Recording the feed from the Tacoma built in cameras

[Huntsman7272]

I like the idea of getting a dash cam for safety purposes, but has anyone explored the idea of using the existing cameras that come with the Tacoma? I have a 360 degree view with all of my cameras and it seems to me that it would just make sense to tap into their feed versus adding yet another camera. If anyone knows if or how this could be done, I would be interested in learning more.

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[Sner]

I like the idea of getting a dash cam for safety purposes, but has anyone explored the idea of using the existing cameras that come with the Tacoma? I have a 360 degree view with all of my cameras and it seems to me that it would just make sense to tap into their feed versus adding yet another camera. If anyone knows if or how this could be done, I would be interested in learning more.

I've been saying this for years on all products. Shocks me the industry hasn't made better use of the cameras. I mean what would be needed, just an SD card.

 

[MERAKIAUTOWORKS]

That would be awesome.

-Josh

 

[yoloborz]

Replying to show the product people there's interest.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I *think* the only aftermarket way to do it would be a device with an OBD2 connector that's programmed to read the camera video feeds. But I don't know where that data is exposed / if that's possible.

What the owner's manual says is (page 7):

■ Data recorded by the computers*1
*1:The recorded data varies according to the vehicle grade level and options with which it is equipped. Certain data, such as the following, is recorded depending on the operation timing

• Image data (images from the front, rear and side cameras)*2

*2:The vehicle has multiple cameras. For details on from which cameras images are recorded, contact your Toyota dealer.

But it gets interesting on the next page:

■ Usage of recorded data and personal information by Toyota Safety Sense 3.0

The operating state of each system, data from each sensor, image data (images from the front/rear cameras), and position information is recorded by the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 in the following situations. Toyota obtains this information when the vehicle is brought to the dealership or when sent to the Toyota servers.

• In certain collisions or collision-like situations
• When driving on roads with certain traffic situations, such as congestion, poor road surfaces, poor weather, etc.
• When driving on certain roads, such as roads which were recently opened or extended
• After the hybrid system is started, for a certain amount of time

Goes on to link to www.toyota.com/privacyvts/ and talks about use by third parties (can be requested by Gov't/Law Enforcement, used by Toyota in a lawsuit etc.

Anyway, that mention that a dealer can download camera data really has me suspicious that it's OBD2 accessible. I'll ask at my next service.

 

[tgrneal]

I too am interested. I believe the new rav4 has something like this installed from factory

 

[Baltimore]

I would suspect that a solution could be made that sits inline on the factory harness and plug that goes into the back of the 14" display, just as if you were doing an aftermarket head unit. That could pass-through all wires and signals for normal operation but also grab the video feeds and record them to an external looping drive.

It's a level of firmware (handshaking the camera system, signal understanding) and software (decoding signal, orientation, position, resolution, etc.) that I'm aware of but by no means have the skills or time. really hoping others do as I would readily take a small plug-in solution that tucks away but keeps a rolling loop of a decent amount of footage that can be easily gotten at for an accident or altercation.

 

[TheOldObiWan]

I would suspect that a solution could be made that sits inline on the factory harness and plug that goes into the back of the 14" display, just as if you were doing an aftermarket head unit. That could pass-through all wires and signals for normal operation but also grab the video feeds and record them to an external looping drive.

It's a level of firmware (handshaking the camera system, signal understanding) and software (decoding signal, orientation, position, resolution, etc.) that I'm aware of but by no means have the skills or time. really hoping others do as I would readily take a small plug-in solution that tucks away but keeps a rolling loop of a decent amount of footage that can be easily gotten at for an accident or altercation.

I was thinking the same thing. Idk if there are any aftermarket wiring harnesses currently available. But I am assuming that the harness would have to provide an input to the camera for it to send the image to the display. Then that feed would have to be split to some kind of external hardware that would record the video. An external storage to store the recordings would be necessary as well.

It would be nice to have it continuously recording. And then deleting the oldest video as new video records. That way if there is an incident you can pull the external storage and have all the video available leading up to the event and after until you pull the storage device.

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