Cam concerns

My son just bought and mounted a dashboard camera in his Lexus. I don’t really see the point. He has a backup camera, blind spot monitoring technology and about a million other things that serve as extra sets of eyes. He says lots of people are doing this. Why?

He’s right about lots of people getting these little items: sales could approach 300,000 this year, according to the Consumer Technology Association. The interest in these gadgets began escalating hugely a couple of years ago and shows no sign of slowing down.

It’s a small video camera, similar to the dash cams on law enforcement vehicles, that records happenings in front of the car (and some of them record the activities and events around the rear of the car).

It is not a technology aimed at preventing mishaps (like the things already on your son’s car); it’s one that may prove helpful after a mishap happens. Say, for example, a vehicle cuts in front of your son and there’s an accident. He’s got video evidence of what transpired.

The gizmo generally runs from about $40 to up $350 (sometimes even more). Techies who have been busy reviewing these things for quite some time report that more expensive isn’t always better.

I heard the tail-end of a report that I thought said Mazda has got a new technology that will increase miles per gallon by 20 percent. What do you know about that?

Mazda isn’t giving out a huge amount of detail at this point. What the company is saying is that it has developed a new generation of internal combustion engine (versus one of the newer approaches, like electric or hydrogen-powered cars) that will, indeed, give its vehicles 20 percent better gas mileage as well as reduced emissions.

This new engine technology Mazda will be rolling out is a continuation of its much-publicized goal announced a decade ago: cutting its vehicles’ use of fuel by half by 2030.

This new engine, which will go into production next year — though which of its vehicles will carry it first is not being disclosed — will apply compression even higher than in its currently used “Skyactive” design, which boosted Mazda mpg markedly.