It's official...no inward facing drive cam starting tomorrow

Discussion in 'Swift' started by 3523, Mar 21, 2017.

  1. dodgeram440rt

    dodgeram440rt Heavy Load Member

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    I've said it before and I will say it again...it's the OUTSIDE facing camera that is more likely to get you fired than the driver facing camera. Unless of course you're a complete freakin idiot like the above mentioned driver who refused to let go of his phone during an accident. That guy deserves to be fired.

    For the tin hat crowd, let me make this perfectly clear: No ONE IS WATCHING YOU AS YOU DRIVE DOWN THE ROAD. Period. End of argument. The logistics of that just make it impossible. The only time you are recorded is when an event is triggered and then only a few seconds of video is recorded. If you aren't doing anything wrong during that recording, such as holding a cell phone, you have nothing to worry about. If you are doing something, then you should be worried.

    What gets drivers fired is the outside facing camera. During one of my reviews, I was told of a driver who had hit a low bridge. His story was that he had seen it and stopped in front of the bridge, but traffic had some how forced him to hit the bridge. I don't understand that either, but when you make stuff up, then your story won't add up. The video showed the driver ran straight into the bridge. He never stopped in front of it and traffic didn't force him. He did it all on his own. Yes, he was fired.

    But it's also the interpretation of videos that will get you fired. I had several videos that showed what appeared to be me following vehicles too close. What was ignored was that most of these videos involved cars merging in front of me and not necessarily opening up the gap quickly enough (or I didn't slow down quick enough for them), not to mention that if I was purposely tailgating anyone why is there only one video of each event and not multiple videos showing me consistently following that one vehicle too close for a longer period of time. Nope. There is only none video of each event because shortly after each video the car naturally cleared away.

    It may be nice that Swift is disabling the driver facing camera, but until they learn how to intelligently interpret the outside cameras, drivers are still gonna get wrongfully fired.
     
    born&raisedintheusa Thanks this.
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  3. born&raisedintheusa

    born&raisedintheusa Road Train Member

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    You TRULY & GENUINELY have a good point here.

    God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!
     
    Juanmann74 Thanks this.
  4. Moosetek13

    Moosetek13 Road Train Member

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    Many good points, one mistake.

    You mistake constantly recording video for the small amount of sent video.
    You are being recorded at every second. But you are correct in that only a few seconds before and after an even are actually saved and sent in - what you termed as 'recorded'.

    But these cameras have 8GB of storage capacity. Scott actually told us this in one video.
    That is enough for at least an hour of good quality footage to be stored at any given time.
    The cameras are also WiFi enabled (natively or through the QC) and communicate through the Qualcom.

    It would be an easy matter to connect to and view any of those stored clips.
    The Cobra camera that I once had did this, and you could view any stored clip via a cell phone through the WiFi connection.


    I've been in the same situation as you, when cars keep cutting in front of you as you try to maintain a safe following distance. But none of the videos sent in from my camera shows it.
    Which leads me to think that certain terminals have different settings for their drivers.

    Well, if there are different settings for each terminal or driver... what makes you think that there are not also some terminals that might 'bend' the rules and watch things even more closely by establishing that connection and grabbing those stored video files on a random basis?

    They can never watch in 'real time', of course. And that was very much stressed with every video sent to us about the camera system. Sometimes that was the main point in the video.

    Because that, legally, would mean an instantaneous connection - which does not exist. There is always some lag time, even if it is at the speed of light or radio waves.
    Gotta love lawyers. They can get around most anything by simply defining the conditions.
    But in that case, it was science that defined it.

    Heck, we don't even see with our own eyes in 'real time'.
    It takes time for the light to get to our eyes. More time for the eye to register the change, and more time to send those signals to our brain. Then more time for the brain to process the information and decide the course of action.

    And in the end, from the beginning, it was God that actually created the conditions that we live in.
    There is no real time for any of us; there is only subjective time as we perceive it on our own level.
     
    Chewey2 Thanks this.
  5. inkeper

    inkeper Road Train Member

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    @Moosetek13 I tried several times to read and comprehend what you so eloquently wrote, but I had to stop because real time kept knocking on my brain and I thought I was going to stroke out!;)
     
    tinytim, Moosetek13 and Broke Down 69 Thank this.
  6. Moosetek13

    Moosetek13 Road Train Member

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    Real time can knock all it wants.
    Our brains don't have the key for that door.


    Now, if this were really the Matrix... and we could find the Keymaker...
     
    inkeper Thanks this.
  7. dodgeram440rt

    dodgeram440rt Heavy Load Member

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    Moose, I'm well aware that the camera is recording on a continuous loop and videos are only saved in case of a critical event. My mistake was not expressing that during the emotions of the post.

    I fail to see the importance of having 8GB of storage though. The only information being stored is video footage recorded during a critical event, and if you have enough footage to fill 8GB of storage then yeah, you need to be fired. As far as Swift is concerned, it is set up so that as soon as the event is recorded it is transmitted to Lytex to be reviewed and possibly forwarded to Swift. It doesn't stay on the camera. They did that so that if police needs the footage to review for an accident it is available right away. Also NO ONE at Swift has any control over any cameras or any way of connecting to them. Not even Scott or Victor. They are monitored entirely by Lytex, a third party company who simply does not have the resources to "live time" monitor any of the thousands of drivers employed by not just Swift, but many other companies who have contracted to use their cameras. Including the company I currently drive for.

    As for my circumstances at Swift, I thoroughly believe I was targeted for some unknown reason. I think the safety manager at my terminal got it in his head that I was an unsafe driver due to certain event warnings when I first got my last truck. It was the first I had equipped with the Onguard and it didn't like my practice of getting closer than was probably advisable when trying to set up to pass someone. I felt it was better to get closer to the slower vehicle than it was to merge 8 seconds back and take five miles to close that gap before actually beginning the pass. While I wasn't actually riding anyone's bumper to do that, I wasn't at the preferred 8 seconds either. Once I learned how to work within the parameters of the Onguard, I didn't have anymore of those critical events. But then came the cameras.

    Now other companies I have talked to in my search for a new company have said their cameras (also supplied by Lytex) don't have a distance sensor, and yet Swift says that is what set off my videos (although I was fine according to the Onguard, apparently I was too close for the cameras). I don't know how it all works. Maybe there is that option and my safety manager asked to have that turned on on my truck.

    Whatever is the case, here I sit at another company (that also uses Lytex driver facing cameras) and I've never had a video recorded of me following to close (at least that I'm aware of).
     
    Chewey2, inkeper and Moosetek13 Thank this.
  8. Switches

    Switches Light Load Member

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    What about the in cab audio is that still being recorded?
     
  9. Antinomian

    Antinomian Road Train Member

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    What about the in cab microphone?
     
  10. Moosetek13

    Moosetek13 Road Train Member

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    Who knows about the microphone, but it will probably stay on.
    There is only one, after all.
    It is not an 'in-cab' microphone, but the camera microphone. If they want to record any sound at all it will still be enabled.

    Is that really a problem with how the camera system operates?
     
  11. Switches

    Switches Light Load Member

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    Yeah my opinions are none of swift's business unless i feel like sharing them. Not to mention private conversations. hope they shut that down to.
     
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