I personally am not a huge fan of a carmaker putting recording devices in my car. If I want one, I can have one installed.

As for the videos...apparently we don't want to drive in Russia!

 

yep ! I would probably not buy one if it did. Now, recording at my own discretion...that's another story. I'll take the 5th please

 

The other issue is, lets say something happened and it was my fault. Should the other party know that I have a dash cam in my car the record can be subpoenaed and used against me.

We all would love to think that we would never do something wrong, but I'm not wild about a device recording video, speed, and sound within my car all the time.

 

its a good idea, I just don't know how many people will actually opt to have this installed esp if it cost an arm and a leg.

 

I recently picked up a super high-end device for ~$150 USD. Even with the Lexus integration and mark-up (e.g. what they did with a GPS unit that normally costs $200 at most), I doubt it'd be over $1000. I'd personally go for it based on how many idiots I see on the road that threaten my life.

 

I think if you want something for the cool factor its a good idea. However, as a built in feature, I am not a fan.

Before long if it is built in, insurance companies will want access to monitor your driving habits. ;-)

 

Indeed. Insurance companies will definitely be a pain. I wonder how people in Asia and Russia deal with this, since supposedly this kind of device is already very prevalent.

 

Well, you already have a device recording speed, throttle, steering angle, all manner of safety systems functions in your car. Only a few odd VWs (not all, either) don't have it in the US.

 

Yes I have one and think it would be great if Lexus had one built in to the car. I think this would make life a whole lot easier, they could easily make a SD card slot for the memory.

 

I'm not that thrilled with even that idea, but it only stores the few seconds leading up to an accident, this is recording everywhere I go, everything thats said in my car, etc all the time.

If someone wants that, then you can get that, but I don't want it to come on my car from the factory.

 

i can see this becoming standard on cars down the line.

 

Isnt 2015 the year that the government starts requiring "black boxes" installed in all cars for this purpose? Not video, but they'll know everything you did. Stock up on 2013's and 2014's. that's my policy.

 

Have you guys gotten the pitch yet from your insurance companies to "get a discount" by allowing monitoring of your driving habits? Surely you've seen "Flo" on TV flogging the monitor that taps your OBDII data port. You either download the acquired data periodically to your computer and email it in, or swap monitors at your agent's office. It records miles driven, speeds, acceleration, braking, and who knows what else. I don't know whether the monitors are GPS enabled to track location which would allow speed limit checking. Every mailing I get from my State Farm agent mentions the "discount" and the easy availability of the FREE monitor. I can see where this is going: first, a small discount offered; then, a large premium increase offsettable by using the monitor; then required monitor use for younger drivers; and finally, required use for any and all insurance coverage. Welcome Big Brother.

 

The black box recorders save 5 seconds of raw factual data.

And they are already in 96% of 2013 models...

 

5 seconds for now. Before long they'll replace it with a transmitter that sends your data to a government computer. It's really easy to set that up, by the way.