Dashcams are a growing commodity in many countries. A Dashcam or Dashboard Camera is a camera that is mounted on the windshield of your car and that records everything you see when driving. This means that in case of an accident there will always be proof of what exactly happened. No wonder that many car insurance companies can’t wait for everyone to use a dashcam in their car.

In some countries – like the UK or South Korea – car insurance companies give you a discount if you use a dashcam. In Russia the use of a dashcam is mandatory if you want to get your car insured. Considering the many benefits it’s probably only a matter of time before other countries will follow suit. Dashcams can greatly contribute to safer driving and result in fewer costs for insurance companies. Dashcam videos can also serve as proof in more serious criminal cases and Police corpses around the world often ask for dashcam recordings in case they need additional evidence in a case.

A dashcam can come in any size and form. There are bigger ones with an LCD screen and smaller and discrete ones without any screen. There are dashcams for motorcycles and dashcams for vans and trucks. They also come with different functions like Wifi for wireless transfer of videos and with GPS to keep track of the location and speed of the vehicle. Some dashcams like those from BlackVue even offer remote Live view. This means you can keep an eye on your car from everywhere around the world. It can even give you a push notification in case some touches your car.

The latest thing is ADAS that is supposed to warn the driver in case of a dangerous situation on the road. It’s similar to the warning system in a Tesla that uses an algorithm to predict dangerous situations. A Tesla is mounted with more than 10 cameras for this purpose. As a dashcam has to do with only one camera, this ADAS is often a disappointing feature.

Most dashcams sell for between $100 and $200 but they can be as expensive as $1000. There are also really good cheaper alternatives. Xiaomi does a good job of manufacturing pretty good budget dashcams under $100 which include Wifi and GPS. Earlier mentioned BlackVue is considered the holy grail of the dashcams. BlackVue is – like many other high end producers – situated in South Korea. South Korea is another great example of a place where almost everyone uses a dashcam. The high income inequality in the country results in many car insurance scams. Just go to Youtube and search for ‘car insurance scam’ and you will get a good idea of the process.

The promotion of dashcams is in a sense a self supporting process. The more people use a dashcam the more chance there is of recording something strange on the road and you posting it online. It’s almost like GoPro where the users are the marketing agents themselves. It’s not by change that the manufacturer’s brand is visible underneath every video. For this and many other reasons we believe that we’ve only seen the beginning of dashcams. Some car manufactures already offer built-in dashcams in their cars. But for those with an older car luckily there’s always the option of simply mounting one on your windscreen.