World dashcam diffusion

[papinist]

I am pretty new to the dashcam world, and I'm just curious to know where in the world these cams are widely used.

I live in Italy and I have never saw a dashcam installed in cars here. Perhaps when my dashcam will arrive (from dealextreme) I will be one of the first pioneers
I know that in Russia (and probably in other eastern countries) dashcams are very popular.. but in the rest of the world?

What country has a wide use (for insurance reason or just for personal security) as per your knowledge?

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi papinist,

I think this is a great question. I have not seen any statistics but here is what I think. Like you said, Russia probably has the largest penetration of dash cams.

Beyond that, they are quite popular in South Korea as well. There are many Korean websites discussing dash cams and many of the Korean dash cams only come with Korean firmware / manuals. Hence the market must be large enough there.

The third largest, I would guess is Singapore. The Singaporean insurance company DBS even gives away a free in car camera if you purchase their DriveShield insurance.

Here is a commercial from them (they have a few different ones on their Youtube channel).

In car cameras appear to be catching on in the United States and Canada but I imagine the percentage is still very low.

Outside of these countries, I think dash cams are relatively rare. You are likely an Italian pioneer

Dash Cam Man

 

[DashCamMan]

If anyone is interested, here are the top countries to visit this site over the last 3 months. Note that this is not scientific at all but perhaps a small glimpse of where interest in dash cams reside.

United States   29.36%
Canada          12.34%
Russia          10.24%
Australia        5.36%
United Kingdom   4.05%
Germany          3.75%
Singapore        3.72%
Finland          2.99%
Belarus          2.05%
Ukraine          1.90%
China            1.74%
Netherlands      1.73%
Japan            1.73%
Poland           1.43%
Spain            1.34%
Lithuania        1.01%
Romania          0.98%
Italy            0.80%
France           0.79%

If anyone wants to share what the dash cam usage looks like in your country please do! Do you see a lot on the road, a few or none?

Dash Cam Man

 

[AgentSmith007]

I haven't seen any other car in my area with dash cam (except police cars). And what's funny, other people probably think that I am undercover cop.
I have two cams, F900LHD in front, and some cheap 720p in the back (we don't have front license plates in Michigan, so 720p is ok).
Several times I had bozos catching me from behind and starting tailgating me. Then few moment later they were noticing my dash cam in the back and they were puling back to safe distance. This is great!

 

[ExMet]

I have two cams, F900LHD in front, and some cheap 720p in the back (we don't have front license plates in Michigan, so 720p is ok).

Can you post pics of your rear-cam install?
How did you wire it?

 

[AgentSmith007]

I have two cams, F900LHD in front, and some cheap 720p in the back (we don't have front license plates in Michigan, so 720p is ok).

Can you post pics of your rear-cam install?
How did you wire it?

ExMet,

Dashcam mounted in the upper right corner. I had to use 3M tape because it was not holding and was falling down.

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Power cord goes down between the rear seat and body, under the carpet mat, between front passenger seat and center console and plugged into power splitter.

Front cam also plugged into that power splitter.

 

[CheckYourLights]

I've seen a lot from Russia of course. It is also nice to see more and more pop up from the USA There are some videos on YouTube that list the countries some of the clips are from. They are the Mad Drivers series i believe they are called there are three or four videos with neat production quality that lists the country the clips are from. I do not recall any from Italy but i may have missed it.

 

[Marcus]

Funnily enough when that aircraft crashed in Russia the other day and went across the motorway one of my first thoughts (apart from for the dead of course) was I bet someone has caught that on Dash Cam lol........and sure enough a few hours later some real footage of the impact and crash site from a dash cam......I would say your numbers do not actually reflect the true massive use in Russia especially........just look how many Russian crash vids are on the Tube

 

[CheckYourLights]

I would say your numbers do not actually reflect the true massive use in Russia especially........just look how many Russian crash vids are on the Tube

Those numbers are just visits to this site based on IP address.
I had always kind of hoping that due to the large scale use in Russia that the same accident would be cought on Camera from.two different cars.

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi CheckYourLights,

There are so many dash cams in Russia now that accidents / close calls are starting to be captured by multiple dash cams. Wlad shared the following in the video forum. It is a close call from the car's point of view (first 50 seconds) and from the trucks point of view (last 20 seconds)

 

[DashCamMan]

Here is an article from Russia regarding a bill being introduced in the Russian legislature to fine Russians 500 rubles if they have anything on their windshield obstructing their view such as a dash cam. The bill would also allow the police to confiscate the dash cam! I don't think this will pass into law!

One expert quoted in the article estimates there are 1 million dash cams being used in Russia and thinks by the end of 2013, over 2 million will be in use! Still a lot of cars without dash cams though.

 

[rjgscotland]

Hi CheckYourLights,

There are so many dash cams in Russia now that accidents / close calls are starting to be captured by multiple dash cams. Wlad shared the following in the video forum. It is a close call from the car's point of view (first 50 seconds) and from the trucks point of view (last 20 seconds)

Awesome. I have always wanted to see the same thing happen from two different dash cams!

 

[CheckYourLights]

Thanks for the video that is really neat to see.

 

[AmericanDriver]

All this means is that they will not be able to mount anything to their window.

 

[rjgscotland]

Dragging this up again because I've come across a couple of other videos that show the same incident from two cameras. They're part of compilations but it'll link to the appropriate time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Els#t=540s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... fgc#t=247s

 

[Marcus]

There was one on YouTube I saw where a lorry came down a hill towards some standing traffic at the bottom in road works, out of control, the incident was captured by 3 separate vehicles with dash cams so multiple angles, was great to watch in a non sick way

I wasted many hours sat in my truck whilst making deliveries watching the awesome selection of Russian accidents lol, but for me there is an interest which is not sinister, for me it reminds me what is at stake when driving and keeps it real, if that makes sense.

 

[CheckYourLights]

Dragging this up again because I've come across a couple of other videos that show the same incident from two cameras. They're part of compilations but it'll link to the appropriate time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Els#t=540s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... fgc#t=247s

I have not seen these ones yet
Thanks.

I've been thinking of trying to compile a list of all the compilations and videos like a little index and maybe post it, but i need to get motivated to do so.

 

[rjgscotland]

A not-the-usual double dash cam capture http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... dr8#t=439s

 

[rjgscotland]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Hkc#t=245s
then again from a different car ahead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Hkc#t=421s

 

[rjgscotland]

Here's some road rage between a van and a motorcycle captured from two different angles (one after the other): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Ri0#t=162s