How does Cloud work when event occurs in Parking Mode

[Clemente]

Having problems with my car being vandalized. I need someone to simplify what I need to know about Dashcam's that have Cloud mode to see if that is something I should get as I move toward purchasing a Dashcam/s.

Car is parked in a parking garage as well as outdoor lots (i.e. Walmart, supermarkets, etc).

The problem I see is if a vandal strikes again and sees the dashcam, he can just break into the car and steal the dashcam--presto, no evidence now.

So it seems that the Cloud is the answer, correct?

If so, is my understanding correct that I need a Dashcam with parking mode that triggers on both motion and impact to cover all the basis, yet? And then I need that captured event video of the vandal to automatically trigger and send video to the Cloud so vandal can't steal the Dashcam with video card inside, yes?

Besides a cloud-enabled dashcam, what else do I need? I don't have a Smart Phone and don't want one.

How do images get carried from the dashcam to the Cloud? Is it via WiFi, or via my basic/dumbphone's cellular signal, or what? If Cloud transmission requires WiFi, what happens if the garage or outdoor lot I am parking in is not in a Wi-Fi zone or in an area that has a good cell signal (i.e. in both cases, what I would call a "dead zone".

Once again, I have a basic/dumb phone, not a smart phone, and I don't have a Wi-Fi subscription. I lack understanding on these matters, the Cloud feature on Dashcams, and need help to see if this will work for me.

 

[kamkar]

I am still to try my first smart dashcam, but it might happen within a few months.

Cloud,,,,, anything i dont really like, even if it could very well be safer than say directing footage to my own NAS at home.
On my android phone i of course do not use the backup your ( anything ) to the cloud, and the phone are just 64GB memory, but it is no problem as i am good to put pictures and video taken with the phone to my computer ( where i will eventually loose it in a HDD crash )

The smart camera i am getting ( from kickstarter ) also have room for a build in SIM card, and i am also going to get a SIM card for it, but i do think that within a few months i will probably loose the SIM card again, but then i can at least honestly say that i gave it a try,,,,,, and i have on rare occasions been known to flip flop on things.
Other than that from standing in here on the side line for a decade, it seem like often the smart cameras just add more things that can fail or at least become a problem.
For instance a new IOS update, and the poor fruit phone users are often out on their ass with their smart cameras until a fix are made,,,,,, not like the camera become inoperative, but some of the smart might get buggy.
And it is not much better for the Android users.

If you use motion detect, well if there is the slightest movement it will probably also record then, and it do not take much creative parking spots before the camera would see motion all the time and so also record all the time.
Mind you i do prefer the camera do that in parking guard, but using the always record low bitrate, which after all generate 1/2 or 1/3 sized files

In the old days / still some cameras will require a wifi hotspot to connect via, this is then 1 more thing you need to have going always in your car sucking power.
Some newer cameras do have a primitive build in 4G modem, so then you just put a SIM card in the camera too like the memory card.

i think in general you can always connect to the camera and see what it see, but they do not offload all the time as that would require a flat rate data connection, and a big drive to cave the footage onto, after all a system of 3 cameras can easy generate 500 MB of data every 3 minutes of driving, so needless to say you also need a good connection to the 4G mast.
And even if Denmark are flat as a pancake, and we have 3-4 nationwide 4G operators, and i have access to 2 of them all the time, well some times i am out of 4G range,,,,, though also most often only for a few seconds....... America are a whole othe beast in that regard.
It is not smart if it only work in / around major cities.

Some cameras can also piggyback on your phones connection, but this mean you need to have wifi on all the time and probably hotspot,,,,,, now i know this is very normal for many people, but i personally do not have wifi / BT / GPS on in my phone unless i need it, and it is rare i need it.
I would never connect to a public wifi hotspot, and dont need to as i use about 1 GB of mobile data a month, 2 GB if its a bad month, and i have a 30 / 30 Subscription for my phone,,,,, even if i only talk on the phone for 1 hour or 2 every month.

For me basic cameras are the best, good image quality and most off all reliable,,,,, though you will be wise to not ever forget your dashcam, you should spend 10 - 20 minutes every couple of months glancing over footage to see if things are in order.
This glance to me mean look at individual drive sessions ( easy spotted by the time / date name of the files ) so i look at first and last files to see if they start / stop in places that seem valid, so this is most often where you live / work / shop / visit
If a session start minutes from your house or another knoiw setting off point, that should prompt a investigation, same is a session end in some randon street,,,,, it should end in a place you know.

Of course with a plenty large memory card, and you not driving too much every day, you will have footage going back many days, and so some times i go WTF ???? whats this,,,,, and then remember "O that was the day i went to that store to pick up what i ordered"
Hence why my session had a stop in a strange place i did not immediately recognize.
If you are anything like me you will find you are a creature of habit and drive the same streets over and over.Looking over footage of course only mean you only play as few seconds of each file you inspect to see where it is, you can of course not play and look at your recordings 1:1 as that would take as long as it did recording those, and you have many many hours of footage on a large memory card.
In general i also just look at the footage from the front camera, but after i have gone over all first / last files in the sessions on the card i do glance over some random files and here i tend to focus on the rear camera files,,,, even if you do get a event worth saving os sharing, it is most likely on the front camera it happen, at least thats my experience having used dashcams for over a decade.

 

[kamkar]

It is true a thief could always grab your camera, but you will be amazed how often this do not happen, even if the damn thing are right there in front of them.
Just see this car jacking of a jeep, you can see by the footage that the camera are offset to the left, so the guy probably installed it right in front of the driver position.

Stealth should always be big when installing a dashcam, but due to the layout of the windscreen on new cars, there can be challenges.
Today you will often find sensors on the windscreen, and these often take up a lot of the center & top of the windscreen, which is the ideal place for a dashcam.
Also a aggrevated opponent in a alteration can get even worse if he spot your dashcam, so again stealth is good, and i see no reason to tell anyone about the camera, not even a police officer that might show up, i just give footage to my insurance and then they can duke it out,,,,, this is also what i pay them ( a lot ) to do.

Some new cameras are of the remote type ( but sadly not many of these ) this mean that both cameras are remote from the main unit that house the memory card, so you can hide that unit in your car, and that should be fine at least in regard to smash and grab scenarios, of course if your car is stolen they will have time to follow the wires to the main unit.

If you only have a dumb phone, then i see no reason to go for a smart system, though i do think you can also often access the camera from a PC.

I always put the memory card in my card reader on the PC, i do use WIFI now to do settings, not least on the screen less cameras out there, but i must admit that my tired old eyes are no good with the little LCD screens on dashcams, so here i do like my smartphone and WIFI

 

[kamkar]

In regard to how to install dashcams, and maybe hard wire them ( you need to do that to be able to use parking guard )
Well you will find many tutorials on that on youtube, maybe not for your exact brand of camera & car, but that should not matter much, the dashcams are much the same in this regard, so with just a little DIY skill you should be good to go.

 

[LateralNW]

How do images get carried from the dashcam to the Cloud? Is it via WiFi, or via my basic/dumbphone's cellular signal,

It is carried via a cellular connection.
Doesn't require your personal phone.
It requires its own SIM card.

Besides a cloud-enabled dashcam, what else do I need?

A SIM card and a cloud subscription.

I don't have a Wi-Fi subscription. I lack understanding on these matters, the Cloud feature on Dashcams, and need help to see if this will work for me.

I don't know of any Wi-Fi only subscriptions. Do they exist?

You do require a cellular connection to allow the dash cam to send its files to the cloud.
If you park in a dead zone (no cellular signal) then you won't get files sent to the cloud.

I only know of two companies that do cellular cloud backup from a dash cam - Thinkware and Blackvue there may be others.

No association with either.

Here is a link to Blackvue

https://blackvue.com/dashcams/lte/

Thinkware

T700D32 4G LTE CONNECTED FULL HD DUAL DASH CAM KIT - 32GB | THINKWARE Australia

thinkware.com.au