Yeah I’m definitely not going to pay a subscription for a dashcam so that some company can profit off my data. This does however sound like it could be amazing if it benefited OSM instead. One of my biggest gripes with retail dashcams is that the hardware and software feels pretty universally cheap. I’d pay a premium for a good dashcam and I’d be totally ok with my data being used to improve OSM.

▲ kingforaday 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If you think about it, they should give the hardware away as a lease to Uber, lyft, taxi drivers and pay them per mile. They are likely going to go the most diverse routes than say you or I that drive to work, home, the grocery store, and the park every now and then.

▲ rels25 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Some of it will go to improve OSM e.g. road widths, etc.

▲ 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah it's a huge waste to put that into one company's pocket instead of sharing it with OSM.

That reminds me, if anyone is in touch with the CoMaps folks... A feature to sync points and routes from my phone to my computer would be nifty. I don't record routes enough, and I often map places while I'm out without Wi-Fi.

▲ gavinray 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

  > Yeah I’m definitely not going to pay a subscription for a dashcam so that some company can profit off my data.

I'm playing Devil's Advocate here, but suppose this:

A dashcam is continuously recording and collecting image data. You're not "doing" anything with that data, it's just there being recycled or thrown away.

So the argument is, essentially: "Fuck you, I'd rather nobody in the world benefit than someone make a penny off of it."

▲ trashtensor 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Why shouldn't I get my cut, then? Why do they get to double dip? The point of the dash cam is that the data is ephemeral unless it's actually needed because something exceptional happened.

▲ gavinray 3 hours ago | parent [-]

  > Why shouldn't I get my cut, then?

They do offer to pay you for it, which you'd know if you read the article.

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hk__2 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

OP obviously read the article; please don’t be aggressive.

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UncleEntity an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

So you pay $20/month to be able to earn some crypto-coins they generate out of thin air to be used for...

If they aren't paying the equivalent of whatever the government allows you to deduct for 'wear and tear' on your vehicle then you're basically just subsidizing their data collection.

I don't even have an opinion on this, you do you.

--edit--

Oh, I saw down thread they're primarily a fleet services company and that explains a bunch. $20/month per car probably makes sense if you're outfitting an entire fleet and integrate it with your wonky in-house drivers' app which is barely fit for purpose. Yeah, I'm not bitter...

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gavinray an hour ago | parent [-]

To phrase my point another way, an analogy might be:

Would you shout away a man who dug through your trash to pull out things he could sell?

You've already binned the trash. At that point, nothing that happens to it matters to you.

Either:

A) You lose nothing, and nobody gains something

B) You lose nothing, and somebody gains something

Picking A) is, from a philosophical viewpoint, essentially malice for the sake of it.

	▲	UncleEntity 25 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Like I said, you do you. All I really have an issue with is the claim you get compensated for the time and energy you, essentially, donate to the company. If that's what you want to do with your time then by all means... It just seems like a weird business model to me, they sell a pimped-out dash cam (fair enough) and pay some tokens (or rely on your philosophical bent) so you're willing to turn over all your data so they can repackage and sell it. To give credit where credit is due, they seem to be completely transparent with this and if the people who participate don't care then why should I?