automatic startup on laptop when plugged in

over the past 2 months i have received traffic tickets that were through no fault of my own, one was a speedign ticket where the cop clocked the guy next to me, the other the cop thought it was a 30 MPH zone when it was 55. but good luck convincing the judge...

thats besides the point
what i want to do is take a laptop and plug it into my car through a cigarette adapter for the computer, but is there any way to make the laptop turn on automatically when the car is powered on? i know in windows i can make it turn itself off when the car is turned off (no power to the computer so it turns off automatically).

and then from this i want to attach a webcam pointed out the front window that will automatically record everything to the hard drive when the computer is on, and then re-record over old works when the hard drive is full, does anyone know of software that i can do this with?

thanks a lot, i know this has potential to be a rather big project, but with the state that im in, it is definitely worth the effort

any input would be appreciated

 

my Toshiba laptop has this option but I cannot lay my fingure on it