Y is Dash Cam so popular in Asia but not in USA?

[Golden Eye]

Hi my name is John , I m new to this forum and Dash Cam. I been traveling around Singapore, Hong Kong, China, USA and Taiwan these few years. I noticed dash cam is very popular in Asia, Russia and UK but not USA? Are there any reasons , like law restriction etc?
Thanks

 

[niko]

Hi my name is John , I m new to this forum and Dash Cam. I been traveling around Singapore, Hong Kong, China, USA and Taiwan these few years. I noticed dash cam is very popular in Asia, Russia and UK but not USA? Are there any reasons , like law restriction etc?
Thanks

@ reason = need a "russian metiorite" = awareness.

 

[CheckYourLights]

I noticed dash cam is very popular in Asia, Russia and UK but not USA? Are there any reasons

I believe there are a few. 3 are being unaware in different areas.

#1 as niko mentions drivers here are more often than not unaware they exist. In the USA cameras that get news coverage are more often than not ones in Police cars. I have seen consumer DashCams in the news,but it is usually on the news website and not on a TV channel. This is slowly starting to change though.

#2 is being unaware in the terms of brand name and product placement. in the USA for one reason or another people like to get behind brand names they have heard of good or bad. HP makes a DashCam and a decent one, but you can not go to BestBuy and play with a display model and then put one in your cart and buy it.

#3 is being unaware in the terms of information. If you did not know about this site and went to Amazon maybe after being in an accident yourself and typed in DashCam around the middle of last year or so before the G1W took off most of what popped up were DVR-027 knock offs for 20-30 dollars. If you did not have any information before hand you would read the Amazon reviews most of which were positive because the camera was cheap and it did record video although of poor quality. A lot of people bought them because of their price and that they did record something. Others bought them the cheap cameras broke, and then when they went back there was more of the same so they gave up.

#4 is privacy. A lot of drivers here do not like the idea of having their journey recorded or do not care to drive in a safe manner. See here for what i mean

#5 is hassle. Some drivers here see it as a hassle to have a camera on their windscreen, To have to take it out or put it in, To have to plug it in, or to have to wait a few seconds or a min to let the camera boot or the screen switch off after booting.

#6 is incentive. While i believe in the UK some insurance companies offer a discount for having a camera only maybe one here is trying the idea out, and you have to sign up for their program use their camera so on and so forth. A lot of drivers here don't see a return on the money they spend because they don't think ahead to Hey what if I am in an accident and the other guy lies, takes off, or is trying to scam me.

#7 is cost. Some people don't want to spend even only the 53 dollars for a G1W even more so when they do not know better and see the 20 some dollar models. Some even say it is good enough, but I don't believe I could use something that just might happen to be good enough when it comes to something that can keep me out of a bad spot.

 

[Dimas]

At CES Las Vegas, Magellan shows a GPS with built in dash cam. A great idea. (6230T-LM PND DashCam).
This should introduce dash cam to the US market via Best Buy, Fry's, Microcenter etc...

 

[CheckYourLights]

At CES Las Vegas, Magellan shows a GPS with built in dash cam. A great idea. (6230T-LM PND DashCam).

I read that wrong at first and then got it. I was going to say it's funny when a camera company makes it it's a camera with GPS. If a GPS company makes it it's a GPS with a camera. I then realized that you meant an actual stand alone SatNav device that had a camera as well. It's all my phone's fault I have not touched a stand alone SatNav in forever.

This should introduce dash cam to the US market via Best Buy, Fry's, Microcenter etc...

They are slowly. The problem is they are lower end units for higher end prices. Unless you go to SpyTec in NYC you can't just walk into a retail store and get a quality camera for a fair price yet.

It's going to be HDMI cables all over again.

 

[Golden Eye]

Thank you so much for all ur useful information!

 

[BlackBoxed.ca]

They are slowly coming to North America. I've seen many more cars with dash cams in Toronto compared to last year. I see at least one almost every day now.

 

[Steve Kimberling]

At CES Las Vegas, Magellan shows a GPS with built in dash cam. A great idea. (6230T-LM PND DashCam).
This should introduce dash cam to the US market via Best Buy, Fry's, Microcenter etc...

This is what I am waiting for. My gps bit the dust around a month ago. I figured a gps with dashcam would be the norm these days but this seems to be the best option. All of the articles that I have read say that it is coming out in April. It is now April 25 and no 6230T-LM PND.

***waiting patiently..

 

[AllThumbs]

Right now the GPS, the radar detector and the tissue box pretty much occupy most of the dash realestate.

CES shows help but so does an aggressive advertising program, especially just before the holidays.
Of course word of mouth, helps.

 

[Dionic90]

the US is late on lots of stuff, not just dashcams. cellular technology is much farther ahead there than in the US, for example. lots more examples out there.

Asia has things we wont see here in the US until a year from now.

 

[DT MI]

Myself I think the biggest reason is just lack of awareness, not a lot of people are aware these type of consumer products even exist. I only got mine because of the internet and quickly saw the advantages.

Affordable (as in less than $150USD) units are all made in Asia and, fair or not, there is somewhat of an anti-Asian bias here - especially when it comes to products made by other than mainstream brands like Sony, JVC, etc. which are for the most part well received. The perception is that products from smaller, unknown manufacturers are cheap junk. This perception isn't helped with the number of knock-off products that are produced and sold by less scrupulous companies.

I bought 'Black Box' branded G1W-H and it turns out they are legitimate versions with all the proper specifications and performance. I had done my due diligence research on the seller and manufacturer beforehand but not everyone does that - rather they opt for the lowest price and wind up disappointed - that is why the 'cheap junk' perception exists.

Even with the research I did prior to purchase I still elected to get mine through Amazon just in case there was an issue. I could have gone through E-Bay, Alliexpress, etc. but being how it was a new area for me I was willing to spend a few dollars more to feel comfortable about the purchase.

If one or more of the major electronics companies were to bring an 'affordable' line of products to the market and spend some money promoting them I'm sure there would be many more on the road.

 

[BlackBoxed.ca]

Also, a lot of people do not realise that you don't need a 360 degree view of your car to protect yourself in an accident. With just one/two dash cams, they don't feel like it will help them enough to justify the costs.

Kelvin

 

[kamkar]

Yeah, you just need to proof you dident do anything wrong, what else happen must then fall on the other guy.

I like 360 degree coverage myself, but not just for insurance / accident situations. in case of a crash here in DK it is rare that the other guy take off or try to scam you.
But Denmark is allso on a downward slope, so no doubt things like that will happen more often.

 

[Mtz]

Americans usually receive even the most simple things in the most simple way.
So they will wait car manufacturers to sell cars with dashcams included. Is more easy to buy a car with an original mounted camera instead to mount by yourself.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[DT MI]

Americans usually receive even the most simple things in the most simple way.
So they will wait car manufacturers to sell cars with dashcams included. Is more easy to buy a car with an original mounted camera instead to mount by yourself....

There is some truth to that as well.

It's not so much that we're lazy and don't want to do the work but we tend to like things to be integrated instead of looking like it's been added on.

An example is GPS navigation systems. As far as quality and cost are concerned aftermarket systems are better and cheaper (I know because I have both) but people here really like having it built into the vehicle even though it's more expensive and not as good as a TomTom or Garmin. You have to admit that a built in unit does look nicer and neater than something sitting on top of the dashboard with wires hanging out of it.

I'm guilty of this myself (shame on me). I'm not using the supplied suction mount for my camera but instead bought a mirror mount. Actually there's three reasons for this:

1) in some states it's not legal to have things attached to the windshield or you're limited where it can be mounted,
2) the mirror mount looks less 'add on' than the suction mount and
3) with the mirror mount I can hide the camera behind the mirror more effectively.

But no denying that one of the three reasons is for appearance and if you're driving a nicer vehicle (I like to think I am) you want it to look as nice as possible.

 

[sludgeguts]

It's sheer folly to buy a car 'fully loaded'. You are relying on manufacturers to install the good stuff. and no doubt what they do install will have been made especially for them.
I imagine their cams will be something like a G1W stripped down & reboxed in an unusual way so it fits into their own, specially designed container - when it goes wrong, it'll cost you 10x the true value to replace.
I'd far sooner save my money by buying a base model & installing what I need - and have some choice over it, and when it goes wrong, you can at least upgrade rather than have to replace like for like.

As to the popularity of dashcams, all my family know about mine & have seen the results - yet haven't bought.
When my boss gets calls from motorists moaning about my driving - he tells them he'll look at the footage from the camera as soon as I get back... He's still waiting for anyone to continue with their complaint.
I've also used the footage each time there's been a coming together - all shown me to not be at fault, good for our insurance.
And yet, despite all this, he's reluctant to spend a few quid on putting the cams in the buses.
I think people are reluctant to believe it will happen to them - and if it does, everything'll be fine - truth will prevail.
Little do they realise that in a prang, the guilty make a lot of noise & often come across as being most plausible. This, then, leads to insurers opting for a 50/50 in a great many cases.

 

[plandy]

Yesterday, my front dash-cam caught a scary situation on a family SUV loaded with people narrowly missing a broadside impact by another SUV that blatantly jumped a red light. Had this become an unfortunate issue I'd have assisted the victims with video evidence.
Today, a dash-cam, especially in many highly congested areas, is an absolute must.

 

[Mtz]

The following results are from my personal videos uploaded to youtube. Even some words are not in english, you can understand the top.

Here are the statistics regarding USA states from a youtube dashcam review from my channel:




These are from an youtube action cam review:


California is number one everywhere. I think states with more sun and nice weather are more interested about cameras compared to mountain or cold states. Exception can be considered New York but is one of the most important cities in the world.

Also we can understand that dashcams should have capacitors, to survive in hot conditions.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[Deleted member 46308]

California is number one everywhere. I think states with more sun and nice weather are more interested about cameras compared to mountain or cold states. Exception can be considered New York but is one of the most important cities in the world.
Mtz

California seems to always be a trend setter for sure

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Now I'm even more happy to be based in California.