A dash cam might just be the most valuable investment you ever make in your car. In an accident, dash cam footage can prove invaluable for insurance purposes, and some cameras can even record while you’re away, ensuring there’s always a set of eyes on your pride and joy.
The newest player on the scene is portable speaker manufacturer Vava. Vava recently debuted its first car camera — appropriately called the Dash — on Kickstarter, and the company says it’s the most versatile dash cam yet. The sleek unit combines 1080p HD video with a 140-degree field of vision, ensuring whatever happens to your vehicle will be captured during day and night. If a collision occurs, the Dash’s built-in G-sensor recognizes the impact and automatically saves the footage surrounding the incident, and if that’s not enough, the Vava Dash mobile app offers unprecedented connectivity between camera and phone, no wires needed.
“We wanted to design a dash camera for the everyday driver on the road,” said Jeh Lin, director of Vava. “Through ongoing conversations with hundreds of drivers, we discovered the biggest issues drivers face with their car dash cams — resulting in the Vava Dash, a car dash camera that captures all the key features in a complete, simple-to-use package.”
The Vava Dash stores its footage on a MicroSD card, but with the companion mobile app, you may never touch it. That’s because the program wirelessly links with smartphones, allowing drivers to monitor the footage live, save snapshots, and even send photos and videos to social media.
Vava’s Kickstarter has been a massive success, as the brand surged past its $25,000 goal in just two hours. There are still 44 days left in the campaign though, giving you plenty of time to plunk down $99 to reserve yours (regular retail will be $199). Deliveries are expected to begin in June 2017.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.