Dashcams Going High-Def, High-Tech

An anonymous reader writes "The next time a bear hits a car on a Russian highway, the video might be in high definition. A new wave of dashcams, on show at this week's Computex expo in Taipei, feature multiple enhancements on first-generation models that will probably be welcomed by law enforcement, insurance companies and the millions of people who browse YouTube looking at some of the amazing scenes captured from the front of a car. One of the current popular videos is of a May 2013 collision between a bear and a car (video). The accident, reportedly in Russia, sees the bear hit the front of the car and bounce off the car's windscreen before rolling several times to the side of the road. The video, and thousands of others like it, are typically shot in 480-line 'standard resolution,' but most of the new dashcams on show in Taipei this week offer 720 and 1080-line high definition." It's also becoming more common to repurpose old smartphones as dashcams using software like DailyRoads Voyager. If you've done so, what's your setup?

Raspberry Pi with camera

[bfmorgan]

I mounted the camera in front of the rear view mirror. The pi was in the overhead console with a 12 volt to USB converter supplying power from the overhead light. 64GB SD card allows for a lot of video to be stored. Cost less than $100. I'm sure there are cheaper ways, but this is what I had available.

What about a GPS Nav system with a dashcam?

[recoiledsnake]

Are there any good GPS Nav systems with dashcam functionality? I think Garmin used to make one but can't find it.

It's such an obvious idea, not sure why we aren't seeing more of such models.

Crypto?

[xtal]

One of the big problems with these devices is no encryption. I don't want to be compelled to bury myself depending on what legal situation one may become involved with.

I've been looking at homebrewing my own solution for awhile but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Has anyone solved this problem ?

Re:In Russia even the bears are bad-ass

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't know if the bear died later. Probably injured. I had a coyote run in front of a car like that... broke its neck, and initially the car looked damaged, but the (plastic) fender popped out and I thought ...well thats not quite so bad... and then (there is a big shock behind the bumper) and it popped out. The signal light was behind the bumper and it was no longer solid, but it couldn't move anywhere, and it still worked. With a different car I hit a Moose. Hood and headlights were OK, but grill, bumper and right passenger side fender got creamed. When the bumper hit, the airbags went off, which took out the windshield. Luckily the beast tripped and I mostly went over top of it (somehow I had managed to slow down from 100 km/h to about 50 km/h). I drove the car home, but someone behind me had a cell phone with camera and they called the cops, and also gave me their number for the insurance company (they also told the cops what they saw). The moose died, and a tow truck picked it up off the road (they said between 750-800 pounds). They wanted it off the road right away as a semi trailer truck went over part of it and nearly flipped.

Re:WOW!

[AmiMoJo]

The most important feature is "parking mode". The camera goes into low power mode when the car is stopped and turned off, but starts recording again if there is any motion. That way if anyone hits your parked car and drives off the event is captured. Battery life only needs to be a few hours while you are shopping, and you can have CCTV at home.

Hopefully prices and sizes will come down to the point where you can have front, rear and side cameras to cover all impacts. Some bint hit my parked car a few months ago from the side but luckily I was in it at the time and took some photos. Her insurance is refusing to pay because she didn't own the car and thus wasn't insured on it, so mine is now suing her... If I hadn't been there video evidence would be all I had.