Candid camera
A video recording of your commute into work probably isn’t something you’d want as a keepsake, but it could be incredibly useful…
A company which manufactures in-vehicle camera systems – SmartWitness – recently monitored 3,000 commercial vehicles that had FNOL (first notification of loss) camera devices installed and then looked at the wider insurance claim statistics in the UK.
They found that if there is no camera involved, then 40% of insurance claims are disputed. But where there is a camera, that figure drops to just 2%!
It also seems that the people driving with a camera in their car were just that little bit more aware of how well they were doing… The research showed significant improvement in driver behaviour, resulting in 19% less incidents than the national average.
Unsurprisingly this type of camera is becoming more popular in the UK, but interestingly it’s long been a technology used by Russian drivers. And then there’s the cyclists on our roads - go for a drive around Bristol for example, and you’ll be swarmed by armies of cyclists with cameras on their helmets.
So if you’re worried that installing a camera would make you feel like a snitch – don’t! There are plenty of people who realise that looking out for yourself in this way is a good move. In addition, a ‘dashcam’, as they’re also commonly known, might reduce the cost of your insurance.
You do need to bear a couple of things in mind if you decide to go ahead though – mainly ensuring that the dashcams don’t actually hinder your driving. They shouldn’t intrudemore than 40mm into the swept area of your windscreen wiper blades and they can’t be fixed to sit in the area directly above your steering wheel.
Other than that they’re pretty straight forward and clever – they work by splitting the video of the journey into small chunks of a few minutes. When the memory card is full, the oldest files are deleted to make way for the new. Sounds like that type of technology could be good for a night out too.
A company which manufactures in-vehicle camera systems – SmartWitness – recently monitored 3,000 commercial vehicles that had FNOL (first notification of loss) camera devices installed and then looked at the wider insurance claim statistics in the UK.
They found that if there is no camera involved, then 40% of insurance claims are disputed. But where there is a camera, that figure drops to just 2%!
It also seems that the people driving with a camera in their car were just that little bit more aware of how well they were doing… The research showed significant improvement in driver behaviour, resulting in 19% less incidents than the national average.
Unsurprisingly this type of camera is becoming more popular in the UK, but interestingly it’s long been a technology used by Russian drivers. And then there’s the cyclists on our roads - go for a drive around Bristol for example, and you’ll be swarmed by armies of cyclists with cameras on their helmets.
So if you’re worried that installing a camera would make you feel like a snitch – don’t! There are plenty of people who realise that looking out for yourself in this way is a good move. In addition, a ‘dashcam’, as they’re also commonly known, might reduce the cost of your insurance.
You do need to bear a couple of things in mind if you decide to go ahead though – mainly ensuring that the dashcams don’t actually hinder your driving. They shouldn’t intrudemore than 40mm into the swept area of your windscreen wiper blades and they can’t be fixed to sit in the area directly above your steering wheel.
Other than that they’re pretty straight forward and clever – they work by splitting the video of the journey into small chunks of a few minutes. When the memory card is full, the oldest files are deleted to make way for the new. Sounds like that type of technology could be good for a night out too.
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