Use GoPro as dash cam?

wba31

So with a change of job I no longer use the train but drive to work, and would like a dash cam in case of an incident that I may desire extra evidence for my insurance company. Truth be told I have other expenses to cover for now before a dash cam if I have the choice, but I do have a GoPro with suction mount. If I were to use this, just leave it recording for my commute, would any footage it captures be usable by an insurance company? It obviously won't have the on screen info like date, time and speed that I've seen dash cam footage has, but will at least show my perspective of any incident I hope I don't have! I obviously won't be declaring on my policy that I claim to have an actual dash cam until I do get round to buying a proper device...

angrycrow

Perfectly usable for insurance even without date time stamp and will probably give better footage than some dash cam footage I have tried to view. The only thing it would not help with is false accusation accidents but then a dash cam would be no better anyway.

Just a pain having to remember to switch it on and having to clear the card.

Richard53

I 'inherited' a Go Pro last year and for a while considered using it as a dashcam. General consensus of people I asked was that it was not a good tool for the job. It would stand out like a sore thumb on your dash, and GoPros are *very* nickable. I don't think it has loop recording, which would make it a pain in the rear to use day-to-day. Field of view of the lens might not be ideal. When you can get a cheap camera on eBay for under £20 which will do the job better (even if it is horrible cheap rubbish), there seems little point in wasting a great bit of kit in this way. That's the decision I ended up with, anyway.