What are Dash Cams?
Dash Cams are car accessories that people have been getting for years. If you aren't aware of what a dash cam is, it is a small camera that sits on the dash of your car and can record what either happens inside, outside, or both (depending on the model you purchase). It is popular with many people that do work in their car like ride-sharing applications, as well as people who just want a sense of security.
Which is what led me to get one. I have been wanting to get a dash cam for a magnitude of personal reasons (which I won't get into), but my biggest fear is that the companies that weren't there didn't fully offer what I needed and wanted. I wasn't sure about a lot of the companies, as well as couldn't find enough information on if I trust some of the cloud storage solutions that they offer. Being already a Ring customer, when they released a dash cam for the car, it checked off a couple of boxes for me that I was looking for so I knew I had to get it.
Ring
If you don't know who Ring is have you been living under a rock? I kid, I kid, but you should know who this company is. They are a pretty big consumer security solution for people wanting to protect their homes. They offer a magnitude of cameras and video doorbells. They were purchased by Amazon in 2018 and have since then integrated into the Amazon environment pretty extensively. I used to use a doorbell (my new living situation doesn't allow video doorbells), but I still, use an outdoor camera in our backyard area. I would highly recommend this solution to others.
How has the device been?
So now that I explained how I use Ring, how has the dash cam been in my life? Honestly, it has been pretty good. It sits right on your dashboard and works just as expected. It has a camera on both sides of the item so it can record the front of your car, as well as the inside of your car at all times. For those that are uncomfortable with being recorded, there is a privacy camera that you can easily flip up that will stop the camera from recording you while you are driving. The video that it records is also in a "crisp" 1080p quality, however, the live feed is in 540p.
This brings us to the next feature of the Dash Cam that I like. It has a cloud subscription service that will allow you to connect to the device remotely. This will allow you to go into the app and remotely see what is going on in your car from anywhere in the world through their LTE offering. It also allows the device to alert you when something happens to the device. Now, this requires you to subscribe to Ring Protect Go, their subscription service to get these features. I have been running the trial that they give you and honestly, I think it is worth it for the ease of mind. It is $6 bucks a month or $60 bucks a year. Now if you don't get the subscription service, you can still connect to the device remotely, but only if your device is on a WIFI network that you have configured. This is fine and dandy when you are home, but when you are out and about, it won't allow you to connect to the device from those moments.
One of the nice things about this is that it features a recording feature when specific events happen. Since it is part of Amazon, they can build some of their Alexa systems into the device. With this, they can add functionality for you to call upon Alexa to start a recording. The one example that they showcase in the commercial is getting pulled over and being able to voice-activate a recording. This is very helpful because you can record whatever situation is happening on the fly without needing to pull your phone out or physically interact with the device.
The installation of the device was very simple. When you first add the device to the connection, it walks you through all the steps easily. It does use your driver's OBDII port to power itself, so I would make sure that it is compatible before purchasing it. There is a compatibility checker when you are purchasing the device. I didn't have much issue installing the device, but I will say that getting the wire hidden along the dash was a little bit of a struggle. I eventually got it and I'm not sure if this is a Ring issue per se, but it was something that I had to experience when configuring my device.
Improvements That Can Be Made
Everything worked exactly how I pictured it, but there are a couple of things that I wish it did better or knew about before I purchased the device. The one thing that gets annoying sometimes is that I'm getting notifications that there was a motion at my car when I'm in it. I wish it recognized that I'm sitting in the car or that my phone is in the car and didn't notify me about this. I'm almost getting this every single time I drive that there is motion in the car. I'm unable to turn this off either because half of the point of this is to get notified when I’m not near the car so that it will let me know who is touching my car.
Another thing is that I didn’t even think about the battery drain that the device can cause since it will always be pulling from the car. They do have modes to figure out what to do about that, but it just wasn't something that I was thinking about when purchasing the device. If you have an older battery, one of the modes that it has won't use the device when the car is off, which I agree with and understand. However, when you are purchasing the vehicle product, it doesn't alert you to this. Someone can be purchasing this and not realize that they will not be able to use all the features of this device on their vehicle.
Recommendation?
Either way, I would recommend this device to the individual. It brings a ton of safety features as well as peace of mind for the individual utilizing this product. I will be using this device for the foreseeable future and will be adding it to any other vehicle that I purchase in the future. It works pretty much as advertised on newer vehicles (older vehicles may vary) and is backed by a very reputable company. Very solid device.
Edited at 12:41 PM : Replaced word "vehicle" with "product"
