I've seen similar things on taxis in Japan. Those are more black-boxy however and need to be removed from the cab to see the video.

But man, some of the video from these... yikes. Japan is filled with blind intersections.

It also had a manual switch on it so it could record an accident that the taxi wasn't involved in but was merely near.

Wonder how long before these are installed in US rental cars.

Well, you could always rig up some way to cause the recording unit to "fail" if an accident was your fault.

Next thing you know, they'll rig one to automaticly print out tickets in the event of a hit and run!

@Zadaz: I heard that the cabs in New York city already have a similar system. The cabby gets into an accident, and hits a TIVO button. But it's his option.

hmm, might be nice to install if you're a careful driver, and may be more reliable than the "he-said she-said" deal

Don't you need four cameras? If the accident is not your fault, you're probably going to get hit from the sides or back. So what good is a DVR that only faces forward?

bandit: it proves you didn't run the stop sign or redlight that you get t-boned at. it also proves that you were just driving along, doing your thing, when someone made an illegal left turn and hit you, etc.

this type of technology will most likely be used for law enforcement to ticket the car it's installed on (see: GizFanAlpha's post).

Is it cynical of me to see this as opening the way for a new craze of 'happy crashing'? I'm not sure if it's common in the states but in the UK there's a hideous phenomenon known as happy slapping where people video their 'friends' beating up innocent bystanders on their cellphones. How long before some knuckle-dragger takes it to the next extreme? I may be becoming a wrinkly old curmudgeon at only 29, but I'm having visions of people's grandparents bouncing off the fronts of cars posted to youtube if stuff like this becomes popular.

I'm sure it has its merits, but humanity as a whole has a nasty habit of finding the absolute worst uses for things.

Wow, last month I had a "eureka" moment when I thought I was the first to think of such a device after my g/f got rear ended. (Ha!) Although my intentions were to have a camera to record an accident to incriminate the other jerkass who caused the accident.

I was thinking it would have to be a roof mounted 360-degree camera like those used for StreetView, just in case the accident is a rear or side impact. Getting it to fit in a low profile little enclosure, like the cameras they put to the top of Nascar cars would be cool.

But I don't have the time to go around inventing things (especially those which apparently have already been invented)... so, somebody else get on that and you can just forward me the royalty checks.

These have existed for years sans-camera. Look up Event Data Recorders on the webs. If you have a Ford 2001-now or a GM 1994-now, chances are you have one in your car.