
As others have said it might be that the camera is perfectly fine and the problem is the SD card. I did go with a SanDisk High Endurance card which again, is not on the cheap end and has a good reputation. I did test the card and ran several stress tests on it before putting in into the camera. HOWEVER, I did not know, or even think about doing a format once a month. I did fall victim to the install and forget mentality. I understand wear leveling on this type of media which is why I went with the 128GB version rather than the cheaper 32 or 64GB cards. The card was 9 Months old so although not brand new it was under a year which I expected to be well within the life of the card. This is the first thing I've heard so far as a possible cause of the lost videos and it has me thinking the next cam will have a few different 32 GB cards that I'll swap out monthly so I can save the video's, re-run tests and reformat before adding back into a rotation. Thank you for bringing this up.

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

My wife was involved in a head on accident about 2-3 years ago (not her fault) and the Viofo A129 DUO didn't miss a beat. Speed was about 45-47 MPH. G-sensor locked both front and rear files in the RO folder. Camera was still recording when I arrived on the scene about 5-8 minutes after it happened (it was about 1 mile from my house).

Sorry to hear about your wife, I know how stressful these situations are.
The Viofo was still recording when I arrived n the scene as well. Problem is the only video that it saved was the last video right before I unplugged it.
I'm sure that every camera manufacturer, even the cheap sub $100 ones, have 1 that worked when it was supposed to. That's my biggest problem with this industry right now. Every review shows how great the cameras work but no one provides any simulated accident tests. mount it to a 2x4, hang it up and then hit the crap out of the 2x4 with a baseball bat to simulate a head on collision and see what happens. Did the camera catch it, did it save to the RO folder, did the camer lose power and/or stop recording, was vedot of the hit corrupted.

I have to believe that the cam manufacturers themselves do some kind of testing to make sure the cameras live up to the impact claims that are made. Why don't they provide any video's or test data to show the results? Is it because they fail 90% of the time and they would go out of business if they told people? Is it because they actually don't do any testing and just prey on people buying their product on faith which everybody who has one now basically has done, so great business model for them. I've found dozens of crash test video's from car manufacturers showing how well their vehicle performs in different crash tests. My guess is that they have to do it in order to get certifications to sell the vehicle. I don't want to see the dashcam industry get regulated like this. I think it would significantly raise the costs but I would like to see them voluntarily take an interest in the consumer and make sure the product they sell is reliable. As others have said regarding SD card maint, where is that warning in the manual? Why doesn't the camera itself remind you "its time to test/reformat the card". These actions are not difficult or costly to the manufacturer.

Long response to your short message. I'm glad that you had good luck with your camera performing as you expected. I'm sure there are plenty of others who have similar stories. I just wish there was somebody collecting info and putting out statistics about cams involved in a crash and if it worked or not to give customers some kind of realistic expectation about what they are buying.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Sorry to hear about your wife, I know how stressful these situations are.
The Viofo was still recording when I arrived n the scene as well. Problem is the only video that it saved was the last video right before I unplugged it.
I'm sure that every camera manufacturer, even the cheap sub $100 ones, have 1 that worked when it was supposed to. That's my biggest problem with this industry right now. Every review shows how great the cameras work but no one provides any simulated accident tests. mount it to a 2x4, hang it up and then hit the crap out of the 2x4 with a baseball bat to simulate a head on collision and see what happens. Did the camera catch it, did it save to the RO folder, did the camer lose power and/or stop recording, was vedot of the hit corrupted.

I have to believe that the cam manufacturers themselves do some kind of testing to make sure the cameras live up to the impact claims that are made. Why don't they provide any video's or test data to show the results? Is it because they fail 90% of the time and they would go out of business if they told people? Is it because they actually don't do any testing and just prey on people buying their product on faith which everybody who has one now basically has done, so great business model for them. I've found dozens of crash test video's from car manufacturers showing how well their vehicle performs in different crash tests. My guess is that they have to do it in order to get certifications to sell the vehicle. I don't want to see the dashcam industry get regulated like this. I think it would significantly raise the costs but I would like to see them voluntarily take an interest in the consumer and make sure the product they sell is reliable. As others have said regarding SD card maint, where is that warning in the manual? Why doesn't the camera itself remind you "its time to test/reformat the card". These actions are not difficult or costly to the manufacturer.

Long response to your short message. I'm glad that you had good luck with your camera performing as you expected. I'm sure there are plenty of others who have similar stories. I just wish there was somebody collecting info and putting out statistics about cams involved in a crash and if it worked or not to give customers some kind of realistic expectation about what they are buying.

There is a format reminder on the VIOFO dash cameras, but most users disable it.

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

I don't suppose the missing footage has been moved to the RO (read only) folder?


Fortunately, we don't get many such accidents, so unfortunately there is very poor test data.

Are you sure that nobody has deleted the footage, losing the last 10 files seems very odd, especially if there is nothing missing from other journeys...

I did check the RO folder before posting there are a couple videos saved in there but nothing related to this trip. Just 6 or 7 test videos. I agree it is very odd that the footage is missing. I'm 99% positive nobody deleted the files. Leaving 1% chance only because I wasn't there myself. For clarification I don't know how many files are missing or how much time passed between the last good video and the accident. I'm only estimating that it is about 10 min between the 2 locations. Could have been 20 min, maybe 6.
I've had time now to go look at several trips from end to end. Each was 20+ min long and found no trips with any lost footage. The only thing different about this trip was that the G-sensor likely would have gone off assuming the camera functions as expected. The trip was fairly short. According to the Life360 data I saved it was 6 miles and 16 min from my house to the location of the accident. Most of the trips saved are 20-60 min long (Broken into 1 min videos). It wasn't extremely hot on that day, and the camera worked fine for the first 8 min of the trip.

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

By a large margin the two most commpn failure points of all dashcams are with the SD card and powering. I'm experiencing problems with a power socket, and one of the cams it runs sometimes shuts down on hitting a bump in the road, and may not restart itself thereafter even with the light on the power plug remaining steadily on. I've had some other cams which shut down unexpectedly for various reasons too. Same as keeping an eye on engine gauges or warning lights while driving, you have to watch your dashcam too.

Based on the OP's statement it seems to me that the cam was off during the interval when footage was missing. I'd be more suspicious of this being a powering problem than from any other source and it that is correct then any cam would have behaved similarly. In hearing of cams in hard crashes I can find no pattern to missing footage issues; usually it manifests itself as a corrupted last file or an obviously unmaintained card which was never checked. No cam seems immune and no cam seems to behave better or worse in this. All Viofo cams are normally quite reliable so I don't think this one needs replacing, but rather a thorough looking-into to find and mitigate the cause of the problem.

It's sad but the thing we need our cams for most is sometimes where they fail, and about our only defense to that is redundancy in having a second cam in operation drawing it's power from a different source. Not how it should be but the way it is.

Phil

I truly wish I could find the actual source of the problem. The camera was hardwired and did not use the cigarette plug. All connections seem like they were secure and all previous trips still on the card (about 3 weeks worth) were complete (no lost files). I can't really check now to see if the wires were loose as the fuse box I was tied into is pretty mangled from the accident but I do know the car still had power after the crash as the camera recorded the crew cleaning up the scene on both front and back cameras.

Somebody else pointed out power as a possibility as well. Stating that there was reports of bad hardwire kits from VIOFO. I did not look at video's on a regular basis so I can't say one way or the other that power was or wasn't an issue. I can say that the camera makes sounds when it is powered on and it beeps when the recording is paused/stopped and neither of those things have every happened while driving. I'm not saying that it's impossible the issue was power related just that the evidence so far suggests that wasn't the issue.

In my mind the 2 most likely causes are 1. SD card failure. Admittedly I did not perform what has been pointed out to me as routine maintenance on the card so I can't rule this out. I can only say that no other files seem to be lost, but that is always the case right. No file is lost until the first one is. Unlikely that the first time the card failed just happened to be during this trip, but anything is possible. 2. The G-force sensor/Camera corrupted or deleted the files. This seems like the most likely cause. As I've stated before this is the only thing about this trip that was "different". No indication of power problems. No indication of SD card problems.

Once the insurance companies are done and I've exhausted any and all possibilities of recovering lost video fragments I plan to do some more tests with this camera and card. I'll also point out that the WIFI on the camera no longer functions. I would not expect that to be the source of any issues but def concerning and maybe an indication of damage to the camera in the accident. I plan to do some simulated crashes with the camera and a new SD card as well as the existing card and see if the G-Force sensor fires and saves the files. I plan to do some tests on the SD Card to see if there are any problems with it. I'm sure I'll come up with other tests and am open to any suggestions.

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

There is a format reminder on the VIOFO dash cameras, but most users disable it.

Indeed there is. I just powered up the unit and went hunting. It is there, it is set to "off". I don't remember setting this as I didn't even know your supposed to do this on a regular basis, but it is possible that I changed this during initial setup. I don't want to do a factory reset on this until the insurance company is 100% done with this, but I will take a look at it again after and see what the default is. I'm going to kick myself (harder than I already am) if I did actually disable this myself.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Indeed there is. I just powered up the unit and went hunting. It is there, it is set to "off". I don't remember setting this as I didn't even know your supposed to do this on a regular basis, but it is possible that I changed this during initial setup. I don't want to do a factory reset on this until the insurance company is 100% done with this, but I will take a look at it again after and see what the default is. I'm going to kick myself (harder than I already am) if I did actually disable this myself.

The feature is actually off by default, so it's not something you turned off by mistake.

 

[StrayCam]

The feature is actually off by default, so it's not something you turned off by mistake.

Since maintaining sd cards is so important, one would think that "on" would be the default setting.

However, I checked on my Blackvue dashcam, and it doesn't provide any reformat reminders! But they have lots of written information that tell users to reformat sd cards monthly which is why I'm aware of it.

Out of curiosity, how often does the reformat reminder come up with Viofo?

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

Since maintaining sd cards is so important, one would think that "on" would be the default setting.

However, I checked on my Blackvue dashcam, and it doesn't provide any reformat reminders! But they have lots of written information that tell users to reformat sd cards monthly which is why I'm aware of it.

Out of curiosity, how often does the reformat reminder come up with Viofo?

The one I have can be set to off, 15, 30, or 60 days. They must not think it's too important, they put it on the 9th setup page. Page 10 only has firmware version on it.

 

[StrayCam]

Well, I give Viofo credit for at least providing a "formating reminder" option. But they should also provide, perhaps in large print, written reminders about the importance of reformatting sd cards as I believe most dashcam users are unaware of this maintenance protocol.

I'm glad your daughter is physically okay. It'll take time to get through the mental aspects. I'm sure you and your wife are doing the very best for her recovery.

 

[DAP]

The cameras are designed to properly save the last file when the power is cut. The high g forces during the accident might cause an open circuit somewhere in the camera that prevented the recording of a single file, but the fact that several files were missing makes me think that was not the problem. Miss-configuring the camera can cause missing files. I know from experience that enabling the "parking mode" menu item without having the hardware kit installed can cause missing files, but that would be a continuous issue, it would not happen just once and only during an accident.
Are you sure that multiple files are missing before the accident, not just one? If so, are multiple files missing from other trips?
Redundancy is your friend, two cameras hugely reduces, but does not eliminate the chance of not getting video of an event.

 

[Dazed_and_confused]

The cameras are designed to properly save the last file when the power is cut. The high g forces during the accident might cause an open circuit somewhere in the camera that prevented the recording of a single file, but the fact that several files were missing makes me think that was not the problem. Miss-configuring the camera can cause missing files. I know from experience that enabling the "parking mode" menu item without having the hardware kit installed can cause missing files, but that would be a continuous issue, it would not happen just once and only during an accident.
Are you sure that multiple files are missing before the accident, not just one? If so, are multiple files missing from other trips?
Redundancy is your friend, two cameras hugely reduces, but does not eliminate the chance of not getting video of an event.

Yeah, I had the camera set to store files in 1 Min intervals and every file on the camera is a 60 Second clip. I've watched hours of past trip footage paying attention to landmarks at the end of one clip and at the start of the next to make sure there isn't any gaps. The trip that included the accident had the last recorded clip about 5 miles from the accident scene. So I would guess there is about 10, 1 min clips missing.
This camera did have the parking mode enabled and the hardwire kit and there is no issues with those video's either.
The only other info I can add is that the WIFI on the camera no longer works.
I don't know what actions the g-force sensor activating causes. I know it "saves files" to the RO folder, but how many or what time length? It seems posible that the camera attempted to move 10 files to the RO folder and that action failed resulting in the loss of those 10 files, but I don't know if that is how the camera actually operates. Once insurance is done with this I'm going to do some tests on it myself as I no longer have any faith and won't install it into another car anyway.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Yeah, I had the camera set to store files in 1 Min intervals and every file on the camera is a 60 Second clip. I've watched hours of past trip footage paying attention to landmarks at the end of one clip and at the start of the next to make sure there isn't any gaps. The trip that included the accident had the last recorded clip about 5 miles from the accident scene. So I would guess there is about 10, 1 min clips missing.
This camera did have the parking mode enabled and the hardwire kit and there is no issues with those video's either.
The only other info I can add is that the WIFI on the camera no longer works.
I don't know what actions the g-force sensor activating causes. I know it "saves files" to the RO folder, but how many or what time length? It seems posible that the camera attempted to move 10 files to the RO folder and that action failed resulting in the loss of those 10 files, but I don't know if that is how the camera actually operates. Once insurance is done with this I'm going to do some tests on it myself as I no longer have any faith and won't install it into another car anyway.

If the g-sensor was triggered, at most, the camera would only move 2 files to the RO folder. The current file and the previous or post files, depending on when the g-sensor triggered in the current file.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Sorry to hear about your daughter's accident! I'm glad she's okay physically and I hope she gets better mentally and emotionally as time goes on.

Regarding accidents, I read an excellent thread here by someone who was in a major accident while running 4 different dashcams. One big point was the importance of having a solid mount such as an adhesive mount. In case of an accident, the dashcams with a suction cup mount may come off the windshield or even the mounts may snap. This can lead to a dashcam failure and/or the dashcam getting lost.