Here's a question for conversation: As I was doing my morning perusal of YouTube is saw LSFT has a couple new videos about the Lexus dashcam. My questions are for those that have any brand of dashcam:

• What are they good for?
• Why do you have them?
• What have they done for you?
• Why would I want one?

Thanks!!

Randy

 

2016 my new ES was hit by a person running a stop sign. No one stopped to give a statement or help.
I call PD they came and I waited for the PD report.
If the PD found us 50/50 or me at fault guess what? I had no dash cam.

My car was in the shop for 62 days. The entire front end was removed. The insurance refused to total the car.

I have a dash cam, front and rear cameras, for my own sanity in both our cars, NX and new ES.

 

There are so many benefits to record accident footage, one instance is someone backs into your vehicle in the parking lot and does not leave a note. Without a dashcam you are SOL. I am also hard-wiring a 2 channel once I get the vehicle.

 

I think it has to do mostly with protecting yourself from bad or reckless or maybe just inattentive or distracted drivers. That's why we have ours. We haven't needed it in almost 4 years, but a $500 one time expense will seem like a real bargain when your hit by someone, or even smacked in the Costco parking lot by a careless owner's door.

Our last vehicle (2006 Nissan Altima SER, in perfect condition and with <35,000 miles on it) was totaled in an accident in February of 2019, when a young <18 year old girl turned left in front of me at an intersection.

The streets were icy, and even though I braked and turned right to avoid a head on collision, it still totaled both vehiclesas the front left corner, drivers door, rear door on the Altima were all impacted, as were the comparable panels on her Toyota Highlander.

The young lady claimed that I didn't let her finish her left turn before I hit her.

 

Okay maybe a stupid question. How does a frontal dash cam help when someone backs into me.

JD

 

LOL - that was damned inconsiderate of you.

 

They claim that you hit them in the rear instead. People that get rear ended in accidents usually are not liable. Video would show what really happened.

 

The dashcams will also (all of them?) record on the video your vehicle speed at the time of the video, which can help in showing what really happened too.

 

A dashcam will only record your speed if it's got a GPS module which can feed it information; either embedded or as an add-on.

But I can almost bet that with the wide array of sensors and cameras and computers in most modern cars today, Lexus NX included, there will be some sort of logging of that information onto the ECU in some way.

I mean the pieces are already there... It won't take much to connect them to store that info. If the Lexus app allows you set speed notifications for valet and guest mode, you can bet it's recording that info somewhere.

 

BlackVue does record GPS information and also has a snail trail.

If parked, car if off, and you enable parking mode it will record front and back. It also saves incidents if the car is hit. If they hit you from the side, it would depend on if they pass by one of the cameras.