If you are one of those curious people who want to know more about the things they use, you may wonder when did dashcams come out.
Despite the history and the year when the first dashcam was invented, dashcam evolution is also an exciting thing to know. There is a massive difference between the first dashcam model and the modern one.
Everything related to electronics, including the dashcam, was pretty unaffordable to most people. Continue reading to find out more.
When Did Dashcams Come Out?
The first dashcam was seen in a movie back in 1939. The scene where the first dashcam was seen was a police officer driving a car with a movie camera inside his vehicle. The movie camera was mounted inside the car, behind the windshield, with the lens facing forward.
A type of “dashcam” was seen in 1907 when the filmmaker William Harbeck carried a camera on a railway to film the landscape of Victoria, BC. This was not an actual dashcam, but an event where a person used a camera while in a moving vehicle for the first time.
During the ride, Harbeck captured the landscape in a motion picture, making a material to attract wealthy Europeans to buy tickets and visit Victoria, BC.
The “dashcam” seen in the 1939 movie was much bigger than the one we know about. It was not an actual dashcam but a regular movie camera placed in a moving vehicle.
Over the years, scientists have been working on the dashcam project, seeking solutions and science to make this device smaller and more convenient.
Decades of upgrading and improvement later, we have tiny devices that can capture up to 8GB of footage, whether our vehicle is on or off.
Read more: Does Police Want Dashcam Footage?
The Evolution of Dashcams
1939
There is not much evidence of dashcam evolution in 1939 since everything noticed back then was the picture of the famous officer carrying a movie camera in his vehicle.
This picture was also published in “Popular Science Magazine, mentioning that an officer has repurposed the existing movie camera.
1968
Three decades later, dashcams became part of the police force equipment.
According to Popular Mechanics magazine, the dashcams from 1968 were actual cameras mounted on the police car dash. The police officers driving the cars carried small microphones on their necks.
The camera was filming both the road and the voices of the police officer and the other people. These cars had only front seats because the monitor and video recorder took the back seat part.
This Sony cam could record up to 30 minutes of footage at a time, while the police officer driving the car had to rewind the tape to continue the recording.
1988
1988 was when the first police chase was recorded by a dashcam mounted inside the police officer’s vehicle.
In the ‘80s, dashcams became widely used in police vehicles, but they were still not as small as the ones we have today. However, the dashcams from the ‘80s were a tool helping police officers capture crime scenes.
2009
The dashcams from 2009 were intended to protect car owners from false accusations. Also, police brutality was one of the reasons why most people decided to place a dashcam in their vehicle and prove they did not break the law.
In 2009, the dashcams captured thousands of videos of accidents on the road, natural disasters, and attempts for insurance fraud.
Today
The dashcams keep improving. The quality and storage of dashcams is now much better. Today’s dashcams have incredible resolution and sophisticated features.
Dashcams were initially used to capture a moving landscape, and their evolution made these devices a must-have accessory in most people’s vehicles today.
Also read: Can Police Take Away Your Dash Cam?
Conclusion
There is no precise evidence pointing to when did dashcams come out because the cameras used in a vehicle in the past had a different purpose.
Thanks to science and the unstoppable brains of scientists, we have the sophisticated dashcams we use today.