Alibi: Use your phone as a dashcam and save the last 30 minutes when you need it | Hacker News Reader

Alibi: Use your phone as a dashcam and save the last 30 minutes when you need it

github.com

55 pointscommoner29 comments

This is an audio only recording app. I do not see how the creator can reasonably call it a dashCAM when it is really just a dashMIC.

Looks like the person that posted this decided to editorialize a little too much because there's nothing written about being a dashcam in the GitHub repo.

Description of the repo on GitHub: "Use your phone as a dashcam and save the last 30 minutes when you need it."

It's literally in the title

Most smartphones overheat when mounted on the windshield in a way that the camera has a good view of outside.

Yeah, I had a variation on that not long ago. I was outside, it was warm and I was facing the sun. Just before I needed it my phone suddenly piped up that it was overheating and it force-closed all apps and wouldn't run anything until it cooled down a bit.

I guess that depends on climate, anecdotally in the UK both I and many people I know mount our phones on the windshield or dashboard without worrying about it being hit by sunlight and without overheating problems, even while it's charging and screen on for satnav.

Using the camera to record video is quite processor intensive, though, and that can cause a good amount of heat build up.

Google are planning to release a native dashcam feature soon. Perhaps a Pixel exclusive feature, perhaps not.

https://9to5google.com/2023/05/16/pixel-dashcam-personal-saf...

I’m surprised this isn’t a standard feature built into cars yet.

Or that insurance companies don’t offer a free dash cam.

it's a big win for cars because your phone camera in the window sunlight gets too hot. usb-c routed cameras would be great

Do people understand the wear this will put on a phones storage? Better to just get a dedicated device with external SD storage

I've looked for something like that and the options seem pretty slim. I'd like a simple device you can drop in a pocket that records audio on a fairly long loop. Obviously it's going to get some clothing noise but I think it would be useful anyway.

Obviously it's only legal in one-party states but that covers most of the US.

Most people will replace their phones way before this will be an issue

Just get a real dashcam, phones are terrible at this job for so many reasons.

And carry around an extra battery pack and device with you everywhere?

What are you talking about? You plug it into your car and mount it then never think about it again. And it’s cheaper than the crappiest Android phones. An old phone is going to overheat and require manual intervention regularly, if you are using your daily driver you are adding a lot of wear and tear and you have to power it or you’ll burn your battery, oh and it will overheat as well.

Obligatory warning: check your local laws regarding dashcams. They are not legal everywhere and some countries impose very severe fines on using them.

Which country is this?

Switzerland has it in a grey area. You certainly can't publish the videos on YouTube, but it could be examined by the police.

It's certainly a net positive on society to allow dashcams, since it resolves ambiguity around liability.

Austria, for example. The fines go up to 25.000 EUR AFAIK.

https://www.oeamtc.at/thema/vorschriften-strafen/zulaessigke...

> Any form of systematic surveillance is prohibited. So recording anything that happens in front of the lens - without any other primary purpose - is classified as surveillance activity. This activity is reserved for the state.

Wow, not dystopian at all. I figured it was some way to try to prevent some kind of stasi like surveillance at all, but it just makes it more official. :s

Yeah, there are various European countries that prohibit security cameras of all types. They are nuts as far as I'm concerned.

Imagine this: suppose there is a big company called Nile that sells a door security camera called Ding. This security camera happens to upload everything to the company servers. Since it is very popular, it has a huge coverage. If there are no restrictions on surveiling public ground, Nile could engage in all sorts of things, like tracking cars with license plates, etc. That's why Europe places restrictions on this sort of stuff.

You can still use a Ding, but it can only point at your private property and you have to inform people who may enter your property that it's being recorded.

You can post it on YouTube but you need to anonymize the footage. No plates and any identifying information which can be quite tricky. For example if you post a video of a rare car of which maybe 1 person owns one would count as identifiable.

I believe in certain extreme cases some courts in Switzerland did permit such footage in court.

"In Germany, the law prohibits the publication of recordings made by other people, road users and license plates."

Apropos, not related, but after the war victims of holocaust often recognized their tormentors from TV or from newspapers.

Most dashcams are for resolving liability with authorities or insurance, not for publication.

Not the case in Germany. You just can't post the videos to public places.

https://www.dw.com/en/dashcams-in-germany-permissible-in-cou...

Austria is supposedly completely illegal, but unless the police there will stop you for having one, I'd probably risk it. Perhaps courts wouldn't admit it as evidence, but insurance arbitration might, or it might at lease avoid an insurance fight altogether.

No, dashcams that constantly take video while driving are illegal in Germany. Just recording, even if you don't publish it. Courts are still allowed to consider such illegally taken footage when considering a case. That's what the article you link to says.

The police in Austria will stop you for having one, and it's a 200+ EUR fine.

Showing your footage to an insurance company would make them obligated to report you to the police.

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