Does Your Car Really Need a Dashcam?
· Vice
Some bonehead merges onto the highway without looking and crumples your car’s fender into modern art. A coked-up doofus throws their car into reverse at the stoplight and rearranges your bumper with the back of their truck’s tailgate. Or maybe it’s you who backs into somebody reversing out of a parking space, but even though he walked away just fine at the time he shows up months later in court in a wheelchair.
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Wouldn’t it be good to have proof of what actually went down? Don’t let an accident become a case of he-said-she-said. Dashcams don’t have to be expensive. You can get a decent one for a tick under $100. Hard evidence when you really need it, though, is priceless.
better than an action cam
It’s tempting to just think you can use your existing action camera—you know, that GoPro Hero 13 Black or Insta360 X5 you take dirt biking and snowboarding—and repurpose it as a dashcam, but it’s inferior on several fronts.
Dashcams are more “set it and forget it.” Most start recording automatically when the vehicle starts and turn off when you shut off the car. You don’t have to risk forgetting to hit an action cam’s on button every time you set off on your drive or not pressing off when you get out of the car, leaving the action cam’s battery drained. And that’s another thing. Dashcams plug right into the car’s 12V electrical outlet and run off the car’s electrical system. You don’t have to constantly take them inside to recharge them, as you do with action cams.
When that action cam’s internal memory or removable memory card fills up, it’ll record no more until you clear some storage space for it to resume recording. It gets old quickly when you hop in your car and then realize 10 minutes into the drive that your GoPro’s storage is full and needs your intervention. Dashcams win here, too. Once its memory card fills up, the dashcam just keeps right on recording by overwriting the oldest video on the card. You don’t have to make space; it just happens automatically. If you’re in an accident, you can transfer or copy the footage off the memory card. It’ll only get overwritten later on.
Some dashcams have a shock sensor that begins recording if it senses an impact while the car is parked and off. If somebody bumps into it while parking near you, the dashcam will immediately begin recording and save the footage. Plenty of dashcams, but not all, also include GPS tracking so that your video includes location data and speed. If you’re a frequent speeder, buying one with such tracking may not be the brightest idea. But if you ever come into need of showing law enforcement or the courts a video proving that you weren’t the one speeding, then it comes in handy.
Action cams tend to record in higher resolution, with higher quality image sensors, but lacking all these driving-specific features they’re better left to recording trail runs on your mountain bike or skiing. When it comes to your dash, use a dashcam.
the laws of dashcam usage
It isn’t just the cop on the side of the road near the crash site or the judge behind the bench in the courtroom who’d be a worthwhile audience for your dashcam footage. Your insurance company would want a look, too. Just remember that what you show can be used against you. Got music blaring at the time of the incident? The other side may say you couldn’t hear the approaching car. Or if you were having a fight with your passenger, they may say you were distracted.
Being that the US is a nation made up of 50 states, a federal district, and a few territories, all with their own abilities to create their own laws regarding recording rules, whether or not you’re on solid ground to record audio out in public depends on where you are. Remember that your dashcam includes the ability to record audio. And obviously if you were driving like an ass before the wreck, you’re not going to be able to just give them the part of the clip that shows the impact. They’re going to want to see the entire recorded event, which could prove self-incriminating.
States break down into one-party consent and all-party consent states. The former requires that only one person in a conversation is aware it’s being recorded, and the one party can be you, the owner of the dashcam. For Washington D.C. and the 38 states that have one-party-consent audio recording laws, using a dashcam is straightforward.
The issue comes from all-party-consent states, which require everywhere in a recorded conversation being first made aware that they’re being recorded. If you use your dashcam in an all-party-consent state or drive into one, it’s simplest to just turn off your dashcam’s audio recording through its settings menu. Violating the all-party-consent law is a criminal act, so it’s better not to open yourself up to prosecution when the dashcam’s main value is in recording video, not audio.
Laws surrounding video are simpler. The gist is that you’re allowed to record video when there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy. Presumably, since we’re talking dashcams here, everything your dashcam would see would be in the clear. It’s not like you plan to take your car up a ladder to peek over somebody’s privacy fence (you’re not, are you?).
decent dashcams
I haven’t tested dashcams yet, but judging from customer reviews, internet forum chatter, and other tech pundits, the following show up time and again as dashcams most find pleasing:
- Vantrue E1 Pro ($150): The E1 Pro wins praise from owners for packing the ability to record in 4K resolution. Not all budget dashcams—and the E1 Pro is budget—record higher than 1080p or 2K. Like most dashcams, though, it has night vision. It also has built-in GPS and a parking mode that automatically records bumps when the car is off and parked.
Vantrue E1 Pro (opens in a new window)
$149.99 at Amazon Buy Now (opens in a new window)- Innov K6 Motorcycle Dashcam ($259): Showing some love for my fellow motorcyclists, the K6 doesn’t offer image stabilization, but it also mounts easily on motorcycles without much bodywork, such as café racers and choppers. There’s no central unit to mount. If your bike has more bodywork to hide a central unit, like a sportbike or touring bike, the Innov K7 ($388) is bulkier but more advanced.
Innov K6 Motorcycle Dashcam (opens in a new window)
$259.20 at Amazon Buy Now (opens in a new window)- Garmin Dash Cam X210 ($240): Garmin’s more premium dashcams have an interesting suite of features that supplement the normal dashcam responsibilities of recording video. The X210 is the cheapest Garmin that offers forward collision warnings, lane departure alerts, and speed camera notifications. These active driver safety aides are common among new cars, but if your car lacks them then you can add them with the X210. It only records in 1440p resolution, which is plenty fine for a dashcam. But if you want 4K resolution, the Garmin X310 ($370) includes these features, as well.
Garmin Dash Cam X210 (opens in a new window)
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