This is completely do-able, but probably too expensive for cars.

I assisted in the design of a system like this for train locomotives. It really did help with the litigation claims, but each system was over $2K at cost. It was ruggedized for a train and carried a real hard-drive to hold many hours worth of video. I had engineer friends who tested these with their cars.

http://www.saic.com/products/transportation/railview/

I know that our competitors were selling police a mirror-mounted camera that was nearly as good and loads cheaper.

With the cost of good quality ccd cameras comming down drastically in recent times, with the aid of a good digital recording system, it shouldbe quite economical to install such systems in cars.

You can get for well under $20 a CIF resolution video camera, which stores the video on a RAM chip. In the event of an incedent, that could be dumped to a Flash chip, worth well under $5.00I figure, with all that, one could make a suitable automobile camera for under $50.

Our cheap-competitor was $500. I see they're $400 now. Still more than I want to pay.

http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/car-camera-recorder.html

Just because something could be done does not mean it should be done, and this is one of those things.

In the event of any accident in your vicinity the people involved in the accident would have the police holding you at the scene long enough to download the footage as seen from your car. I, for one, do not want to be delayed for an accident I had no part in.

True, witnesses make statements to the police at the scene of an accident. But you likely would be detained even if you saw nothing until the data was downloaded.

Unnecessary inconvenience is what it would lead to. Count me out.

^ I don't see how the system would be able to reliably record a situation it wasn't involved in. And chances are good that what it could record wouldn't be much more helpful than what you saw, if it wasn't promptly erased.

It would be an enhancement to the existing crash-data systems that track your input (gas, brake, lights). Thing is, I still see few cases where it would provide more data than could be gleaned from other easily-gathered evidence.

I propose that we all have an accident camera mounted to our foreheads that broadcast their data using cells like cellphones to record our entire lives. They would download into central computers in the Temple of Sirinx and be viewable to us through an internet link.

Vacations would be simpler because we wouldn't have to carry cameras and pose shots. Accidents and crime would decrease because everything (by law) would be recorded--if you turned your recorder off, the police would put a warrent for your arrest because they know that you're probably doing something bad.

It would also be useful for when we get old, to relive those 'glory days'. I suspect people in my generation will live well to 120 or so as vegetables in nursing homes for at least the last 20 years.