In-car camera systems that record accidents have the potential to change our behavior — and curb the rising number of traffic fatalities occurring around the globe as more vehicles pour onto our roads. They also open a debate on the right to personal safety versus the right to privacy; such systems could one day evolve in tandem with GPS satellite-navigation systems to allow authorities to track your location and actually see where you are through the camera — in real-time.
And they are here. Honda has developed the world's first manufacturer- built, in-car camera that reacts to sudden directional change or emergency braking.
Until now, it was basically one person's word against someone else's after a car accident, unless, of course, a driver's indiscretions were caught on traffic or surveillance cameras, which is very rare. Car manufacturers responded to demands for more personal safety by improving vehicles' safety equipment, which over the last couple of decades has evolved from seat belts to antilock brakes, air bags to traction control systems, and collision-absorbing body structures to precrash warning systems.