Well, I guess I should have bought a motion activated dash cam

[Herr Kutz]

EDIT:

Would uninsured motorist property damage cover this?


What a nice surprise this morning. I went out to my car and there is a new, deep scratch. The metal on the door and LH fender is dented, the paint is of course scratched, and the inner fender liner is slightly damaged. As a nice bonus the driver door now makes a loud popping noise when opening due to the dented fender interfering with the door. There's no note of course and filing a hit and run report would be a waste of time. I have my suspicions it was the garbage truck that came around this morning but have no proof. A new door ain't cheap. Seriously, fuck people. I guess I should have bought one of those fancy motion activated dash cams.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxsjLSd6XpTuXzhldXJHLVh5R2s/view?usp=sharing

 

[Zivic]

not to rub salt in it, but same person scraped up your front wheel as well. not sure where you park, maybe they have surveillance cameras that caught the incident?

 

[Herr Kutz]

Ugh, I didn't notice that. I'll look around but it's pretty residential so it's unlikely there are any cameras point at my car.

 

[Herr Kutz]

I was thinking a little more about it and started to believe the damage doesn't look like it's from a garbage truck. Maybe it was a lower vehicle because the scratch is only 16.5" off the ground. I looked up a picture of the garbage trucks from the area and it actually looks like it could be at the height of the bottom step on passenger side and would explain why there was no paint transfer. Thoughts? And is it normal for disposal companies to film their routes?

 

[desura]

That sucks.

Well, let's start the gadget search. This is something I should take care of for my car too.

 

[Tweak155]

This is why I opt for comprehensive coverage... this would mean no deductible for you (at least with my company that's the case) and all is covered. I find stuff like this is the most common cause of damage to my car... it's out parked and some jerk doesn't care about my stuff.

 

[NoCreativity]

This is why I opt for comprehensive coverage... this would mean no deductible for you (at least with my company that's the case) and all is covered. I find stuff like this is the most common cause of damage to my car... it's out parked and some jerk doesn't care about my stuff.

Tweak is right, that should be covered under comprehensive. You weren't driving at the time so it shouldn't qualify as collision.

 

[jlee]

Tweak is right, that should be covered under comprehensive. You weren't driving at the time so it shouldn't qualify as collision.

I would expect a deductible to be involved, though (unless you have a 0 deductible policy).

 

[Tweak155]

I would expect a deductible to be involved, though (unless you have a 0 deductible policy).

Under a normal collision my deductible is $500... not sure why comprehensive is $0... I know I specifically pick that option though. Possibly I'm allowed to pick a deductible for each type, don't really recall.

 

[jlee]

Under a normal collision my deductible is $500... not sure why comprehensive is $0... I know I specifically pick that option though. Possibly I'm allowed to pick a deductible for each type, don't really recall.

Yeah, you can typically select deductible levels per coverage type (collision/comprehensive).

 

[HeXen]

Security camera's are pretty cheap though and man do they save on head scratching mysteries. Not 2 weeks after I installed mine, I caught a guy stealing bags of donated food at the mailbox that was intended for the mail carrier to pick up not 10 minutes after my wife set it out. He was 300 lbs and driving a pickup so it's not like he was hungry or anything, just another opportunist thief (and yes we double checked with the postal service, no one else was to be collecting them). Without the camera's, we would be scratching our heads.
They also solved a few other mysteries as well...just wish I bought them years ago.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Tweak is right, that should be covered under comprehensive. You weren't driving at the time so it shouldn't qualify as collision.

Yeah, but no one carries comprehensive on a 2008 versa with 185k miles in 2017. I would quite literally be paying the pre-accident value of my vehicle every year just in case something happened...and that is before deductible.

 

[Kaido]

Well, let's start the gadget search. This is something I should take care of for my car too.

The Blackvue units are pretty good. A bit pricier than the cheap Chinese models (around $400 for a front/rear camera setup with a memory card & parking mode discharge prevention module), but you get a lot of features:

• 2-channel units available (front & rear cameras)
• IR (nightvision)
• Impact & motion detection
• Apps (PC/Mac/iOS/Android)
• Battery or hardwire kit
• GPS (geolocation & speed data)
  
• Loop recording (automatically overwrites the oldest files when the memory is full no need for manual management)
• Optional cloud features (remote live view, push notifications to your phone, online video backup, two-way voice communication)

The big feature being the parking & event modes, which can record impacts as well:

BUILT-IN IMPACT & MOTION DETECTION

Built-in impact and motion detection enable your BlackVue to switch between 3 different recording modes (Normal/Event/Parking) automatically depending on the circumstances. Videos files are marked accordingly so that you can easily find relevant ones with the BlackVue Viewer.

You can either go DIY or hardware too, depending on if you want an easy install or want to integrate it yourself or take it to a car shop:

 

[NoCreativity]

Yeah, but no one carries comprehensive on a 2008 versa with 185k miles in 2017. I would quite literally be paying the pre-accident value of my vehicle every year just in case something happened...and that is before deductible.

Are you confusing full coverage with comprehensive? Comprehensive is one of the cheapest line items on the bill and covers everything non-collision related (fire, theft, vandalism, windshield cracks/chips, etc.). I'm not sure why you wouldn't have it on your car.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Are you confusing full coverage with comprehensive? Comprehensive is one of the cheapest line items on the bill and covers everything non-collision related (fire, theft, vandalism, windshield cracks/chips, etc.). I'm not sure why you wouldn't have it on your car.

None of which describes this incident.

 

[rstrohkirch]

Are you confusing full coverage with comprehensive? Comprehensive is one of the cheapest line items on the bill and covers everything non-collision related (fire, theft, vandalism, windshield cracks/chips, etc.). I'm not sure why you wouldn't have it on your car.

A parked car that is damaged by another vehicle is generally covered under Collision and not Comprehensive. It's not whether or not your driving, but what did the damage to you. A tree, storm, theft, vandalism...then comprehensive.

 

[Herr Kutz]

The Blackvue units are pretty good. A bit pricier than the cheap Chinese models (around $400 for a front/rear camera setup with a memory card & parking mode discharge prevention module), but you get a lot of features:

• 2-channel units available (front & rear cameras)
• IR (nightvision)
• Impact & motion detection
• Apps (PC/Mac/iOS/Android)
• Battery or hardwire kit
• GPS (geolocation & speed data)
  
• Loop recording (automatically overwrites the oldest files when the memory is full no need for manual management)
• Optional cloud features (remote live view, push notifications to your phone, online video backup, two-way voice communication)

The big feature being the parking & event modes, which can record impacts as well:



You can either go DIY or hardware too, depending on if you want an easy install or want to integrate it yourself or take it to a car shop:

Is there anything special about the battery pack? I like the idea but it seems a bit pricey.

 

[desura]

Yeah, I hate having to do surgery on these cars. Everything is so tight-fitted. It's worse than doing surgery on Apple products.

You'd think they'd have a solar powered one or something.

I guess one solution is to leave a power bank in your car to keep that camera powered on. Maybe have two power banks, one that is always charging and one in the car, swap them out everytime you get in.

 

[Kaido]

Is there anything special about the battery pack? I like the idea but it seems a bit pricey.

No, it just lets you plug it in easily for a DIY installation. Otherwise you have to install the Power Magic Pro unit if you want parking & event recording, which uses your car's battery instead of the small standalone battery, but has a special feature so it won't drain the car to the point where you have to jumpstart it.

The Blackvue equipment is very expensive (especially compared the multitude of cheaper options), but it's also considered "brand name", has a ton of features, good PQ, and is generally pretty reliable. Lots of great competitors though, including 2K models.

 

[agent00f]

The Blackvue units are pretty good. A bit pricier than the cheap Chinese models (around $400 for a front/rear camera setup with a memory card & parking mode discharge prevention module), but you get a lot of features:

• 2-channel units available (front & rear cameras)
• IR (nightvision)
• Impact & motion detection
• Apps (PC/Mac/iOS/Android)
• Battery or hardwire kit
• GPS (geolocation & speed data)
  
• Loop recording (automatically overwrites the oldest files when the memory is full no need for manual management)
• Optional cloud features (remote live view, push notifications to your phone, online video backup, two-way voice communication)

The big feature being the parking & event modes, which can record impacts as well:



You can either go DIY or hardware too, depending on if you want an easy install or want to integrate it yourself or take it to a car shop:

The expensive units are somewhat better, but often for many times the cost. I installed the xiaomi yi dashcam ~$50 for a family member it works pretty well enough.

The OP situation requires motion detection/sensing to work, which doesn't work as well it might first appear. First it requires the unit to always be powered, which the 12v outlets on a car usually aren't, and what's captured out the front of the car isn't always useful anyway.

 

[desura]

In response to this thread I've started looking into having a solar panel on the dashboard of the car to keep a power bank charged which can also provide power for the dashcam and maybe in a pinch also jumpstart the 12v battery.

Eh?

 

[agent00f]

In response to this thread I've started looking into having a solar panel on the dashboard of the car to keep a power bank charged which can also provide power for the dashcam and maybe in a pinch also jumpstart the 12v battery.

Eh?

Seems the panel is superfluous if you just charge the power bank from the car.

 

[desura]

man, why didn't HTC ever get in the dashcam game?

Reading a bunch of the reviews, they seem to be saying that a lot of these cams are failing in cold temperatures. I want to create a setup which is as much forget about it until I need it as can be.

 

[Raduque]

I was thinking of a 24/7 camera monitoring system for my truck using 360 degree cameras. One on the roof and one inside the cab on the ceiling. Still gotta figure out if I can do real-time monitoring or streaming, shock/motion and alerting.

I think I'll have to do something with an Arduino or RPi.

 

[agent00f]

man, why didn't HTC ever get in the dashcam game?

Reading a bunch of the reviews, they seem to be saying that a lot of these cams are failing in cold temperatures. I want to create a setup which is as much forget about it until I need it as can be.

Failures in hot/cold is mostly from units which use a battery to write out memory after losing power. Capacitor based ones mitigate that problem.