Many modern cars have a built-in front camera for features like lane assist and intelligent speed assist. Are there any cars where it's possible to use that camera for the purposes of a dashcam? That is, to somehow record the feed?

If not, why not? It seems silly to have to install a separate dash camera.


I am not aware of any currently available automobile that does what you're asking but certainly it's possible. If the manufacturers wanted to offer that, they surely could. If you were resourceful enough I am sure that the system could be "hacked" and a recording device wired in. There is nothing out of the ordinary with the cameras used on most autos today, so all you'd need to do it tap into the signal whatever it is, and convert it into whatever your recording device requires.

It's probably simpler and cheaper to just buy a dashcam device, however.

  • I'd tend to agree, although it is possible that the cameras themselves have unordinary firmware, which would make capturing the signal more complex. Normally, splitting digital video signal requires some type of amplification circuit, and the amplifier needs to understand what it's amplifying. So things like proprietary codecs or unusual firmware could make that quite a challenge. A device could be developed for certain, but it would be a fair development feat I think. Not as simple as clipping onto signal wires like movies make it seem. – kyle_engineer Oct 18 '19 at 19:29
  • Some of the image recognition software may well be "in the camera" to avoid transmitting the full bandwidth video around the car network. Aside from that, video data is too high frequency to just "solder a few extra wires together" and expect things to work. Standard video cables and connectors are cheap because there are millions of them produced, not because they are intrinsically "low tech.". – alephzero Oct 18 '19 at 21:38

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