Do any dashcams connect to factory installed cameras?

[Nigel]

power price fluctuate but a rule of thumb is that here in DK 1 Kwh cost 2.25DKkr / 0.33 USD

My electricity supplier will provide electric vehicle power at:
Overnight: £0.0474 / Kwh
Standard: £0.1523 / Kwh
plus an installation cost for the socket, and it is guaranteed to be 100% renewable so your vehicle is genuinely zero emissions.

Don't know if it will drop even further when it becomes normal to have an excess of wind power overnight, currently we never quite get to zero fossil fuel.

 

[kamkar]

As usual we Danes have chosen to get screwed over, cuz with the price of just about anything here, i can shoot down any argument for that high price pretty easy.
We Danes do of course not have a better form of power, or greener for that matter, and our roads are not paved in gold though car prices would indicate that, but our roads are like any country roads, just as good / bad.

I don't have high thoughts about myself or my fellow countrymen, i think we are naive and stupid at best.

 

[Nigel]

As usual we Danes have chosen to get screwed over, cuz with the price of just about anything here, i can shoot down any argument for that high price pretty easy.
We Danes do of course not have a better form of power, or greener for that matter, and our roads are not paved in gold though car prices would indicate that, but our roads are like any country roads, just as good / bad.

I don't have high thoughts about myself or my fellow countrymen, i think we are naive and stupid at best.

Not sure why your prices are higher than ours, you generally have a bit higher % of wind power than us, so you should have very cheap overnight power. You probably built too much wind power early on when prices were higher and you are still paying for that, the UK stayed with experimental amounts of wind power until the large offshore farms, so ours is probably cheaper than yours which might explain the daytime cost difference. Also you still use coal when the wind doesn't blow, and that must hurt in EU carbon taxes, but overnight when you are not using coal, you should have cheap electricity.

I saw on Sunday Denmark was exporting nearly 50% of the power being generating because of strong winds and low demand, so then your electricity should have been negative price. Of course if the government doesn't force the power companies to charge based on the cost to them then they wont do so!

Ahh, there is the answer, you pay twice as much tax! :

 

[comadose]

How do you manage that?

Seems like €0.05/kilometre is about the cheapest for overnight (off peak) home EV charging.

You can get a 5p/unit overnight rate. So say you get 5 miles/kWh that's 1p/mile in the UK.

Check out Octopus for that tariff.

 

[comadose]

i never run my tank below 1/2 empty

Oh so it's even worse for you because you fill up more often than you need to. That 13/hours year is probably more like 20 hours/year for you!

Apologies if you are not a boomer but actually this seems to apply:

 

[TonyM]

Try driving cross country in an EV

I have, it was fine.

@DT MI is in the US, @comadose is in the UK
The UK has approx 30000 charging connectors, for 90,000 sq miles - approx 3 sq miles per charging station
The US has approx 76000 charging connectors, for 3,800,000 sq miles - approx 50 sq miles per charging station
Even though these are only approximations, I can see that travelling any great distance from home should be easier in the UK than the US

 

[Nigel]

@DT MI is in the US, @comadose is in the UK
The UK has approx 30000 charging connectors, for 90,000 sq miles - approx 3 sq miles per charging station
The US has approx 76000 charging connectors, for 3,800,000 sq miles - approx 50 sq miles per charging station
Even though these are only approximations, I can see that travelling any great distance from home should be easier in the UK than the US

Given that everything is bigger in the USA, doesn't that mean that their EV batteries are also bigger, and that should cancel out the larger distance between the charging stations?

USA built EV: Tesla Model 3 base spec: 50-kWh battery pack, car weight 1,847 kg
UK built EV: Uniti One base spec: 12kWh, car weight 600kg

 

[TonyM]

I like the idea of going fully electric, and will probably do so when it's time to replace my 10-yr old dirty diesel.

Back to the original topic of using factory-installed cameras as dashcams, I don't think it will be many years before video along with GPS, accelerometer and other data are stored in a factory-installed 'black box'. Such information then being available to law enforcement and your insurance provider, amongst others.

 

[comadose]

The UK has approx 30000 charging connectors, for 90,000 sq miles - approx 3 sq miles per charging station
The US has approx 76000 charging connectors, for 3,800,000 sq miles - approx 50 sq miles per charging station

These numbers are irrelevant though because much of the US is empty. No roads, no need for chargers. What matters is if there are chargers on your proposed cross country route and even the US there probably are.

Anyway, most people aren't mad enough to try driving thousands of miles across the US when they can just fly and rent a car at the other end. Probably cheaper when you factor in petrol and depreciation/wear on your car. Or, you know, just rent a fossil car for that one trip and enjoy your massive savings and all round better car the rest of the time.

Honestly, you guys are working really hard to find reasons why your fossils are better!

 

[SawMaster]

Ah right, the old "it won't get me to my remote cabin in the woods that is range+1 miles away" argument.

You bunch of road warriors are crazy. I'm not going to drive hundreds of miles in a $2k junker or risk rupturing my bladder.

Where's your reading comprehension? I said "work vehicle" and said nothing of off-roading at all And for numerous years I have chosen and used relatively cheap and older vans for this due to the overall economy involved. While my cohorts and business competition spend from $4K and up for total vehicle costs (less fuel) per year, my costs over the last 15+ years have averaged well under $2K per year, including engine and transmission rebuilds as needed. Plus my vehicles are in the shop less than theirs are, with repair costs for similar problems lower too. And my current van would rate at least 90% for appearance and mechanical condition for original antique vehicles (which it qualifies as). Your car is as much a "junker" right now as mine is after nearly 3 decades, and you'll be replacing yours long before I do mine, so who's got the junker now? As best I can figure knowing this model of vehicle as well as I do (been driving them since 1975), I expect that short of a crash taking it out, I'll be driving it for 10 more years and it will still be in very nice condition and just as reliable as yours- probably moreso. Even with it's relatively poor fuel mileage (which is still around 66% of what equal modern internal combustion vans get) it's simply the best, most economical, and most effective work vehicle for me. And if there were an available EV choice to fit my needs, it would at least quadruple my vehicle costs (likely even more than that) making it a very stupid choice Which is why nobody is making EV's in this class of vehicle suitable for the uses of my trade. We are smarter than that, but I worry about you...

The UK is a far different place than here, but it seems that many of the folks from there cannot understand that much of the rest of the world is quite different, and because of that our needs and best solutions are also much different too. If it works for you there then fine, but you're the minority and we have better solutions for us. If you still can't understand all this then bugger off you wanker- I'm sure you understand that

Phil

 

[comadose]

Where's your reading comprehension? I said "work vehicle" and said nothing of off-roading at all And for numerous years I have chosen and used relatively cheap and older vans for this due to the overall economy involved. While my cohorts and business competition spend from $4K and up for total vehicle costs (less fuel) per year, my costs over the last 15+ years have averaged well under $2K per year, including engine and transmission rebuilds as needed. Plus my vehicles are in the shop less than theirs are, with repair costs for similar problems lower too. And my current van would rate at least 90% for appearance and mechanical condition for original antique vehicles (which it qualifies as). Your car is as much a "junker" right now as mine is after nearly 3 decades, and you'll be replacing yours long before I do mine, so who's got the junker now? As best I can figure knowing this model of vehicle as well as I do (been driving them since 1975), I expect that short of a crash taking it out, I'll be driving it for 10 more years and it will still be in very nice condition and just as reliable as yours- probably moreso. Even with it's relatively poor fuel mileage (which is still around 66% of what equal modern internal combustion vans get) it's simply the best, most economical, and most effective work vehicle for me. And if there were an available EV choice to fit my needs, it would at least quadruple my vehicle costs (likely even more than that) making it a very stupid choice Which is why nobody is making EV's in this class of vehicle suitable for the uses of my trade. We are smarter than that, but I worry about you...

The UK is a far different place than here, but it seems that many of the folks from there cannot understand that much of the rest of the world is quite different, and because of that our needs and best solutions are also much different too. If it works for you there then fine, but you're the minority and we have better solutions for us. If you still can't understand all this then bugger off you wanker- I'm sure you understand that

Phil

So basically your argument is that people shouldn't spend more than $2k on their work van... Okay buddy, well good luck with that. It sounds like you are doing a lot of maintenance on it yourself, so you have to count that as a cost. How much is your time worth and how much do you spend keeping an old vehicle on the road?

Hopefully we can ban vehicles like that soon because while they may be cheap for you the pollution they generate costs other people plenty of money, especially in the US where healthcare is insanely expensive. If you don't care about other people then good for you, save a few bucks.

 

[Nigel]

And for numerous years I have chosen and used relatively cheap and older vans for this due to the overall economy involved.

Once older EV vans are available, then you will be able to buy them at low cost! This is not an issue of the technology, just the availability.

Although it may turn out that EVs need so little maintenance that nobody wants to update every 3 years or whatever and it will be decades before the old ones become available at low cost! An electric motor has 10,000 less parts than an internal combustion engine, 10,000 less potential failures.

 

[Dashmellow]

These numbers are irrelevant though because much of the US is empty. No roads, no need for chargers. What matters is if there are chargers on your proposed cross country route and even the US there probably are.

Anyway, most people aren't mad enough to try driving thousands of miles across the US when they can just fly and rent a car at the other end. Probably cheaper when you factor in petrol and depreciation/wear on your car. Or, you know, just rent a fossil car for that one trip and enjoy your massive savings and all round better car the rest of the time.

Honestly, you guys are working really hard to find reasons why your fossils are better!

We do have lots of wide open spaces here in the USA but of your notion that "the US is EMPTY" with "No ROADS"? Really? The numbers @TonyM quoted are hardly irrelevant because of your false perception that the US is "empty" with "no roads". It is always amusing to see the UK provincialism often on display here on DCT where absurd generalizations, incorrect assumptions and supercilious comparisons to other nations, especially the US are on offer.

For a vast number of reasons many, many people travel long distances via motor vehicle here in the US and most of these trips are not necessarily 3000 miles clear across the country. These folks are not "mad enough" to travel this way, they do it because it is the most practical solution for their particular circumstance. And BTW, many people happen to enjoy long distance car travel here in the US. It's a "thing". Flying to destinations is often not a practical or affordable option, especially for certain business people. As an example, a friend just returned from a major specialty food trade show nearly 1000 miles away which he drove to and from in a van with all the required displays, equipment and product samples followed by a support vehicle with two other employees. The show was in Miami and the north south nearly 1000 mile journey is entirely on major US numbered highways. Living as I do in a popular rural tourist and ski resort destination we see travelers and vacationers flock to the area by car from vast distances. An ever increasing number of them are in EVs these days. The local Tesla 8 bay charging station that was installed several years ago used to sit almost empty but nowadays it is populated with vehicles at any given time of day.

About this "no roads" fairy tale? Here is a map of all the numbered US federal highways. The map doesn't include any of the networks of local roadways, state and municipal highways and parkways, streets, side streets, boulevards, avenues, or Class 2, 3, or 4 town highways. Just because an area may be open space doesn't mean it doesn't have roads. As it is I happen to live in a rural area where much of it would appear to be a vast empty wilderness when seen in a satellite image but it is crisscrossed with thousands of miles of dirt, gravel and tarmac paved roads for hundreds of miles and miles around. And these roads connect to other networks of roads in other communities and this is true all across the country.

In my relatively sparsely populated region we have dozens of EV charging stations in the largest nearby town alone (pop. 12,000) and more going up all the time as they are all across the country. Some are the afformentioned Tesla charging stations and some are generic. I keep seeing new ones in unexpected places like hotel parking lots. As with many similar small towns and cities many of these charging stations are strategically located near major interstate highway connections so that long distance EV travelers can stop off for a charge. At this point in time it requires some advanced planning but indeed it is possible to go almost anywhere you wish via EV.

Here is a list of alternative fueling station counts by US state. 24,804 EV charging stations with 78,523 outlets to date.

The US is 3.719 million square miles compared with the UK which is only 94,526 square miles. You could fit 39 UKs into the area covered by the continental USA with room to spare. If you count England alone at 50,346 sq miles you could fit almost 79 Englands in to the area covered by the USA.

The USA is indeed a vast nation and as such it will take longer to fully build out the network of required EV charging stations to support this nascent but vital transition but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. But one can't reasonably compare a tiny little nation like the UK with a population of 67,545,757 (2019) with a US population of 329,227,746 (2020) and nearly 40 times larger in size.

US Federal Highways

 

[Nigel]

You missed 1/6th of your country, the bit with almost no roads in it!

 

[kamkar]

I am still giving my Nephew and his friend a dashcam for them to use on their US road trip this summer, cuz all those US roads got it all going on it seem.

Gas stations in the US outnumber charge locations by 7 to 1.
You can drive Route 66 from Chicago to Santa monica in CALI, this is a 2220 mile trip and can be done in a EV in 34.5 hours ( drive time )
Along the route ( within 2 miles ) you will find 250 charge locations, including types such as J-1772, CHAdeMO, CCS/SAE, Tesla Supercharger, Tesla, NEMA-14-50 and the Tesla Roadster.

You can also do the grand US EV tour with start and end in LA, this is a 8279 mile trip you can drive in 126 hours, BUT ! there are only 189 charge stations along that route.
Including types such as J-1772, CHAdeMO, CCS/SAE, Tesla Supercharger, Tesla, NEMA-14-50 and the Tesla Roadster. You’ll want to plan ahead to make sure there are stations for your type of vehicle within the correct driving range of one another to make this trip possible. However, you can always adjust your anchor stops to make it work in your favor.

The ultimate road trip will take you through the country’s major cities, past notable historic monuments and through some of the most incredible national parks. In this specific route, you’ll start in Los Angeles, and hit Portland, Seattle, Boise, Jackson Hole, Bozeman, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, Nashville, New Orleans, Dallas, Santa Fe, Flagstaff and Las Vegas. While those are the anchor stops, there are hundreds of things to see in between each city, including Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon and the Appalachian Mountains, to name a few.

So as always with a EV you have to plan ahead, maybe yourself or let your car guide you to charge stations as it is mu understanding they can.
It would of course be much more easy with a gasoline car, but hey many have already done that.

PS. my so often mentioned dream US roadtrip, will not be undertaken in a EV i am not spending 5-6 month going from charger to charger cuz i will be criss crossing the country like a madman.

 

[Dashmellow]

You missed 1/6th of your country, the bit with almost no roads in it!

You missed the fact that I used the term "continental" United States.

Alaska does at least have 20 charging stations to date with 35 outlets.

And you also missed Hawaii, another US state with wide open spaces but with 284 EV charging stations offering 659 outlets.

 

[kamkar]

And Puerto Rico.

Anyways Alaska are man country, i will rent a tamed off road Grizzly to ride up there on my road trip.

Maybe you should have sneaked "lower 48" in there too.

 

[Dashmellow]

I am still giving my Nephew and his friend a dashcam for them to use on their US road trip this summer, cuz all those US roads got it all going on it seem.

Gas stations in the US outnumber charge locations by 7 to 1.
You can drive Route 66 from Chicago to Santa monica in CALI, this is a 2220 mile trip and can be done in a EV in 34.5 hours ( drive time )
Along the route ( within 2 miles ) you will find 250 charge locations, including types such as J-1772, CHAdeMO, CCS/SAE, Tesla Supercharger, Tesla, NEMA-14-50 and the Tesla Roadster.

You can also do the grand US EV tour with start and end in LA, this is a 8279 mile trip you can drive in 126 hours, BUT ! there are only 189 charge stations along that route.
Including types such as J-1772, CHAdeMO, CCS/SAE, Tesla Supercharger, Tesla, NEMA-14-50 and the Tesla Roadster. You’ll want to plan ahead to make sure there are stations for your type of vehicle within the correct driving range of one another to make this trip possible. However, you can always adjust your anchor stops to make it work in your favor.

The ultimate road trip will take you through the country’s major cities, past notable historic monuments and through some of the most incredible national parks. In this specific route, you’ll start in Los Angeles, and hit Portland, Seattle, Boise, Jackson Hole, Bozeman, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, Nashville, New Orleans, Dallas, Santa Fe, Flagstaff and Las Vegas. While those are the anchor stops, there are hundreds of things to see in between each city, including Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon and the Appalachian Mountains, to name a few.

So as always with a EV you have to plan ahead, maybe yourself or let your car guide you to charge stations as it is mu understanding they can.
It would of course be much more easy with a gasoline car, but hey many have already done that.

PS. my so often mentioned dream US roadtrip, will not be undertaken in a EV i am not spending 5-6 month going from charger to charger cuz i will be criss crossing the country like a madman.

Here's another 3000 mile cross country route.

 

[Nigel]

You missed the fact that I used the term "continental" United States.

Alaska does at least have 20 charging stations to date with 35 outlets.

And you also missed Hawaii, another US state with wide open spaces but with 284 EV charging stations offering 659 outlets.

Then you shouldn't have included the square miles of Alaska etc. in your comparison!
I think you also included the square miles of Puerto Rico etc.

 

[kamkar]

I don't know about you guys, but i am running for office, i mean with the training in here in dodging