Rob Clymo: Columnist - Tech & Gadgets
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
The in-car camera that spots bad driving
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Does anyone enjoy driving anymore? I used to love it but it’s become such a chore nowadays, thanks mainly to the sheer volume of cars on the road.

Add to that endless numpty drivers who refuse to show anything in the way of courtesy to other motorists and driving becomes a real drag. My own pet hate is when people don’t indicate but, of course, motoring frustrations can get much worse than that.

Everyday incidents
Every day you see potentially dangerous events unfolding on the roads in front of your eyes. So an in-car camera that allows you to record any kind of incident while you’re out and about seems like a great idea.

It would be even more useful in the unfortunate event of an accident.

I’ve just had a look at one from a company called RoadScan and it’s fab. Mind you, I’d cheekily assumed that they’d lay on a company car in order for me to test one rather than entering my own car in some kind of demolition derby.

Road test?
“I’ll come and meet you,” said the guy on the phone, which I gleefully assumed would mean I’d be shredding tyres and wrapping his motor round a lamp post later in the week.
It’s not often you get the chance to smash up someone else’s car with their blessing, now is it?

But it wasn’t to be. John Kane, director of RoadScan, turns up in a modest and surprisingly dent-free Vauxhall Zafira and explains the in-car camera concept over a coffee or two instead.

Nevertheless, I’m soon intrigued by this exciting little gadget.

RoadScan's in-car cameras
RoadScan currently gets most of its business from owners of fleet vehicles such as high street retail chains and courier firms, though other UK drivers are already starting to take up the product too.

There’s a single lens camera, the diminutive RoadCam, and a bulkier counterpart, the dual lens EnvisionCam.
Starting at £395 for the former they’re not exactly cheap, but when you weigh up the potential savings of being able to prove to an insurer that an accident wasn’t your fault, the in-car camera soon starts to make financial sense.

It’s a great idea that also gets you thinking about your own driving habits, alongside providing a reassuring monitor of everything that happens during everyday car journeys.

Capturing bad behaviour
RoadCam is basically a Video Event Data Recorder (VEDR), which records driver behaviour both before and after an accident, be it a relatively minor scrape or a full-on fender bender.

Kane explains that this particular idea originated in the US and has been around for a while. He got offered the chance to pick up the concept for our side of the pond a few years ago and successive versions continue to add increasingly sophisticated features.
Fringe benefits
The RoadScan camera offers some immediate benefits. For starters, it helps improve driver discipline, while producing increased fuel economy because motorists inevitably end up adjusting their habits to avoid triggering the device.

The device can be mounted on a windscreen in about 20 minutes, just in front of the rear view mirror, and works in both regular daylight and at night, as long as the road ahead is reasonably lit.

It’s a product that doesn’t look overtly sophisticated – just a small plastic box with a lens on one side and a manual record button on the other. The clever stuff is located inside.

Clever stuff
The device works using a series of sensors that measure changes in G-force while a vehicle is moving. Hard braking, erratic driving and anything else that registers over the scale of pre-configured settings will automatically trigger the camera.
The unit is actually recording all the time, but only when the device experiences these sudden changes in driving style does it makes a permanent record of events in the shape of a short video clip.

The camera records and saves fourteen seconds beforehand and the six seconds immediately afterwards, giving a well-rounded snippet of an accident and the events leading up to it.

Downloading data
This video, along with other data captured by the RoadCam, can then be downloaded to a laptop or home computer via the supplied Event Review software.

Along with a full colour playback of the events, the software also provides a dazzling array of data, including graphical charts displaying the precise moment the camera was jolted into action.
Needless to say, it doesn’t take long before an installed device is being put to good use. It provides a stark reminder of just how our hideously congested roads and increasingly aggressive driving habits have changed motoring in the UK for good.

Does Kane think driving standards have got worse? “Not really,” he ponders. “There’s just a lot more traffic on the roads these days. In fact, the driving test has become harder than it was.”

From the selection of clips that Kane shows me, it’s obvious that the RoadCam has a bright future, not only for improving driving standards but also for use as a training aid.

Driving style
I just worry that this gadget could turn some people into over-zealous snoopers. “It can be a little bit like that,” admits Kane.
“But you also find that it changes your own driving habits and has the potential to turn all of us into better drivers. Whenever I trip the camera, I’m always thinking how I can avoid doing it again. It makes you much more aware of the way you drive and helps to smooth out your overall driving style.”

Potential misuse?
Nevertheless, road-bound busybodies will find its charms hard to resist. There’s a little red record button on the back of each camera that allows you to manually control the video capture.

It’s not until you actually try it out and then see the footage played back that you fully realise the potential.

For example, if somebody undertakes you on the motorway you simply press the record button and the device will save a 20-second clip of the illegal manoeuvre. Whether or not the police would subsequently do anything about it remains to be seen.

Still, if you’re increasingly worried by the ever decreasing standard of driving on our roads and fancy a bit of in-car security then this is a device that could sit very nicely alongside the sat nav and stereo.

Recent columns from Rob Clymo:

(Online customer) service, please!
Waging war on spam
Goodbye Mr Gates
Faking it with digital photos

All Rob Clymo's columns for Tech & Gadgets

Rob Clymo is a journalist employed on a freelance basis by Microsoft. The views in this article are those of the author and not of MSN or Microsoft.