If you drive as much as I do, you are going to appreciate the app that I am going to tell you about today.  And even if you don’t drive all that much, you’ll still find this FREE app to be of value!

My round trip commute runs about 125 miles per day and has me in the car for up to 4 hours a day.  With that amount of mileage and windshield time you can bet that I see some very bad driving behaviors on an almost daily basis.

I’ve had a few close calls as well, but up until now, I had no way of recording these events.

I just learned about Nexar, a free iPhone app that will turn my iPhone into a dash cam!  I know that I can buy dedicated dash cams, but why do that when I have the power of my iPhones 6s at hand?

Here is what they have to say in their press kit:

Nexar employs machine vision and sensor fusion algorithms, leveraging the iPhone’s sensors to analyze and understand the car’s surrounding, and provide unique documentation in case of accidents.

The depth of Nexar’s on-device analysis allows it to create an accident report that completely transforms the insurance claims process. Nexar adds a video of the accident to the claim, alongside a detailed reconstruction based on the iPhone’s sensor readings.

We are building Nexar as a network connecting cars nearby (v2v). Nexar will initially warn drivers of dangerous intersections and cars in their vicinity based on crowdsourced insights. As Nexar grows into a dense network of connected dash cams, it will warn drivers in real time of dangers on the road beyond their direct line of sight.

In use, you fire up the app and tell it to start recording and off you go.  It starts recording your trip and will do so until you tell it to stop.  You can also use it to record what is going on in the cabin with you.  Might be a good way to record what is being said while you are driving clients around looking at houses. Later on you can look at saved trips and upload them to their servers if you wish.

Although it’s currently an iPhone only app (in the app store at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nexar/id996931497?mt=8), they do have a waiting list for Android users. So if you rock an Android phone and want this go here and list yourself.

As they state in their press kit, they have plans to build the app to help with accident avoidance through crowdsourcing.  I can hardly wait!