USA Market Adoption of Dash Cams

[niko]

Why is the US lagging so far behind many other countries in the adoption of dash cams, and is this beginning to change? Even true industry veterans like Drivecam have a relatively modest installed base and it is BIG news when PAPAGO! announces that they are opening an office in California. In commercial fleets, telematics (GPS tracking) systems have a respectable 12-15% market penetration, but dash cams are in the low single digits.

What's up????

Probably the easiest way to "force" any country car driver to use a dashcam is to offer a discount from insurance companies to people who have dash-cams in their car and adding this discount rule into their advertisements, like " dashcam users get extra 5%? off". Many peopke will realise then that within discount % they can easily afford to buy good mid-class dash cam, so its a win-situation. Basically car owner getting dashcam for "free", if you know what I mean.

 

[FSC830]

I have read just one or two days ago about a special insurance condition for people who mount a tracking device in their car, not a dash cam! The tracking device is connected to the ODBC connector and records the speed, date, time and other parameters.
Also the data is transmitted (when and how? - maybe via a GSM module?) to the insurance company for reporting. When looking at the data the discount rules are done, but, and this was clearly mentioned, that i.e. drivings during the night causes a increasing of the insurance fee, also sudden breakings!?
So if someone makes a mistake in front of you and you hit the breaks to avoid an accident you will be punished from the insurance company due to careless driving???
I am not sure if the author of the news did not understand the rules correctly or if the insurance company has such silly rules, but I am afraid they will do so ....
And when reading this I am able to follow the statement that "someone who mounts a camera in the car is looking for trouble..." is sometimes settled in lawyers and insurance offices, strange, but true.
It a bit like saying "if you carrying a gun with you - you intend to use it"! Yes Iknow, you cant compare this in reality, it just to explan how such people think about dash cams.

Anyhow, back to the topic I am aware that the russian event of the meteor strike also increases the interest for a dashcam in europe, slowly, but its going on. Anyhow I guess that a majority of drivers are afraid that the footage will used against them when stopped by the police.


Edit: just reread the article, the blackboxes send data every 20s via a GSM module as I supposed...

 

[kamkar]

Here there is a simmilar cheap Insurance option, i do think it is targeted at the younger drivers witch otherwise end up paying a lot of mony for insuring ther often "high" power car. ( boys will be boys rule )
As i undestand it those Black bokses are not uploading, but the log will be examined in case of a accident, and in case of too high speed and so forth a larger sum of the settlement will go to the owner and less payment for the Insurance Company.

We have 2 kinds of Insurance here
1. the minimun one witch cover damages to the oponent
2. the maximun one witch cover all parts.
I have borrowed a Little of the mony to pay for my Little Suzuki, so the bank demand i have the maximum Insurance, witch is still okay at is is determined from car value ( small cheap Suzuki ) and my driving history, and i have been driving for allmost 3 decades without accidents.

I pay around 650 dollars a year for my current full coverage Insurance.

I have been thinking about contacting my Insurance Company to see if i can get some discount for having a dashcam.

 

[BobSagget]

Few big name stores in Canada are starting to sell dash cams. I know Best Buy, Futureshop and Staples now sell a few DOD brand cameras (LS300W, LS430W, etc.). It's only online though for now, but it's a start. Wouldn't be surprised if the US Best Buy started selling them also.
Only downside is they are kinda expensive compared to ordering directly from China, but at least it's convenient if you have any issues and need to return.

Link to the BB Canada page:
http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/Search...b9b4beca91fe414314b86bb581f8en20&query=DOD+HD

 

[David Armitage]

Take this FWIW.

I recently had an in-depth conversation with a criminal defense lawyer about an auto accident. Her mindset was "why on earth would an average person have a camera in their car?". She believed that presenting evidence by someone who had footage of an accident would be viewed negatively by a jury in a trial... assuming the camera footage was admitted in the first place. She went on to say that someone who had a camera in their car was just "looking for trouble".

I don't agree with her viewpoint, but it does illustrate a cultural barrier that will need to be overcome before dash cams can become mainstream in the U.S.A. Perhaps when U.S. vehicles begin to come equipped with them as original equipment things will begin to change.

For commercial vehicles there is, I believe, a sense of resignation that if one of their vehicles is involved in a crash, they are guilty until proven innocent.
This attitude may/should spur adoption....and yet in my estimation, fewer than 1% of light vehicle (Class 1-4) commercial fleets have deployed dash cams.
Someone will find the keys to unlock this market!

 

[David Armitage]

I have read just one or two days ago about a special insurance condition for people who mount a tracking device in their car, not a dash cam! The tracking device is connected to the ODBC connector and records the speed, date, time and other parameters.
Also the data is transmitted (when and how? - maybe via a GSM module?) to the insurance company for reporting. When looking at the data the discount rules are done, but, and this was clearly mentioned, that i.e. drivings during the night causes a increasing of the insurance fee, also sudden breakings!?
So if someone makes a mistake in front of you and you hit the breaks to avoid an accident you will be punished from the insurance company due to careless driving???
I am not sure if the author of the news did not understand the rules correctly or if the insurance company has such silly rules, but I am afraid they will do so ....
And when reading this I am able to follow the statement that "someone who mounts a camera in the car is looking for trouble..." is sometimes settled in lawyers and insurance offices, strange, but true.
It a bit like saying "if you carrying a gun with you - you intend to use it"! Yes Iknow, you cant compare this in reality, it just to explan how such people think about dash cams.

Anyhow, back to the topic I am aware that the russian event of the meteor strike also increases the interest for a dashcam in europe, slowly, but its going on. Anyhow I guess that a majority of drivers are afraid that the footage will used against them when stopped by the police

The 'smart' insurance and technology companies that are leveraging IVMS (in-vehicle monitoring systems) are not focused on incidents. They are assessing patterns of behavior. For example, someone who generates lots of small braking events may be following too close or distracted. There are a myriad of metrics that may be measured to assess driving habits. The key, I believe, is to gather a large enough sample set of the population that the driving behavior of an individual can be mapped onto the bell curve, enabling individuals to be scored. Perhaps the really smart way to use this data is to provide feedback to the driver and to foster an environment of constructive competition that inspires safer behavior. After all, in the absence of feedback, we humans tend to repeat our patterns of behavior.

 

[JayTee]

I must admit I disagree with that lawyer - as we have seen so frequently in recent years, video evidence which corroborates your version of events is of invaluable assistance to your credibility in court - if anyone were to question your motivation for having a camera, the corroborating effect of the video evidence would be explanation enough, in my view.

 

[Dashmellow]

I've learned the hard way over the years that many attorneys are very arrogant and yet have no idea what they are talking about and they are often the last to figure this out. Be that as it may, one never really knows what will be admissible in court but it is hard to imagine that objective, verifiable, hard evidence in a video showing the date and time of an incident, perhaps along with the speed of a vehicle would hurt the owner of a dash cam if he or she were not at fault. As for explaining one's motivation for having a camera in one's vehicle, it may require some brief educating of a judge and jury by simply explaining that this is a recent "black box" technology that runs at all times and also records the behavior of the driver of the vehicle with the dash cam along with the behavior of other vehicles. If I were an attorney, I would point out that privacy concerns aside, 96 percent of all recent model vehicles as of 2014 already have EDR (Event Data Recorders, aka "black box recorders" built in and a motorist's camera is merely an extension of this concept.

 

[JayTee]

I haven't had my dash cam very long, but already I don't like to leave home without it - sort of like how we got used to mandatory seat belt laws, once you get used to having that added peace of mind in place, you miss it when you don't.

 

[Xybone]

Here in SF, California, I believe that dashcams are becoming more and more popular. I'm not just seeing them in taxis and work vans anymore , I'm seeing them in personal vehicles. Only seen 4 so far, but hey, it's a start.

 

[extraoneya]

All the factors listed above r right on the money.

I'll bet a 6 pack that w/in 5 yrs, the market will explode here in the states...remember when only the geeks had computers & they had to build their own?? I've spent 100s of hours on choosing my cams & figuring out how to mount & wire them. 99% of the population ain't gonna do that.

When DCs r available in established stores & well-known web sites, & they become easier to hard-wire & r "plug & play", then we're gonna remember..."Hey, I was on the cutting edge!"

btw...when that happens, the market will weed out most of the crap that is offered now & the marginal vendors.

 

[Roadcam HD]

The attorney knows that their services will not be needed anymore because a picture (video) tells a thousand words.

 

[JayTee]

A couple of side effects of having a dash cam that I've noticed (and might have anticipated) are that I am very conscious of my own driving (because I know it's being recorded, and might need to use the video in my defense, I don't want to do anything that might inculpate me), and I am using a lot of windshield washer fluid as I try to keep the windshield clean in our Canadian winters...haha

 

[GJHS]

Ya me too, my windows are so clean now! If they review my videos, I won't be embarrassed about how I drive, how I sing may be another story

 

[AgentSmith007]

A couple of side effects of having a dash cam that I've noticed (and might have anticipated) are that I am very conscious of my own driving (because I know it's being recorded, and might need to use the video in my defense, I don't want to do anything that might inculpate me)

Isn't this a good thing that you are not a danger to other drivers anymore?
On a serious note, I agree completely.

 

[JayTee]

Haha! Exactly! So I would hope insurance companies, police etc would support dash cam use for this reason as well...

 

[BobDiaz]

Take this FWIW.

I recently had an in-depth conversation with a criminal defense lawyer about an auto accident. Her mindset was "why on earth would an average person have a camera in their car?". She believed that presenting evidence by someone who had footage of an accident would be viewed negatively by a jury in a trial... assuming the camera footage was admitted in the first place. She went on to say that someone who had a camera in their car was just "looking for trouble".

I don't agree with her viewpoint, but it does illustrate a cultural barrier that will need to be overcome before dash cams can become mainstream in the U.S.A. Perhaps when U.S. vehicles begin to come equipped with them as original equipment things will begin to change.

Because the Dash Cam offers a clear objective view, I doubt it would ever reach a jury. Odds are you can see who's at fault in the video.

 

[extraoneya]

I had an interesting email exchange w/ Alex of blackboxmycar (where I bought my DCs) last night about this very issue & that happened recently to him.

On his site, ur'll see a vid of his car getting hit while it's parked & he's not around. The AH hits Alex's car when he pulls in next to it in the parking lot. Alex presented the vid to the Vancouver PD who ended up giving the guy a ticket ex-post-facto. I told Alex that I thought this was amazing since I doubted any USA PD would do the same. Unless there's an injury or huge damage, I think most PDs here would give it the Kiss-Off. Alex did mention that the first responding officer did do that, but in a subsequent contact, a 2nd officer took the ball & ran w/ it.

I should mention that Calif. law dictates that for a misdemeanor offense, it has to occur in the officer's presence

 

[Number400]

I just called my insurance agent and another carrier to see if they offer a premium discount for dash cameras. My agent said that since it was not a theft deterrent device, that it would not qualify. The other carrier said that since it was not a factory installed item that it also does not qualify. They did offer to add the cost of the cameras to the policy in case the car was totaled...

 

[Idol Hanz]

Rubbish----we install drive-cams for the same reason we installed home security camera systems. Here's why I just installed them in my cars----my home security camera system saved me from 3 black bastards who falsely claimed I tried to run them over with my car! The cops attacked me from behind slamming my head into a concrete wall-----all of it caught on video cameras.

Here's the video of the cops attacking me too --->