Can Dashcams Tell What Speed You Are Driving?

Dashcams nowadays are kitted with a huge range of features, from being able to have motion detection to helping you with lane departures, but can these little devices tell what speed you are driving?

Dashcams can indeed tell what speed you are driving and record it if they are fitted with a GPS function, dashcams that do not have a GPS cannot record how fast driving is, but you can work it out via a time to distance calculation.

Within our small guide below we will cover how dashcams can record speed, why you should have speed recording on your dashcam and how to calculate speed without a GPS on your cam, we will also go over whether or not you could get into trouble for speeding when having your dashcam footage reviewed.

How Dashcams Can Tell What Speed Your Driving?

Not all dashcams have the ability to tell what speed you are driving, but the ones that do use a GPS inside of them to determine your speed.

GPS systems inside of dashcams can track many stats such as distance, speed, time to route and location, acting as a mini navigator to your dashcam. It does this by tapping into a network from numerous satellites, this then sends all the data related to your car journey back to you.

Why Is It Good To Have to Speed Monitoring On Your Dashcam?

Many people might not see the need to have speed monitoring on their dashcam but it can have a large number of benefits. we've listed a few reasons to use a dashcam that records speed below.

• It protects you in incidents - If you are being accused of overspeeding during a road incident having this GPS speed data can prove that you were driving at the right speed.
• You can keep an eye on employees and learners - Whether your son or daughter has just passed their driving test or you trying to monitor employees driving a dashcam with speed can show whether or not the car is being used to speed with.
• It helps you to self-monitor - Having GPS on your dashcam can reveal important location data about your journey and you can keep an eye on how your driving.

Can You Tell Speed From a Dashcam Without GPS?

If your dashcam doesn't have GPS then there are some ways you can tell the speed you are driving without it having to be recorded, this can be calculated via the time to distance method.

All you need to do is divide the distance by time to get the speed you are travelling with, for example, if you were driving for one hour and driving 60 miles then this means you were driving at 60mph for the duration.

Could You Get In Trouble For Speeding With Your Dashcam?

You could indeed be convicted for speeding with your dashcam, for example, if the police review your dashcam footage and it has a speed recording from the GPS showing you were over the limit then you could be fined for speeding.

It should be noted that some police also have dashcams that have speed recording functions so as they can have a way to see how fast nearby cars are travelling and catch speeding. These dashcams are often more expensive due to the high technology.

Last Words

To conclude, a dash cam can record your speed if it is fitted with a GPS, these use location data from satellites to calculate your speed, you should be careful of over-speeding on dashcam footage however as you can be charged or convicted for it as part of an incident.

If your dashcam does not have a GPS then you can simply calculate your speed by using a distance divided by time method.