SOS feature - Yeah or Nay

[GTA Driver]

Greetings.

Been away for a year due to health matters and change in focus in my life. Got a body cam last September that I planned on doing a review but have been so much going on since I was released from the hospital and have an elderly in-law I have become a care giver too.

My employer's small fleet of vehicles is getting dash cam's. Another employee acquired three Nextbase 322 GW's. We are installing the first.

There is the feature called an SOS feature. Would you enable this if you had a camera. The fleet usually has two Employees, both with office issued mobile phones.

I could see a potential problem that one mistakenly hits the button for this.

Anyway - your take on the matter

 

[kamkar]

Not the kind of smarts i would look for, but as long as it is not forced upon me i am fine, i will just not use a feature like that if it was there.
AND ! hopefully not pay a premium for that feature i will not use.

Anyway i think stuff like that will soon be dafault in new cars.

 

[GTA Driver]

https://nextbase.zendesk.com/hc/en-150/articles/360018775598-Emergency-SOS-ESOS-explained

It has a cost to it. I will ask the manager as it would be an additional worker safety measure. However with two employees in a vehicle and both with work issued phones plus their own, it may redundant.

Edit: Its possible that a car accident may make both employees unresponsive. therefore, it be worth looking into.

 

[Skylar132]

I wouldnt use it to be honest, tried it on both my 322gw and 522gw not great. When waiting to switch between buses on my commute i always see a car with a 522gw and its always displaying a full red screen (presumably an ESOS error message) and the camera doesnt record during this, also nextbase app is very buggy and one employees phone will always have to be connected and bluetooth enabled

 

[SawMaster]

Hope things are going better for you now!

My approach to dashcams is to follow the "K.I.S.S." principle ,using them only for recording video and audio as more advanced functions are often unreliable or not done well enough to be useful. Even when I do use advanced features I positively do not rely on them, feeling that if you have a specific need it's better to address that with something made for that specific purpose which will likely give far better results. Cams are getting better regards features like this so you may find acceptable performance from them even if I do not. The only problem I have with what you plan to do is the choice of cam: I am not a fan of Nextbase at all.

Phil

 

[Dashmellow]

There is the feature called an SOS feature.

The SOS feature sounds like a limited version of the OnStar system featured in many General Motors vehicles that provides subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security, emergency services, hands-free calling, turn-by-turn navigation, and remote diagnostics systems throughout the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Europe, Brazil, and Argentina. There are a few similar systems offered by competitors and there is an licensed aftermarket interior rear-view mirror with a built-in OnStar module.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnStar

I wonder if the subscription SOS feature offered by NextBase may be a "limited" licensed version from OnStar?

I don't see how a dash cam manufacturer could otherwise afford to put their own system like this into place.

 

[GTA Driver]

I wouldnt use it to be honest, tried it on both my 322gw and 522gw not great. When waiting to switch between buses on my commute i always see a car with a 522gw and its always displaying a full red screen (presumably an ESOS error message) and the camera doesnt record during this, also nextbase app is very buggy and one employees phone will always have to be connected and bluetooth enabled

Given your experience, that it appears to contribute the camera being unreliable, I think I will pass on configuring this feature.

I don't see how a dash cam manufacturer could otherwise afford to put their own system like this into place.

Agreed, there would not be enough subscribers to do this on their own. I would imagine they would pull the service after a while. If they are so hurt that they can't dial out, they may not be in a state to use the service anyway.

The service my coworkers provide. Some of the time they may have visitors or passengers in the vehicles. A benefit to this, if it was reliable, is provides another piece of communications if they are assaulted or have their phones stolen. However, if the the phones are stolen, I suppose this feature is useless anyway.