Vehicle: Car: Accident
Automatic vehicle accident photographs   (+4, -3)  [vote for, against]
Snap photographs of an accident in progress

Problem: A vehicle does an unnecessary stop in front of you and you rear end them. Or, a person runs a stop light or sign and you collide with them. You are innocent; the other drivers claim you are at fault.

10 25 2005 "Staged accidents may occur when a driver deliberately stops in front of a car to cause a low-speed crash. The driver who staged the accident claims that he and his passengers suffered injuries; they seek payment from the other driver's insurance company." See link below this window

Baked as of 2006

Suggested assist: An inexpensive still or video canera mounted on the forward facing side of the rear view mirror, for one example, that would take pictures/video whenever the airbag deploys and/or a shock is detected.

Multiple cameras, or one camera pointed at a convex mirror, could also take pictures of the rear or sides of the car as well.

June 24, 2007: The Vehicle Safeguard Video Recording Camera (see link) looks a lot like a cell phone. Therefore, why not just mount your cell phone/video camera to the dash and have the video run in a continuous loop like a security camera. A similar camera could also be built into a windshield mounted/ portable GPS. Sunstone
-- Sunstone, Oct 22 2005

(?) Halfbaked Tivo_20For_20Cars
Same idea, except since you really want some information from before the accident happens (dramatic shots of you hitting the tree are no use when you were swerving to avoid someone coming at you in the wrong lane), records continuously. [DrCurry, Oct 22 2005]

Staged accidents http://www.statefar...m/media/insback.htm
Deliberate stops [Sunstone, Oct 26 2005]

Car Crash Fraud http://www.latimes....oter&track=morenews
[Sunstone, Nov 26 2005]

I just found that this idea is already available http://obsusa.com/index.html
The OBS Inc., patent pending InSight system is a one-of-a-kind security device that uses sensors to detect and record events in and around your car [Sunstone, May 19 2006]

Vehicle video http://www.gadgetun...tail.asp?SKU=TC+246
Vehicle Safeguard Video Recording Camera [Sunstone, Jun 25 2007]

www.drivecam.com Dashcam for taxis, fleet vehicles, etc. [Sweaty_Elvis, Apr 08 2009]

Vehicle cameras improve safety for teen drivers http://www.kansasci...as-in-vehicles.html
Since 2007, American Family Insurance has provided customers the chance to place tiny video cameras with audio on the rearview mirrors of their cars. The cameras record footage of the driver and the driver’s view of the road ahead [Sunstone, Jan 27 2011]

Wild Russian dash cam footage http://www.youtube....ded&v=hlxHPJAONpE#!
Dash cam accident videos [Sunstone, Dec 16 2012]

Panoramic 360 degreee iPhone lens http://shop.kogeto.com/
This lens would work well for vehicle operation [Sunstone, Feb 21 2013]

G-force engages iPhone dash cam app that shoots video of wreck https://www.youtube...watch?v=-8U3zNFNfFo
Go to 3:14 of video [Sunstone, Feb 08 2015]

//would take pictures/video whenever the airbag deploys and/or a shock is detected//
By then its too late.
-- Letsbuildafort, Oct 23 2005


Wouldn't this be baked by any of the Cop reality TV shows? How is this different?
-- Dog, Oct 24 2005


//A vehicle does an unnecessary stop in front of you and you rear end them. ... You are innocent//
No, you really are not.
-- angel, Oct 24 2005


Failure to maintain stopping distance is almost always the following driver's fault in a rear-ender.
-- bristolz, Oct 24 2005


airplane black boxes record in a continuous loop. they are always on and recording until a crash, when the box should stop. because of the continuous loop you always have the last 30 minutes worth of data recorded.

i raead somewhere of a similar continuos loop camera, this time its built into a hat or eyewear. A small camera looks directly in front, it records a continuous loop of video of whatever is in your field of view. It has a small amount of flash memory or ram where it stores the last 30 seconds to 1 minute of video. its used as an extension to your memory. for example you see something, a face, a poster, an event or whatever. you want to remember it so you hit a button and the last 30 seconds of video get dumped into permanent flash memory.
-- vmaldia, Oct 07 2006


Later model cars have "black boxes" in them that determine the speed of the vehicle at the time of airbag deployment and whether the driver was accelerating or braking. It records the last 30 seconds prior to the impact and it seems like it would be easy enough to prove that you were a victim of fraud. If you could afford to hire the right lawyers and the right investigators you could probably prove in court that you were not at fault. In the scenario of being purposefully cut off by a car full of people, the black box would show that you were cruising along at 50MPH, abruptly slowed down to 40 and then hit the driver in front of you in less than 3 seconds without swerving or attempting to steer away from the obsticle.
-- Jscotty, Oct 07 2006


my first post.

excellent idea. however, it is totally baked.

I own one of the products from gadget universe that somebody linked to (although the link seems to be broken...product discontinued maybe?) After some jerk ran a red light on me a few years ago, I haven't driven without a camera on the dash since.

Also I posted a link to a company that sells an even BETTER product but they refused to sell me one...they only want to sell to fleets.

The product constantly records on a 10 second loop and has acceleration sensors to detect "events" during driving. If an "event" is triggered the device stores a 20 second video & audio clip....from 10 seconds before the event to 10 seconds after. The website has samples of video clips. Some drivers are vindicated and some are doomed....
-- Sweaty_Elvis, Apr 08 2009


// Some drivers ... are doomed.... //

Sounds like an application for an "Instant erase" button, including a massive overvoltage to fry the flash memory beyond recovery ...
-- 8th of 7, Jan 27 2011



random, halfbakery