The Rise of In-Car Dash Cams: China Reveals Goluk
A horrific footage of a jaywalker being hit by an oncoming SBS bus has gone viral on social media, adding to the increasing number of such incidents being reported this year.
With such careless occurrences on the rise, there has been growing concern over the need for Dash Cams equipped in vehicles. China is no foreigner to innovation and mass production — Entrepreneur Qian Jin founded Navidog, a mobile navigation device that offers street view and displays the route and time to destination, in 2005. Navidog’s user base expanded exponentially from ground zero to over 100 million, before being acquired by digital map provider NaviInfo in 2013.
The following year, Qian founded Beijing Mobnote Technology to make a dash cam called Goluk, a venture which secured Pre-A and Series A financing from China’s Innovation Works and the Foxconn Technology Group.
Traditional dash cams are utilised solely to record traffic incidents. To make the increasingly obsolete incident recorder applicable to a wider user base and more receptive by the public, Qian decided to connect dash cams to the internet and let user generated content (UGC) create value for his user base.
He states two key features that distinguish Goluk from its competitors:
- Aside from its primary purpose of automatically recording accidents on the road, users may also first-handedly record “uncivilized behaviors” of others. A single press of the button will automatically save a 12-second video from six seconds before the press to six seconds after. Goluk acts as an effective monitor that can provide key evidence of road incidents in the event of disputes over right of passage.
- Goluk can be used for live-streaming. The gadget boasts a 360-degree rotating dash cam and 1080P night vision that used with a smart holder, which means that it can also double-up as a GoPro. A wristband is also available to the capture 12-second videos. This move is aimed at expanding Goluk’s consumer base to beyond vehicle users.
Among the over 200,000 users currently, about 10% of users are from the USA, Australia, Britain, Canada, Singapore, and Thailand. Interested drivers can pick up the gadget from popular e-commerce website Taobao for approximately $100 –a great steal for the wide range of in-built functions.
Still not convinced? Check out the Carro shop for the latest deals on accessories to snag a good deal on that Dash cam!
