Despite the fact that dash cams have become undeniably popular over the last few years, there are still some people who have yet to embrace this particular technological advancement with open arms. Some people think that dash cams are still too expensive, but they’re largely wrong at this point. You can get a high functioning, high powered unit for a few hundred dollars or less in most cases.

Having said that, making any type of investment like this is never one that should happen lightly. If you truly want to make sure that buying a dash cam is the best thing for you to do at this particular time, you’ll want to know as much about the benefits — along with the potential disadvantages — that they bring with them.

The Benefits of Having a Dash Cam in Your Car

The major benefit that comes along with having a dash camera in your vehicle is one of protection. In the unfortunate event that you ever find yourself in a car accident, you have full high definition (and in a lot of cases, 4K) footage that you can hand over to the police to quickly determine who was at fault. It removes all guesswork from the equation — nobody has to wonder who caused the accident or who was reckless and who wasn’t. You’ll know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, and there’s not a thing that anyone can say to change that.

Because of this, you’re also likely to get a major discount on your car insurance premiums with a dash cam — which is another one of the major benefits that they bring with them. Some insurance providers have been known to offer discounts up to 10% per month to dash cam-owning customers — meaning that in just a few months, that critical piece of equipment will have essentially paid for itself.

Finally, dash cams often have additional features that can make them valuable additions to your life even if you’re never in an accident at all. A lot of dash cams have a rudimentary “parking mode,” for example, that will turn them on automatically if anyone hits your car while it’s parked. Likewise, many dash cams also have GPS functionality built right in — meaning that if anyone ever steals your vehicle, you’ll be able to recover it (or at least you’ll have a far better chance of doing so than you would otherwise).

The Potential Downsides You Need to Consider

The only real potential downside to having a dash cam in your car also has to do with liability, just not in the way you might think. Despite popular belief, in the vast majority of all areas, it is totally legal to own and operate a dash cam in your vehicle at all times… although there is one pretty significant asterisk that goes along with that.

If your dash cam also has the ability to record sound, it’s very likely that this audio is being taken from the inside of your car. This means that depending on the state where you live, you’ll have to get permission to use the camera from any passengers who are in the vehicle with you BEFORE you turn it on. If you don’t and you need to use that footage in a court of law, you might not be able to. Likewise, if you fail to disclose the existence of the dash camera, it could land you in a particularly murky situation from a legal perspective as well.

But having said that, this is a downside that most people will never have to worry about — and it’s more than clear that the advantages of having a dash camera in your vehicle far outweigh the negatives anyway. In truth, it’s safe to say that if you haven’t already gone out and purchased one of these models for your own car, now would be an excellent time to do so. The peace of mind they generate alone is, for most people, more than worth it.