San Francisco company makes dash cams part of social media experience

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Dash cams have been a staple of TV news of late, capturing dramatic video of unexpected events. But there's another use of dash cams a local company wants you to know about.

We in the United States seemingly can't get enough of social media. Now a San Francisco company wants to make its dash cam part of your social media experience.

What do police incidents, plane crashes and meteor showers all have in common? They were all captured by dash cams.

Despite the high profile of some of these videos, dash cams are non-existent in most cars in the U.S. "It's not as big of a market as say in Europe or Asia, where all these taxi drivers actually have their own dash came," TechBargains' Jeffrey Lee said.

The makers of the dash cam, San Francisco-based VAVA, hope to change that. A Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $400,000, well over its $25,000 goal.

"It's the first camera of its kind that allows you to swivel 360 degrees so you can rotate it to capture any angle," VAVA's Wendy Qi said.

That means you'll be able to record inside the car, not just out. Moments with your friends and family can be captured, then you can use VAVA's app to upload content to social media.

A promotional video shows a carpool karaoke moment being recorded. "So if you're a parent, you would be able to like capture what's going on in the backseat with your kids," Qi said.

TechBargain's Jeffrey Lee thinks VAVA may be on to something. "I think that's a pretty cool feature," he said.

However, Lee thinks safety will continue to be the primary reason anyone will purchase a dash cam. VAVA will automatically record when the car is in motion. The camera will continue to record even when the car is stopped, as long as it's hooked up to a charger.

"A lot of people who buy dash cams are actually concerned the quality of the dash cams will actually be able to pick up license plate numbers," Lee said.

The VAVA dash cam is scheduled to be released in August and retail for $199.

Click here for more information about VAVA.