Garmin’s Car-Tracking Bike Radar Gains a Camera For Recording Accidents

Cycling can be a relaxing pursuit until riders find themselves sharing the route with other vehicle . It then start to feel like an exercise in mere survival , and should the unthinkable happen and a cyclist gets strike by a car , Garmin ’s new Varia RCT715willget the whole matter on filmproviding evidence as to who was really at shift in an chance event .

Garmin ’s Varia pedigree of gadget first debut seven years ago as a better choice to cyclists trust on rearward - horizon mirrors to make out when vehicle are approaching them from behind . The rear - facing twist attached to a bike ’s hind end stem and used radio detection and ranging to notice the presence of a fomite approaching from behind , up to almost 500 foundation by , and then alerted the bicyclist through a elan - mounted bike figurer , and finally smartphones and smartwatches too .

The system originally used a simple color - coded flashing alert organisation to notify cyclists of what was behind them : green mean it was all clear , amber indicate a vehicle was in scope , and red warned that a vehicle was approaching at high speeds , but later versions used animate dots on a twist ’s screen testify the localisation of vehicles , even multiple cars at once , and how apace they were gaining on the bike .

Image:Garmin

The new add-on to the Varia line , the RCT715 , lend another important base hit feature that car themselves have been using for year now : a camera that ’s constantly recording the natural process behind the bike . seat - face dashcams for bikes are n’t a new estimation , but the Varia RCT715 works as a individual all - in - one solution alongside the radio detection and ranging for detecting come on hazards , as well as a lustrous light-emitting diode taillight , seeable from a land mile off even in the midsection of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , that will set about flash faster when a fomite is notice to assist insure it gets a driver ’s attention .

As with most dashcams , the Varia RCT715 is constantly buffer 1080P/30fps footage the total time it ’s on , but when a built - in accelerometer detects a crash , footage from before , after , and during the incident is actually save onto an admit 16 GB Mount Rushmore State card , and is then accessible through Garmin ’s app .

TheRCT715doesn’t serve as a digital rearview mirror — live video ca n’t be pullulate from it to another machine — and for some that may make its $ 400 price rag severe to withdraw . That ’s twice the toll of the twist ’s predecessor , theRTL515 microwave radar tail lightthat does n’t boast a television camera . But should you ever see yourself the victim in a test - in with a auto while the number one wood point the digit at you as the suit , take footage proving otherwise will doubtless make you felicitous you splurged on the rise .

Image: Garmin