Open the Trunk Lid, HAL

It looks like Darth Vader’s torture droid, but it’s purpose is somewhat more benign. Meet LyfeLens:

LyfeLens, developers of premium and innovative auto solutions to make cars safer and smarter, has announced the production of a dash cam that connects the car and smartphone to provide users with insight of actions happening in and around the vehicle via realtime data, live video feeds and push notifications.

LyfeLens uses dual-facing, wide-angle cameras to capture crisp 1080p resolution footage that allows for maximum visibility inside and outside a user’s vehicle to easily track and monitor a number of incidents. LyfeLens monitors trigger events–excessive speed, abrupt movements such as hard braking or collisions, location, movement and vandalism–and notifies users with alerts, live video and image playback that can be viewed with the LyfeLens app on a user’s smartphone.

Motion and sound detection sensors also monitor a user’s vehicle for unsafe or suspicious activity, automatically capturing video and alerting the user.

You can even monitor your car in realtime from your smartphone if you pay the optional monthly subscription fee.

Before installing one of these, I’d have some serious questions regarding LyfeLens encryption — and maybe have a team of highly-trained ninja lawyers take a hard look at the licensing agreement.