Dashcams are growing hugely in popularity. Not long ago they were used just by a few people for the purpose of making some great YouTube compilations showcasing awful drivers.
But more and more people are seeing the benefit of having a dashcam. Not only can it help settle liability disputes with insurance – and be used as evidence to show another driver was in the wrong – but insurance companies are increasingly seeing their worth and offering discounts to those who have one fitted to their car.
Insurance firms such as Swift Cover will offer discounts as much as 12.5 per cent to those who have one installed in their car, while only this week footage shot by a motorist’s dashcam assisted in getting the driver of a Mercedes C-Class Coupe jailed for 11 months after showing him weaving in and out of lanes at speeds of up to 125mph before smashing into a Mini. A PC said the “dash cam footage was invaluable in securing this conviction”.
This week also saw the launch of a database from Nextbase which streamlines the process of sending dashcam footage to police.
Motor retailer Halfords even predicts it will sell more dashcams than portable satellite navigation systems this year and a survey by insurer Aviva of 2,500 motorists found that more than one in four now have a dash cam. Make no mistake, these devices are becoming really commonplace.
But what about when you use them away from the road? While undoubtedly the public highway is where they’re best placed, they also have a use out on the track, too.
This is far more fun than it looks. Skid pans may be my new favourite things pic.twitter.com/t2dExhKXVu
— Ted Welford (@TedWelford) June 29, 2018
To test this theory out, we headed to Thruxton race circuit near Andover, Hampshire, to put Garmin’s latest range of dash cams through their paces.
The first test was driving at speed around the circuit itself. The weapon of choice? A Porsche Cayman – one of the best drivers’ cars around. While not up to Ferrari pace, if there was a car to test a dashcam around a track, it’s this – particularly when Thruxton is often regarded as the “fastest circuit in the UK” thanks to its long corners and free-flowing layout.
Up first we tested the 65W, which shot in high quality 1080P video and was fantastic for track use thanks to its wide-angle 180-degree field of view – almost like a fisheye lens. It allows you to clearly see any errors in your driving but also is fantastic when assessing overtakes and any missed opportunities.
It’s also incredibly stable even when the Cayman is being thrashed at speeds of over 100mph. Granted, our mediocre track driving ability meant the car’s ability was rarely being stretched, but it still showed the quality of the footage. Particularly when you see the grainy footage of some dashcams, the 65W is clear enough to see number plates – useful in the event of any dangerous driving or crashes.
As we returned to the pits, it gave us a chance to test out the cam’s voice command feature. As anyone who has ever used voice control knows, one whiff of anything other than perfect spoken English can lead to the function having an utter meltdown. Thankfully the Garmin’s seems to work largely well. Operated through the words “OK Garmin”, this can then carry out a variety of functions but importantly a “save video” function – useful both on and off track.
Detailed timing and location information was also a key asset in helping to determine our lap times, too – which admittedly made for less than impressive reading.
The event also saw the reveal of the 55 Plus, which will exclusively be sold at Halfords. This is a particularly tech-heavy camera and to test it out we headed to the circuit’s skid pan. If you don’t know what a skid pan, it’s a polished concrete circuit covered in constantly running sprinklers to create conditions as slippery as sheet ice.
We tried both a Mini Cooper and Toyota GT86 to get the feel of a front-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive car on the surface – capturing our footage from the Toyota.
While the footage makes it look rather placid, behind the wheel it’s the most exhilarating way to enjoy yourself at 15mph as you scramble for grip. While largely trouble-free, at one point when we skidded off the pan itself and onto the tarmac – bringing the car to a sudden stop – the dashcam detected a crash. You might think this is oversensitive, but it shows the camera’s ability to detect an impact. After all, it’s to be oversensitive and capture an incident than risk missing a minor shunt. It handily also saves the video upon detecting a crash, too.
While we couldn’t test the camera’s full breadth of abilities, other impressive functions it can carry out are detecting forward collisions and lane departures, checking for red light cameras and speed cameras and the ability to work in low light, with low glare – perhaps its standout feature.
Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales said: “The rise of dash cams has allowed us to align our new model with the needs of our customer base. With the Dash Cam 55 Plus, customers can ensure the best possible recording no matter the level of light.”
Dashcams are undoubtedly growing at a rate that even their manufacturers probably didn’t even predict, and while they are clearly tailored towards road use, putting them through their paces at Thruxton showed their range of abilities. Our experience proved that dashcams can be so much more than a device that simply records your driving.