Dashcam with a driving score
A dashcam that records the drive, and in time tells you how you actually drive
What it is
A dashcam. It faces the road, it records continuously, and it keeps the footage you need when something happens in front of you. That first job is the whole of the product at the start, and it has to be done well before anything else is added: reliable recording, files you can actually find, and hardware that survives a car parked in the sun in an Indian summer.
Who it is for
People who drive in Indian traffic and want a record of it. The immediate reason most people buy one is an insurance claim or a dispute at a junction, and that is a reason enough.
The direction after that
The camera is the starting point, not the ambition. Two things sit further out, and they are named here as directions rather than features, because neither is built and neither is promised.
- A driving score. Not a number invented by marketing, but a measure derived from how the vehicle is actually handled — braking, cornering, the way speed is carried through traffic. Doing this honestly needs motion sensing, a calibrated model and a great deal of real driving behind it. It is the hard part, and it is the part worth doing.
- Recording an attempt on the vehicle. A car left parked should be able to keep a record of someone interfering with it. This needs parking-mode power and thermal design that holds up, which is engineering work that has not started.
What it will not do
It will not be another commodity camera competing on how low the price can go. If that is what is wanted, the market already serves it well. The reason to build this one is the score, and if the score cannot be made to mean something then the product does not deserve to exist.
Where this is
An idea, written down and dated. Nothing is built, nothing is being sold, and the driving score is a direction rather than a specification. We are sizing interest first — if you would want one, say so.