Catching the bad guys

P

Packard

Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2020
Messages
5,266
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
I’ve read several releases about Tesla’s vehicles having surveillance cameras that capture acts of sabotage against the cars. What they never seem to mention is if the video was sufficient to make an arrest.

There are reality shows on TV that use footage to solve crimes. But the surveillance footage seems never to be enough on its own to identify the bad guys. They clearly show what happened, but with such dismal resolution that the bad guys cannot be identified. Fictional shows (The FBI) can always get facial recognition from videos. Real cops don’t seem to be able to do that.

The much-touted surveillance cameras that Walmart has, seems barely OK indoors, but the parking lot footage is dismal.

Question: Are there aftermarket video systems designed to monitor your vehicle, that have sufficient resolution to I.D. the bad guys? My forward reading dash cam has sufficient resolution to read license plates and street signs (daytime—I have not checked night videos).
 
Project Farm did a video about dashcams and came up with one that was "the best" - but if you compare it to modern digital video cameras, the resolution is terrible. It would be akin to using some generic router from Temu instead of the 1400. Good enough to read license plates but not so much for detail.

And those fictional shows - many years ago, I did video playback on a movie that featured surveillance. We mocked up satellite cameras that could zoom in from space with astonishing accuracy. I figured it was kinda fantasy but our CIA technical advisor told me that the images we created was "old tech". So anything is possible if you spend enough money on a dashcam!
 
The camera footage from Tesla's was used extensively in many vandalism cases when people were going nuts over Elon Musk and DOGE not long back, and decided to vandalise Tesla's on a large scale.

The footage was ultra clear and they seemed to be able to get pretty much every angle covered.
 
luvmytoolz said:
The camera footage from Tesla's was used extensively in many vandalism cases when people were going nuts over Elon Musk and DOGE not long back, and decided to vandalise Tesla's on a large scale.

The footage was ultra clear and they seemed to be able to get pretty much every angle covered.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I wonder if there is an aftermarket version for other cars.
 
The Tesla cam saved me $2400 a few months ago:

Parked on the street two houses down from a friend we were visiting. She drove us all to a restaurant. While eating, I get a notice on my phone that my car was probably in an accident. On the phone, I'm able to watch the video: a car backed out of the house we had parked in front of, the rear wheels went over the curb (he wasn't aligned with his driveway) and our car was grazed, although on the phone we couldn't quite tell if there was contact or not.

We get back after eating, and sure enough, there's some very slight damage to the front of our vehicle. Our friend knows the neighbor, who didn't leave a note. We have video of him returning after his errand, walking out to look at our car, even wetting his finger and rubbing the damage as if he could make the damage go away with some spit.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details of his denials, belligerence, accusations of fraud, etc., but the end of the story is: he writes me a check for the estimate for fixing the damage, which is actually what Tesla charged in the end. Without the built-in dash cam, I never would have known it was him.
 
My Chrysler Pacifica (minivan) has a plastic cover over the front bumper.

While parked at Barnes & Noble, apparently someone had backed int my front bumper. The damage was not apparent as the bumper cover is flexible and retuned to its original shape. It is entirely possible that the person who did the damage got out, inspected my car and determined that there was no damage.

The car overheated on the drive home. I brought it to Chrysler (a mistake) and there was $4,900.00 in damage.

A video would have been very helpful.

Note: I now park “head in” instead of backing in. It would have likely have avoided the damage if I had done so back then.
 
Packard said:
My Chrysler Pacifica (minivan) has a plastic cover over the front bumper.

While parked at Barnes & Noble, apparently someone had backed int my front bumper. The damage was not apparent as the bumper cover is flexible and retuned to its original shape. It is entirely possible that the person who did the damage got out, inspected my car and determined that there was no damage.

The car overheated on the drive home. I brought it to Chrysler (a mistake) and there was $4,900.00 in damage.

A video would have been very helpful.

Note: I now park “head in” instead of backing in. It would have likely have avoided the damage if I had done so back then.
Click to expand...
Since I own the same model, I’m really curious what exactly was damaged?
 
luvmytoolz said:
I'm putting my money on coolant pipes or radiator?
Click to expand...
Radiator, a.c., some brackets, new plastic cover and some minor body work.

A time-specific problem was that this happened during the pandemic. There were supply chain issues. My mistake was bringing it to a Chrysler dealer. They are contractually required to use genuine Chrysler components and they must be new.

There were a couple of brackets and hose couplings that were on back order. I could find them used, but the dealer could not use them.

My insurance covered 30 days of car rental, and I burned through that. Rather than pay $60.00 per day for an indeterminate time, I bought a used Chrysler 300 from my brother-in-law. It took another two months for the parts to arrive.

I should have used an independent body shop.

But, park head-in; don’t back in. I’m pretty sure my rear bumper would have survived that impact.

P.S.: I really like the Pacifica. Way better than the Honda CRV I traded in after owning it for 4 months.
 
luvmytoolz said:
They do pack a lot of supports and pipes behind the bumper affixed to usually somewhat flimsy sheetmetal.
Click to expand...
The newest vehicles that have a front radar unit mounted RIGHT behind the grill are often the most common 'victims' of a gentle hit. The grill deforms inward from the impact, hits the sensor, the mounting bracket deforms, sensor survives, grill returns to its normal shape, and you start to get Driver Assist System issues afterwards due to the sensor now being out of its calibrated position. The brackets are actually meant to give, they're bent and pressed in such a shape to allow the much cheaper bracket to take the hit and deform ,like a crush zone of sorts, to protect the expensive sensor. Generally works pretty good as a design really, it just baffles Customers who have these sensors behind the grill as to what's suddenly going on.
Can't tell you how many I've changed in the last 5 years.... :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:
 
leakyroof said:
The newest vehicles that have a front radar unit mounted RIGHT behind the grill are often the most common 'victims' of a gentle hit. The grill deforms inward from the impact, hits the sensor, the mounting bracket deforms, sensor survives, grill returns to its normal shape, and you start to get Driver Assist System issues afterwards due to the sensor now being out of its calibrated position. The brackets are actually meant to give, they're bent and pressed in such a shape to allow the much cheaper bracket to take the hit and deform ,like a crush zone of sorts, to protect the expensive sensor. Generally works pretty good as a design really, it just baffles Customers who have these sensors behind the grill as to what's suddenly going on.
Can't tell you how many I've changed in the last 5 years.... :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:
Click to expand...
But…

Am I correct in saying that the rear bumper can withstand a harder hit than the front bumper? That backing into a space (exposing the front bumper) is riskier than head in parking?

Also, read today that Jeep has the worst customer satisfaction (measured by “Would you buy another Jeeep? With a 50% “yes” rating). Chrysler/Ram came in second place and all of the remaining Stellantis brands falling at the bottom of the heap.

www.stellantis.com

Our Brands

At the heart of Stellantis is a constellation of 14 iconic automotive brands and two mobility arms that are about making connections and offering innovative solutions that are transforming how people move.
www.stellantis.com www.stellantis.com
 
In Denmark, a serial killer/rapist was caught a few years ago with his newest victim still alive (yes, that also happens outside TV shows).

One of the things, which lead the police to his (and the victim's) location was dashcam footage from a car which he had passed while driving away from the abduction scene.

Does that count, or was your question specifically about vandalism?
 
Allano said:
In Denmark, a serial killer/rapist was caught a few years ago with his newest victim still alive (yes, that also happens outside TV shows).

One of the things, which lead the police to his (and the victim's) location was dashcam footage from a car which he had passed while driving away from the abduction scene.

Does that count, or was your question specifically about vandalism?
Click to expand...
Well, I currently have a front-facing dash cam that is remarkably sharp can clear in daytime images (I have not checked night images).

What I was looking for was a system that was a nanny-cam for my car. One that would hold anyone that damaged my car accountable. The Tesla cameras seem to do that, but it appears that the lenses have to be integrated with the bodywork to get the correct angles.

It seems that car manufacturers will have to integrate the cameras. And they will be reluctant, because the placement of the lenses will diminish the carefully drawn body lines.
 
Packard said:
Well, I currently have a front-facing dash cam that is remarkably sharp can clear in daytime images (I have not checked night images).

What I was looking for was a system that was a nanny-cam for my car. One that would hold anyone that damaged my car accountable. The Tesla cameras seem to do that, but it appears that the lenses have to be integrated with the bodywork to get the correct angles.

It seems that car manufacturers will have to integrate the cameras. And they will be reluctant, because the placement of the lenses will diminish the carefully drawn body lines.
Click to expand...
Cudos to Tesla for planning ahead.
 
Packard said:
But…

Am I correct in saying that the rear bumper can withstand a harder hit than the front bumper? That backing into a space (exposing the front bumper) is riskier than head in parking?

Also, read today that Jeep has the worst customer satisfaction (measured by “Would you buy another Jeeep? With a 50% “yes” rating). Chrysler/Ram came in second place and all of the remaining Stellantis brands falling at the bottom of the heap.

www.stellantis.com

Our Brands

At the heart of Stellantis is a constellation of 14 iconic automotive brands and two mobility arms that are about making connections and offering innovative solutions that are transforming how people move.
www.stellantis.com www.stellantis.com
Click to expand...
Really depends on what electronics are in the vehicle. For the Rear, , hiding under and behind the Bumper Cover- aka, the Bumper as most people are going to call it- could well be two modules, left and right/ drivers and passenger side, that are often called Blind Spot Monitoring or something similar depending on Copyright and Marketing.
These modules are the guys that turn on, or flash a warning symbol on your outer Mirrors, letting you know a vehicle is coming by, They're normally rigidly mounted to the backside of the Bumper Cover, so a hard enough hit to pop them out of their holders/mountings can often mean repairs to the Bumper Cover itself in addition to a new module. Water Ingress tends to be their biggest enemy though, no matter who has the system installed.
While still at the Rear Bumper, you can have Park Distance Sensors all around it, along with some other Proximity Sensor possible..
So much depends on availability of space, the size of the vehicle.
Look at it this way, my wife and I drove MINI COOPERS. They're small, even though both models are bigger than the standard 2 Door Mini's most people think of. I KNOW right behind either Bumper Cover is going to be a small horde of electronics since there's less space to play with on them than a big SUV.... :giggle: :giggle:

But as you noted, there's no radiator, intercooler, hoses, Radiator Mounting Clip, etc, , to break in the Rear- AND back to the front, it's the sneaky side mounted Aux Radiators, the intercoolers, hiding in front of a front wheel behind your bumper that have taken out more than one engine due to overheating. People get a side whack in the parking lot, think, well damn, at least it wasn't the front of the car- meanwhile the distorted Aluminum Cooler starts to crack, or a hose connection to it cracked, and you leak coolant - By the time your temp Gauge shows you're overheating, it might be too late since the Coolant flow through these Intercoolers or aux Radiators isn't always in a great path for where the Engine Coolant Temp Sensor is, so you get a delayed reading in your Cluster unless you have a Level Sensor in the system to catch it first BEFORE you overheat and damage the engine.
Put a Big Bumper Sticker on the Rear Bumper... PLEASE BE GENTLE HITTING MY BUMPER- EVERYTHING COSTS DAMN MONEY...;);)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Home Security & one hickup.
Replies
17
Views
4K
JeremyH.
J
D
Photo Tutorial: Image File Basics - Key Steps to Reducing File Size
Replies
4
Views
6K
Michael Kellough
M
Back
Top