[dogma1138]

Russian's have been doing this for years because fraudulent insurance claims, simple extortion and roadside robbery were too common.

People would literally jump in front of your car (usually in more or less a safe manner) even if it was in the middle of a red light slam on your hood and pretend that you hit them.

Then they will either threaten to sue and try to extort you or if you are dumb enough to get out under the wrong circumstances simply rob you.

But having a front and even back facing cameras isn't a bad idea, it makes insurance claims much easier - GL explaining that the idiot backed out into you and you didn't rear end them.

Wouldn't surprise me if insurance companies would start giving discounts on premiums for drivers with camera setup, and in a few years mandate a tamper proof always on camera for you to actually get insurance.

[grotsnot]

Mandatory always-on cameras for insurance, insurance which is mandated by law in many places, is terrifying. These devices would necessarily have to phone home constantly and provide another stream of involuntary data for the surveillance state.

I'm all for using dashcams, but the data should not leave the vehicle unless the owner intends it to (or a warrant is issued).

[dogma1138]

In the US many cars already have a microphone for AAA type services, some cars will automatically dial home/911 if they've been in a car accident where the air bags have been deployed.

As for the data not leaving the dashcam it won't at first because internet connectivity is still spotty and expensive, eventually it will probably stream it live to you insurer which will perform some analysis on it to see how you drive in order to define your premiums, so if you speed you get to pay more. It won't surprise me if insurers don't already have access to some telemetry from cars (e.g. the one which is downloaded during routine checkups) that can be used to extrapolate your driving behavior for example how often you break suddenly/emergency break, most modern cars come with accelerometers today to ensure that air-bags deploy properly even when the is hit from the rear or the side that data is probably stored in the control box.