More on the Amazon Ring Car Cam

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Ring Car Cam

As promised in January, Amazon is now officially offering its Ring Car Cam to consumers, and at least one aftermarket supplier is already developing accessories for the device (see below).

The $249 Ring Car Cam might be called a Ring Video Doorbell for the car.  With an LTE connection ($6 per month, $60 per year) users are notified of a car break-in or tampering and they get a live view in and around the car, plus the ability to communicate with the car.  Without the LTE connection, the device relies on WiFi.

The aftermarket counterpart to the Ring Car Cam, Waylens, has shifted into the fleet market, according to several industry sources who no longer sell the product.  Waylens did not respond to our inquiry. VOXX is in development on a 4G dashcam originally unveiled by Directed.

Amazon’s Ring uses a dual camera system but it is not a true 360 device as was the Waylens Secure360.   The Ring has a front facing camera (111.5-degree coverage) and a cabin-facing camera (148-degree coverage).

The Ring’s dual camera can be mounted by the consumer as it comes with an arm that wedges between the dash and the windshield. There are no other mounting options provided by Ring at this time, according to the Ring Community website.

But one supplier told us it is working on alternative mounting options for the Car Cam.

The Ring Car Cam can record both inside and outside of the car.  It can also be set to respond to an “Alexa record” command to start recording at any time when driving or during a traffic stop.

The dashcam plugs into the vehicle’s OBD2 port for power. It can store 7 hours of video footage. It has two HD night vision cameras, a microphone, speaker and sensors.

As for battery life, when the car is parked, the Ring switches to low power mode so it only records when it senses motion. According to CNET, users can choose between three power usage levels.  And if the Ring Cam senses a low battery level (if the car is parked for a long period) it can automatically turn off so it won’t kill the car battery.

One dealer who sells high end dashcams expressed the opinion that Amazon is a data collection company and with the Ring Car Cam, which plugs into the OBD2 port of the car, it now can collect one’s driving data.

An automotive camera supplier confirmed that that OBD2 connection would allow Amazon to collect GPS parameters, which include speed, destination and more.  But he noted that almost all companies today are data collection companies (hence, websites ask users to accept cookies).

Garmin also offers a camera with live notification called the Dash Cam Live, but it uses a single 140-degree 1440p camera and the unit has a higher retail price of $400.  There is also the Owlcam, one of the earliest 4G dashcams on the market.

 

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