Just got my car back from service and I took a look at the dash cam footage. I see that my dash cam is being removed from the dash and turned off, the whole service/weekend the dash cam had no recording all the way to the time the guy that takes the car for cleaning picked it up.
This smells a little funny to me. Is this a common behavior ?

 

Mine was unplugged, they plugged it back in before I got my car; I know this because I like to have my wires tucked away, so I noticed right away. For my friend, he got his car back with the dashcam unplugged.

 

yeah, it's fairly common.

keeps schmucks from pulling up footage and grabbing some clip out of context and starting a witch hunt over some benign thing they took issue with.

 

Totally understandable - Not many of us would like a camera pointed at work (or at home )

 

Thats fine, I found it suspicious but if it's standard procedure I'm fine w/ that.

 

My dealer does this and I find it very annoying. I’m not going to waste my time reviewing footage and it isn’t like it records them working on the engine, just the view out the front of the car. What are they trying to hide? High speed lunch runs in my car? If that is the case, then maybe they shouldn’t be doing things they shouldn’t be doing…

 

Same; mine was unplugged. Not really surprised by it though I would have preferred them to leave it active.

 

it's not so much "standard procedure" as it is "I don't want this ******* to bother me with some inane crap" -- honestly, futzing with customer-installed electronics would actually fall into liability territory (what if they damage it?). it's just worth the risk of damaging the dashcam to prevent drama over nonissues.

 

Just like during childbirth at a hospital - they ask you to shut off all photo/video equipment until the child is born and everything is OK

 

Pretty standard behaviour

 

Maybe I could see that if the dashcam is actually pointing at the engine or the suspension or something...but nearly all dashcams are pointing out the front window. Besides taking off for high speed lunch breaks or wrecking the car, what is a dashcam going to catch except a mechanic opening the frunk?

 

Dash Cam? Aftermarket, or? All I know is that I don't have one....looks to be an interesting item.

 

They don't want to be recorded for all the work "they do not do" but charge you for.

 

In many states, it is illegal to record a person's voice without prior consent. Since most dash cams record sound, maybe dealers unplug to avoid any liability while the car is in their control? And yes, this applies to passengers in your car. If you record your conversation without telling them it’s on, you have committed a felony.

 

that's fortunately a minority of states. most states are single party consent, so you as the recorder consenting to recording are all that's needed.