[cmyx6go]

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Talk to me. Is the drive recorder adequate? I’m reading it will record 40 seconds of an event whether triggered automatically or by user. A regular dash cam will capture movement if parked too? Thoughts? If I need/want to install a dash cam I want dealer to do it before I take delivery. Thanks all.

[LexxM3]

Drive Recorder only deals with issues during driving — it's right there in the name :-). It will record up to 20 seconds before and up to 20 seconds after manual trigger or what the car systems consider to be an accident. It records on 4 cameras simultaneously: front, rear, and each of the side mirror cameras. It does not record anything while parked or car off. As such, it is useless for parking incidents and if you need that, you need to augment with dash cam(s) that do so.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

Drive Recorder only deals with issues during driving — it's right there in the name :-). It will record up to 20 seconds before and up to 20 seconds after manual trigger or what the car systems consider to be an accident. It records on 4 cameras simultaneously: front, rear, and each of the side mirror cameras. It does not record anything while parked or car off. As such, it is useless for parking incidents and if you need that, you need to augment with dash cam(s) that do so.

Thank you. So it’s not overkill to also install a dash cam. I thought I was being anal.

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

Thank you. So it's not overkill to also install a dash cam. I thought I was being anal.

No, not at all overkill.

In fact, it would have been an order of magnitude better design by BMW to implement parking incident recording into "Drive Recorder" and there is mostly no technical reason for them to not have done so. They would need battery monitoring/management (as do the dash cams) and that would limit the duration of parking incident recording, but all the data to support the function reliably is at BMW's hands and recording mall parking incidents for an hour or three would fit 95% of the use cases. But alas, they give us almost toy features instead.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

No, not at all overkill.

In fact, it would have been an orders of magnitude better design by BMW to implement parking incident recording into "Drive Recorder" and there is mostly no technical reason for them to not have done so. They would need battery monitoring/management (as do the dash cams) and that would limit the duration of parking incident recording, but all the data to support the function reliably is at BMW's hands and recording mall parking incidents for an hour or three would fit 95% of the use cases. But alas, they give us almost toy features instead.

Thank you again. Much appreciated!

[ajob]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

No, not at all overkill.

In fact, it would have been an order of magnitude better design by BMW to implement parking incident recording into "Drive Recorder" and there is mostly no technical reason for them to not have done so. They would need battery monitoring/management (as do the dash cams) and that would limit the duration of parking incident recording, but all the data to support the function reliably is at BMW's hands and recording mall parking incidents for an hour or three would fit 95% of the use cases. But alas, they give us almost toy features instead.

I fully agree, but privacy laws in Europe killed this obvious idea.
Already the Drive Recorder in the current configuration is illegal in Spain and some other European countries, and a more capable dashcam even more so.

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by ajob

I fully agree, but privacy laws in Europe killed this obvious idea.
Already the Drive Recorder in the current configuration is illegal in Spain and some other European countries, and a more capable dashcam even more so.

I don't buy that in the least. BMW already has extensive geographical and jurisdictional optioning (both in software and hardware), in some cases reaching truly ludicrous proportions. As such, they could have easily optioned these features by jurisdiction.

[bellabimmer]

So many EU laws kills much things: Remote start, this way of recording, OPF/GPF...and much more!