Dash cams provide increased security and visibility on the road and have become a necessity for many drivers. A dash cam inside the car will prevent anyone from falsely scamming you for money, as everything around the vehicle will be recorded.
You can easily purchase and install a dash cam kit, but do cars come with dash cams included from the factory? Let’s find out if that is the case.
Do Cars Come With Dash Cam?
Unfortunately, many car brands don’t yet fit factory dash cams into their car models as standard. But this trend is slowly fading, as dash cams have become an increasingly popular and useful technology. Because of this, popular car brands have started fitting factory dash cams into multiple car models.
The number one reason dash cams have become so popular is because people feel safer and more protected when this device is installed in their vehicles.
However, why don’t all car manufacturers fit their cars with factory dash cams? Let’s find out in the next section.
Reasons Why Cars Aren’t Fitted With Factory Dash Cams
There are both legal and technical reasons why car manufacturers still avoid fitting their car models with factory dash cams:
Legal reasons
The legal reasons are the biggest problem why dash cams don’t yet come as standard with all car models.
Although many countries legally allow dashcams, there are also some rules about the position and angle of recording. Some countries still forbid the use of dashcams as well.
People’s privacy is also a problem, as installing a recording device in every car from the factory also means a breach of the privacy of people that don’t want to use a dash cam.
Because of these obstacles, car manufacturers have a hard time deciding to implement factory-fitted dash cams because they will surely face marketing and legal problems at some point.
Technical reasons
Aside from legal reasons, technical ones also present a problem for many car manufacturers.
Installing a dash cam into a new vehicle would increase the price, and renowned brands would use high-quality materials and technology. The cost of all the parts for the dash cam is only viable for some manufacturers to make a reasonable profit.
The reason why manufacturers wouldn’t make a reasonable profit is that dash cams are not long-term oriented.
Technology is rapidly evolving, so a dash cam of excellent quality today might be at the bottom in only a few years. This means wasting money and resources on a short-lasting technology and device.
Read more: Does Honda Install Dash Cams?
Car Brands That Include Factory Dash Cams
Even after learning some technical and legal reasons, why do cars come with dash cam fitted at the factory, and what car manufacturers include them?
Well, because of the increased dash cam popularity, several luxury car brands have found a way around these obstacles and successfully implemented dash cams without implications. Some of them are:
Tesla
Tesla began manufacturing cars in 2009, and almost immediately after that started fitting its vehicles with factory dash cams. The company’s most popular cars are the Model-S series.
The TeslaCam, as Tesla calls it, is set to record everything around the car constantly. Still, to save footage, a person needs to push the dash camera button to save the previous 10 minutes of recording. This is an excellent example of how Tesla avoided many legal problems in installing a dash cam into their vehicles.
BMW
BMW has also made a bold move, implementing factory-fitted dash cams into their luxurious vehicles like the 3 series, 7 series, 8 series, X5 or X7.
The brand includes its DriveRecorder dash cams as part of an optional pack, so drivers who want this feature have to pay extra money.
BMW’s DriveRecorder constantly records everything on the road, and in the case of an accident, it will save footage 20 seconds before and 20 seconds after the collision.
Also read: Can Dash Cam Work When Car Is Off?
Cadillac
Cadillac, an American luxury vehicle manufacturer, decided to implement only one of its models, the CT6, with a factory-fitted dash cam. This vehicle’s dash cam system consists of four exterior cameras that can record a 360-degree view of the vehicle.
The brand calls this dash cam system the “Surround Vision Recorder.” The system activates in an emergency and records footage of five minutes without interruption. In case of a robbery, it also activates alongside the alarm.