The need to use dash cameras in cars especially in Malaysia is becoming increasingly important. It makes having that video evidence all the easier to argue any accident cases especially when we have hordes of “lesen kopi” drivers out there. Now, instead of just recording for video evidence, how about helping out a tech company focusing on self-driving cars instead and get paid in the process? Enter, Payver.
That is exactly what Payver is doing in the US. All users need to do is to download the Payver app on your iOS device and mount it on your windscreen and record! All videos recorded will be uploaded when you have wifi data and it will help to contribute towards Payver’s crowdsourcing method of obtaining mapping information.
Currently, it costs a lot of money for tech companies to license out maps already done by the large players which include Google, Garmin and Here. Payver hopes that by crowdsourcing they can cut down on costs before starting to rely on third party sources for data. This has proven successful as over 3 months of trial testing, Payver has already managed to cover up to 500,000 miles of US based roads.
How the app work is very simple, just hit record and for every mile you drive, you get a couple of cents. Simple as that. Payver is the brainchild of ex-Tesla and ex-iRobot engineers under the company Lvl5. The company, Lvl5, recently just secured $2million in seed funding from 9Point Ventures and Paul Buchheit, a partner at Y Combinator and creator of Gmail.
Besides just obtaining data from user’s iPhones, Lvl5 is working with several automakers as well to perhaps forge a mutually beneficial partnership to help both parties collect the relevant data as reported by Wired. Tesla is currently doing that by using external cameras to record obstacles and mapping out streets and neighbourhoods as well.
