Dash Cams

[PizzaCake]

A word of caution...

I don't have a Mach E yet but I've installed dash cams in two other cars. I've seen people suggest tucking the wire in at the top of the A pillar trim. I think this is a bad idea because on both cars I've worked on that would cause the wire to run directly over the airbag. I don't know what would happen in an accident, maybe the airbag is so strong that it would function normally. I wouldn't want that wire slowing down the airbag though, or the wire whipping around when the airbag pushes it out of the way.

What I do is take off the A pillar trim and then run the wire down the A pillar. There has always been factory wiring there when I did it, so I just followed that wire down and then tucked it into the side of the dash. It may be possible to just tuck it in between the trim and the windshield without removing the trim, I don't know how much of a gap there is on the Mach E.

Here's a picture of the passenger side of my Mazda 3 with the A pillar trim removed.

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[Sobeer]

Pics attached. No wires visible anywhere, and the cam fits perfectly behind the rear view mirror. I can barely see the bottom of it from my driving position

What did they charge for the install of your dash cam. Thanks

 

[Jako607]

What did they charge for the install of your dash cam. Thanks

$200 to pull it out of my Bolt and install it into the MME. Took him about 2 hours.

 

[Ixoye]

Anyone considering the Ford dashcams?

I am counting on Ford doing what Tesla did and allow us to capture using it's cameras. Rather not have the dashcam sitting in the windshield.

 

[sockmeister]

I suppose it would be naïve to expect Ford to "turn on" a dashcam function with the existing cams in the near future?

Yup, there was a post late last year where they hinted that it could be released and that the hardware exists for it, and the Ford spokesman said to "stay tuned". Here it is!

I'm guessing we'd need to add usb storage for such a thing.

 

[SteelMach]

I am counting on Ford doing what Tesla did and allow us to capture using it's cameras. Rather not have the dashcam sitting in the windshield.

Same here. I'm not about to buy a dashcam and deal with the looks of it when I already *bought* a dashcam when I bought the car. I just need Ford to turn on the recorder...

 

[jericho]

Yup, there was a post late last year where they hinted that it could be released and that the hardware exists for it, and the Ford spokesman said to "stay tuned". Here it is!

I'm guessing we'd need to add usb storage for such a thing.

there is no Sd card reader in the car, so even if the electronics are there, there is no storage right?

 

[sockmeister]

there is no Sd card reader in the car, so even if the electronics are there, there is no storage right?

Right, not that I know of. But there could already be some onboard storage, or else we'd use a USB drive, which I know it can already read music from.

 

[SteelMach]

there is no Sd card reader in the car, so even if the electronics are there, there is no storage right?

There are USB ports that can transmit data, so all you need is a small flash drive which are hilariously cheap nowadays.

 

[SteveJo]

I'd like to see the MME's existing storage capacity used for cam data with the option to view, select and download to external storage when needed (or before it is periodically overwritten).

 

[jericho]

There are USB ports that can transmit data, so all you need is a small flash drive which are hilariously cheap nowadays.

While you are right, I’m not optimistic this will be added. Teaching folks to use a usb drive for dashcam feels so far from the norm. I do hope I’m wrong though.

 

[jericho]

I'd like to see the MME's existing storage capacity used for cam data with the option to view, select and download to external storage when needed (or before it is periodically overwritten).

Not sure what storage the car has or what capacity, writing and rewriting the system storage will only wear it out faster this is why dash can usually uses an sd card, as when it’s been rewritten too many times and fails, you can replace it easily.

 

[SteveJo]

Not sure what storage the car has or what capacity, writing and rewriting the system storage will only wear it out faster this is why dash can usually uses an sd card, as when it’s been rewritten too many times and fails, you can replace it easily.

I'm hoping Ford will find that an onboard SSD will support dash cams w/o the failure issues common to sd cards. If you're correct that SSD wear is the concern, Ford seems to have blown it by not adding more usb data ports or an sd port (glove box and/or armrest console) so that cams recording device is concealed and protected and out-of-the-way.

 

[ab13]

One thing to note is the resolution of the built in cameras are not high. For security they would be more convenient, but wouldn't give a picture like 4k cams. I believe the Teslacam is about 1.2 Mpixel.

 

[SteelMach]

While you are right, I’m not optimistic this will be added. Teaching folks to use a usb drive for dashcam feels so far from the norm. I do hope I’m wrong though.

It's is the norm for built-in dashcams, since that's how Tesla does it, and they're the only one that provides a complimentary built-in dash cam on every vehicle they sell - a HUGE selling point.

I look at the lack of a built-in dashcam as the biggest software miss that Ford has on the Mach-E, it seems like baseline content if they want to compete with Tesla, and all the hardware is present. I'm sure Ford has just as good of programmers as Tesla, there's absolutely no reason this could not be done on our cars.

I would go so far as to say I am not "looking forward to" it showing up on a future OTA, I would say I "expect it on the first or second OTA my vehicle receives."

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