I waste my money on insurance because the government requires it.  I don’t want to pay for it, especially since I own my vehicles.  I don’t see my insurance company giving two fucks about what video I may have in the rare case I am involved in an accident.  And for the above posters saying shit may happen even when you are parked, wtf do you know plan on proving or claiming?    Your insurance company will drop your ass if you make a claim even if you weren’t at fault.  I personally do not know anyone that has a dash cam or where a dash cam helped them financially.  I get it, cover your ass, but I think people over estimate the power or benefit of a dash cam.  But please feel free to waste your money on one.

Many (most?) LE will look at it if offered and they can't determine fault without it. If they won't, they're shitbags. Even if no ticket is issued, the video can ensure an insurance payout or a win in civil court.

If the at fault doesn't have insurance, the only thing helping you is your own insurance.

Thanks for posting that!  They have one that fits my car and I've been thinking too long about getting one...

How would a dash cam had affected your outcome?  You got rear ended.  Obviously it wasn’t your fault.  How would a dash can change the way your insurance paid you?

Our company runs dash cams in all of our trucks and cranes, they have successfully defended themselves from several lawsuits using the video from those cameras. One road rager was even criminally convicted based on our video after he attempted to force a crane off the road several times then sped ahead a few blocks, parked on a side road and threw a 5 gallon bucket at the windshield of the crane.

Flip it around, there's a well known insurance scam where they'll cut in front of you and slam on the brakes intentionally trying to get you to hit them. Without a camera it will look like you are to blame for following too close. They especially like to target semi trucks and other commercial vehicles because of the amount of insurance we're required to carry.

this. and cops also lie, helpful to have video (as they claim or conveniently mute).

I've personally seen about a handful of accidents where a dashcam allowed LE to determine fault. One of those also involved a witness who was either mistaken or lying, proven by dashcam.

There was a case of someone intentionally walking into a car, flopping on the ground, then claiming the person struck them. That driver was only bailed out by surveillance video.

$100 dashcam is nothing when an insurance claim against you can be hundreds of thousands.  Yes insurance will pay, but then what?

I had liability only, (shitbox car) my insurance didn't pay. A forward facing camera would have proved the phantom vehicle didn't pass us after the crash like the guy claimed. A rear facing camera would have disproved him as well.

He did have insurance and I would've been paid $2k+ in damages if I could prove his fault.  My passenger would have likely had a medical claim as well.

I  T-boned another vehicle that pulled straight out into cross traffic.   A police Sergeant was stopped directly across the street and was looking right at me when the collision occurred.   First thing out of his mouth was "I didn't see it", because he didn't want to get involved.  He didn't even stick around, and had some flunky cop show up 10 minutes later to write the report.  Flunky didn't ask either driver a single question.  Three months later when I was finally able to purchase a copy of the report, Flunky had described the other driver as T-boning me.

Imagine you're in an accident with a govt vehicle, and the cop that writes the report decides to curry favor with his superiors by making you the at-fault driver, even when it was not your fault.   Guess how much higher your insurance premiums will be over the cost of a dash cam.  Hell, most any accident, the other driver is going to blatantly lie to avoid paying out.   Wouldn't it be nice to tell the other driver "don't bother lying to the cops, I have it all on video".

I just experienced my FOURTH road rager in three years, a few days ago.  Their behavior was so outrageous that it wouldn't be believed without a dash cam.

You bet. I really like mine. No wires to run and it looks OEM, which in certain places means it's less likely to be stolen. Video quality is excellent too.

You're sitting at a stop light or a stop sign and the car in front of you backs up hard into the front of your car causing damage to both cars. Sans a witness or dash cam, how do you convince the responding cop or insurance company that you didn't rear end the other driver? Because you say you didn't? This scenario happens more than you think.

Let me guess: slow as hell enforcing the speedlimit (it's the law!) on your own, left lane camping, stopping at yellow and no right on red? 60 while traffic does 80?

There's also the entertainment value in recording the stupid shit people do in traffic.

I got a cheap Thinkware F70(?) for free and it works well enough. My only complaint is that I have to remove the SD card and pop it in a reader to pull video. It was free so it's hard to complain, but connecting it to your phone and transferring would be super convenient. Yes but it's far more convenient to just buy a dedicated dash cam. They are not that expensive.