It’s been a long wait, but the new Waylens 360 dashcam with a 4G connection is now available to 12 volt retailers and distributors in limited quantities. Like a ‘Ring Video Doorbell’ for the car, the dashcam notifies users of a break-in or other event and then lets them view the car in real time.
Waylens is currently selling the product on allocation for distributors and retailers, but is “shipping daily to catch up on the back orders,” said North America President Tim Coomer.
About half of all Best Buy locations have picked up the product, which is being advertised in Car and Driver magazine currently. It will soon also be promoted in Road & Track magazine.
The Waylens Secure360 4G dashcam lets users see in and around the car at any time. Parents can get a live or video-recorded view into the car to check on teen drivers. And if the car is swiped, hit or vandalized, users get an alert with a live view or recorded footage, even if the car is parked.
Until now, the most advanced dashcams available through car audio dealers offered WiFi for limited live-view capability. Two other 4G dashcams we are aware of, called the Owl and Raven, are available mainly online or in big box stores.
Waylens claims its dashcam is the first to use a single camera to achieve a 360 view in and around the car.
“With all the threats drivers face today, car owners need at least as much protection as homeowners do,” said Waylens CEO Haowei Zhang. “The Secure360 is the only consumer dashcam that provides true 360-degree vision …[for] full 360-degree video evidence in all driving and parked situations.”
When the dashcam senses an event it sends video to the cloud as well as an onboard microSD card for safe keeping. It uses a 3-axis accelerometer and GPS to detect unusual events even when the car is turned off for an extended time. Low-power sensors allow the Secure360 to actively scan the perimeter to protect an unattended vehicle for “an unprecedented” 360 hours or 15 days, said Waylens.
The Secure360 4G dashcam first shipped in June exclusively to backers on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. In all “a couple thousand units” were shipped to the crowdfunding backers (including the WiFi version of the Secure360), said Coomer. Waylens raised almost a a half a million dollars on the platforms.
The Secure360 4G is available now for $399.95 plus a $10 monthly service charge that covers 1GB of usage with a rolling 7 days of free storage. The WiFi version carries a price of $299.95.
