# Videos where the dashcam owner is the stupid one **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 16, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343 "2022-10-16T20:15:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/41 "2022-10-18T11:44:22Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > File drawer selection effect: the ones where there is no wreck at all are less likely to be uploaded (tho there are some channels for close calls). Good point. The safe events are filtered out, leaving the unsafe ones only. This probably explains a whole lot of society’s poor record of assessing risk. Except for me of course. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/42 "2022-10-18T13:22:36Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > I assume deleting or erasing the video would come under whatever laws govern evidence-tampering. Most dash cams don’t keep video for all that long, and actually require input to be told to preserve the last period of time. I’m not sure how it plays out legally, but it wouldn’t be you deleting the video, just you not taking steps to preserve it. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/43 "2022-10-18T13:30:19Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It’s actually the early-mergers that cause the very problem that frustrates them And late mergers that zip up to the point where the road narrows and then force the other lane to stop to let them in. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/44 "2022-10-18T13:35:54Z")
Indeed, but there are only late mergers zipping up there because the early mergers merged too soon, leaving the lane empty ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/45 "2022-10-18T14:01:28Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > And late mergers that zip up to the point where the road narrows and then force the other lane to stop to let them in. And the people that don’t understand the concept of “taking turns”. In heavy traffic, zipper merges work best when you alternate cars from each lane, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an asshole decide he wants to get ahead of the person they should be merging behind. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/46 "2022-10-18T14:29:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > there are only late mergers zipping up there because the early mergers merged too soon, leaving the lane empty That may sometimes be the case, but what I see on a regular basis is not that they “zipped up” there because the lane was empty, but that they wait until the last moment and then force their way in. It wouldn’t matter if the lane was empty or full. I see people going _past_ the merge driving on the berm all the time while trying to force their way in. In order for a zipper merge to work, both lanes need to be going the same speed. > [@Horatius](#): > > And the people that don’t understand the concept of “taking turns”. In heavy traffic, zipper merges work best when you alternate cars from each lane, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an asshole decide he wants to get ahead of the person they should be merging behind. Every day on my commute, I get on an exit ramp that has two lanes from the light, but only the left lane gets to the interstate. If I’m in the left lane, I leave a gap in front of me for people to merge into. Often the car to my right will ignore that gap, and speed up to try to get in front of the car in front of me. If I’m in the right lane, often the cars to my left will bunch up to prevent me from merging in. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/47 "2022-10-18T15:00:19Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > In order for a zipper merge to work, both lanes need to be going the same speed. Generally, the lane people are merging into is going slower because people merged early and there is a higher volume of traffic in it. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/48 "2022-10-18T15:08:58Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Most dash cams don’t keep video for all that long, and actually require input to be told to preserve the last period of time. I’m not sure how it plays out legally, but it wouldn’t be you deleting the video, just you not taking steps to preserve it. It depends on how big the memory card is. Mine came with a 32-GB microSD card, enough for about 32 hours of video clips before it starts overwriting the oldest files. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/49 "2022-10-18T15:12:39Z")
Fair enough, I know nothing about them, just that at the end of many “fail videos” the person says, “Save recording” or something to that effect. If you are actually worried about your footage being used against you, it seems having a shorter recording window would be useful. You may have caught that driver that cut you off and brake checked you, but you also recorded that time yesterday when you California rolled that stop sign. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/50 "2022-10-18T15:57:01Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > It depends on how big the memory card is. Mine came with a 32-GB microSD card, enough for about 32 hours of video clips before it starts overwriting the oldest files Teslas, a common brand of 360° dashcam, do it differently. **Unless they have changed things since the last time I looked, which is always possible,** Teslas keep video that is less than an hour old. Some people confuse that with keeping the _most recent_ hour of recordings, which is **not** what Teslas do. When the car wakes up it, checks the storage and the current time, and it deletes the un-saved driving videos that are more than an hour old. I am not sure if it does a rolling delete of old videos while driving. Saved videos are kept indefinitely. The last 10 minutes of video can be saved by honking the horn, tapping the record icon, or getting in an accident. This means that the act of opening the car door on a Tesla to remove the storage device will cause the car to delete videos from the storage device. I deliberately use the simplistic FAT32 filesystem on my Tesla storage device, because deleted files can be easily recovered on FAT32. That is all somewhat different than videos recorded while parked. When parked, security events are recorded and saved. Non-event videos are not saved at all. I _think_ that older security events are autodeleted to make space for new events when storage space is low. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/51 "2022-12-04T23:54:36Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > if your instinctive reaction is to take your foot off the accelerator pedal when you see something that might be risky, you’re already doing better than a lot of the dashcam drivers I’ve seen That was how I was taught in high school driver’s ed. The idea is to give myself as much time/space to deal with trouble as I safely can. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/52 "2022-12-05T19:27:48Z")
When you see the first merge sign in construction. Merge. That way everyone can move at a reasonable speed. Yes the ‘zipper’ move is fine in theory, but if cars and trucks are moving at 50mph, it does not work at all. Merge when you see the sign. Everyone can keep driving, and not stop for your sorry ass because you wait until the merge point and have to stop traffic to get your sorry ass in. Everyone now chime in to disagree with me. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/53 "2022-12-05T21:03:59Z")
No one has to disagree with you except the people who designed zipper merges. Because that’s literally how they work, by design. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/54 "2022-12-05T21:22:44Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Yes the ‘zipper’ move is fine in theory, but if cars and trucks are moving at 50mph, it does not work at all Not disagreeing, I think it is just one of those over application things. There are cases were zipper merge is not needed. If there is a lane contraction, but traffic is moving smoothly and at speed, then get over whenever convenient. Don’t put it off to the last second forcing somebody to slow down, but otherwise do it anytime. Zipper merge is not needed. To keep it on topic for the thread, when traffic is backed up for some reason, and some idiot zooms ahead, possibly illegally on the shoulder. Try to box them out, and if possible cause an accident. Upload the video. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/55 "2022-12-05T22:22:44Z")
Continuing the hijack just a smidgen: zippering is a tragedy of the commons sort of thing. If everyone could be relied upon to play by the rules it’d be easy and work great. But when some fraction will zipper, some fraction will merge early, and some fraction will race ahead then stop & wonder how to merge into the medium-speed other lane, it all falls apart. Once again humanity is why we can’t have nice things. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/56 "2022-12-05T23:29:41Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > If there is a lane contraction, but traffic is moving smoothly and at speed, then get over whenever convenient. Don’t put it off to the last second forcing somebody to slow down, but otherwise do it anytime. Zipper merge is not needed. Yup. I see this all the time. If people don’t move over and get into a travel lane they create a bottleneck that backs up traffic. I probably drive different roads than most folks though. I’m all 2 lane mountain highways. From what I see, after all the signs and flashing lights for a mile to move over, people are **stunned** that their lane ended. And of course they nudge into the through lane slowing everyone down to a crawl, when they could have just merged properly a mile before the bottle neck. Drives me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/57 "2022-12-06T00:25:41Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > of course they nudge into the through lane slowing everyone down to a crawl Yep, the goal when merging should be to do it in a way where nobody has to hit their brakes. (This is different from somebody slightly adjusting their speed to let a gap open.) Except when I’ve driven in Boston. Then the goal is to upset the person accelerating to fill the gap, because I don’t care if they ram into the back of my rental car. Which relates to the topic of the thread. If not mentioned, one dashcam owner at fault genre is the “accelerate to fill a gap” video. Somebody clearly wants to get over, and there is room. The dashcam moves into the gap so there is no longer room, and then uploads a video of the resulting sideswipe, near miss, or road rage. > [@enipla](#): > > I probably drive different roads than most folks though I’ve driven on the roads you drive, and the other cars inhabit the two Carlin paradigms of idiots scared of mountain curves going much too slow, and maniacs with no respect for mountain curves going much to fast. Add a bit of weather, and the same car can move from idiot to maniac without even changing its speed. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/58 "2022-12-06T00:36:42Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > idiots scared of mountain curves going much too slow, and maniacs with no respect for mountain curves going much to fast. I just give them all a lot of room. The people driving too slow, I will pass when it’s safe. The maniacs going to fast, I will pull over for when I have a good spot. I don’t want them tailgating. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/59 "2022-12-07T14:29:59Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > When you see the first merge sign in construction. Merge. That way everyone can move at a reasonable speed. Yes the ‘zipper’ move is fine in theory, but if cars and trucks are moving at 50mph, it does not work at all. Yes, I believe this is the one case where merging late and zippering is not the most efficient: when traffic is moving freely. ---
**Author:** ![98SNAKEEATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/9/d9b06d/32.png) [@98SNAKEEATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/98SNAKEEATER)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343/60 "2024-02-15T01:13:25Z")
I have an entire YouTube channel dedicated to all the dashcam craziness I see on the road during my 200 mile daily commute, but in this particular video, I’m the one that’s the idiot. Spotted a Dodge Durango SRT on my tail coming up fast and for some stupid reason the asshole in me decided to mess with him. First I gave him a little spritz with my bumper squirters, then let him pass and decided to chase him through traffic a bit. BIG MISTAKE cause what happens next nearly made me $#!t my pants. Turns out it was an unmarked car (f@ck!!) Thought for sure I was going to jail that day, but he let me off with a 105mph warning [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JwfVZhndyPE/maxresdefault.jpg "Pulled over by unmarked Durango SRT (yikes!!)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwfVZhndyPE) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/videos-where-the-dashcam-owner-is-the-stupid-one/973343.md?page=4)