new GPS idea that could be potentially very useful
 15 years
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After my previously posted here unpleasant experience of being pulled over by a cop while driving lawfully on a highway, and being falsely accused of "swevering", I have thought about getting a dash cam to protect myself.
Seeing these videos make me even more motivated to get one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRC7RO2tOJQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0VqAdwjRNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbFZVIwW8kY
Also interesting thread here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2260936
Also I had a SUV swerve into my lane in a round-about and damage my bumper a few years ago. I tried to catch up to the driver and get his insurance info but he took off like a bat. I filed a police report, found out the guy didn't have insurance on his SUV at the time, but the cops did nothing on the case and he got away with the crime.
Had I had a dash cam I could have concrete proof of what happened and had a stronger case on my side.
So researching dash cams to buy, it occurred to me that our GPS units could be improved to have a small pinhole camera on the back, and continuously record onto the SD card to protect ourselves.
The GPS market is sagging badly due to the smartphones out there, but a dedicated GPS with a dash cam feature could be very useful and would be a dedicated piece of equipment that a smartphone wouldn't replace since it should be on the dash at all times.
Are there any GPS units out there with such a dash cam feature? if not the GPS makers really ought to consider incorporating this feature into their products.
Would be interested but only if it was Garmin
I've been looking around for a dash camera solution also, have not yet found quite what I want. Actually, I am hoping for something that I could mount in the front grill of the car and wire in permanently, so as to be less attractive to the more undesirable levels of our society and to not clutter the windshield. But a simple camera feature on a GPS could be attractive to. The thing is, I would not want just just any GPS with this feature, as many GPSrs are pretty junky in other ways. I would want to stick with Garmin, and add a camera that would be in "always recording" and "record over old files when full" mode. With the growing interest in dash cams I would think that Garmin is really missing the mark in not offering this, and the cost to add it should be almost negligible as an incremental feature upgrade.
Meanwhile, will entertain suggestions for a grill mountable car DVR. Must record automatically when power is applied and loop over old files. Would like to avoid the cost of a display that will never be used. Not looking to over pay for a basic camera.
meteor
if you look at all the footage of the Russian meteor most of it was taken with dash cams. 'Helmet' cams are becoming popular with bicyclist for the same reason shown in those films. If your are interested the Kim Kommando store sells them for about $100