Is there such a dashcam? Front/Back - autouploads footage to cloud?

[jericho]

My kid is going to be driving out of state (college), and i'm thinking of getting a dashcam with front/back, that can upload automatically to the cloud. It doesn't need to do it in real time, just uploads the footage every time it gets home to the wifi. The cloud is interesting, as I'd like to be able to view the footage occasionally from where i am to make sure that they are safe. Is there such a product available? Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum jericho.

No.
Or that is the smart cameras i do think can be set to do that with event recordings, which make sense as otherwise you will be uploading a lot and would need good 4G connection at least, if you are to upload everything all the time.

There are some things to be aware off though.
Both Blackvue and Thinkware, if you use the additional radar module that will greatly extend the time the system can do parking guard, well in that case the camera go to so deep sleep that the LTE and smart options are also at sleep.
But i think both if you do not use the radar you are fine and should be able to connect to the camera remotely just like any CCTV camera, at least for as long as the camera are on and above the low voltage cut off.

I am on thin ice here as i have yet to try one of the so called smart cameras, but i am on a kickstarter project for one that should ship in May, but as it is just that ASO it is not something i can recommend.
But it is still live on indigogo and is called dride 4K, but again be carefull, also the May shipping date might slip, so crowdfunding cameras are not really the place to go if you must have a camera right here right now.

It too have a radar, it is even build in, and so is the LTE modem, but should be accessible always when parked so i dont think it function in just the same way as others as it then cant go to as deep a sleep state.

@Vortex Radar is familiar with the newer blackvue and thinkware systems, he is also on youtube with reviews of them, you might want to pick his brain too, though i have now highlighted him so he will get notification about this thread.

These are in the most expensive dashcams, not really features you find on the cheaper systems.

 

[StrayCam]

My kid is going to be driving out of state (college), and i'm thinking of getting a dashcam with front/back, that can upload automatically to the cloud. It doesn't need to do it in real time, just uploads the footage every time it gets home to the wifi. The cloud is interesting, as I'd like to be able to view the footage occasionally from where i am to make sure that they are safe. Is there such a product available? Thanks in advance for the advice!

Welcome to the forum Jericho!

Yes, I recently purchased a Blackvue dashcam which I believe does what you want. I use the Blackvue DR750 2Ch LTE Plus. It has a built in slot for a SIM card so you wouldn't need to worry about getting a separate hotspot.

With this dashcam you can go on the cloud anytime to see in "real time" where your son's car is and what it's doing, whether being parked or driven. The cost for data usage for the cloud is rather minimal.

There is also a feature on the camera which I do not use, and you probably don't need which is safety factors while driving (fast acceleration, hard breaking, fast cornering... (See attached pic). I think this is more geared to new drivers or fleet managers.

Whatever you decide, good luck! And all the best to your son in college!

 

[jericho]

thanks @StrayCam for the recommendation. I was looking at the DR750 LTE plus - got a few questions.
1. it sounds like it needs a data subscription, and that it comes with a simcard from blackvue. Question is - if i don't want to signup for the 11$/month sub from blackvue, can i stick in any data simcard and have it work (eg. I have some data sims on google Fi on a pay per gig basis, would it work?)
2. the dr750 comes with many storage options, but from what i can tell, it's using a MicroSD card. Can i pick the smallest memory, and replace it with a larger MicroSD card?
3. it is not clear if i need the seperate blackvue cloud subscription (10$/month) if i wanted to view the video on the MicroSD card - my assumption is no - but i keep reading about needing to upload the video from the MicroSD to the cloud in order to view, and i'm not sure if it's now needed. The lowest plan also limits the amount of videos stored in the cloud, so i'm not sure if its worth it.

Thanks again!

 

[kamkar]

1: I think blackvue have a little free cloud plan you can use.
2: Yes most brands offer memory cards in a bundle, some like the blackvue cameras can be a little fussy about what cards they like, so something to be mindful about, it will be no problem buying your own larger memory card on the side to replace the often ridiculous small cards bundled with cameras.
3: I think all of the smart camera brands offer some free cloud service, but then you just can not have as much there, this is the part that annoy me about the smart cameras, i would prefer if they was able to offload to my home NAS, even if that might actually be less secure than a official cloud service.

 

[kamkar]

O i forgot, i assume any SIM card will work in these smart systems, up until lately these cameras relied on car build in wifi or a mobile hotspot on the side.
But a build in SIM card tray and essentially a mobile phone are now slowly becoming the norm.

With the system i get i plan to get a SIM card just like the one in my phone, so thats free talk i will not use and then 30 GB/mo of data.
Eventually i will probably drop the SIM card again as cloud features are not really my thing as i see things now,,,, but maybe that change once i get to try one of these smart suckers.

 

[jericho]

1: I think blackvue have a little free cloud plan you can use.
2: Yes most brands offer memory cards in a bundle, some like the blackvue cameras can be a little fussy about what cards they like, so something to be mindful about, it will be no problem buying your own larger memory card on the side to replace the often ridiculous small cards bundled with cameras.
3: I think all of the smart camera brands offer some free cloud service, but then you just can not have as much there, this is the part that annoy me about the smart cameras, i would prefer if they was able to offload to my home NAS, even if that might actually be less secure than a official cloud service.

Thanks @kamkar - appreciate your reply. Blackvue's cloud offering seems very limited at the low end - i'm very confused if i need to pay for it at all. As for MicroSD, compatibility is key - will have to see if what i have (some 128gb sandisks) can work.. else that is more $$$ - most confused of all is whether i can directly view the videos from the MicroSD going through the LTE data connection OR if i need to first upload it to the blackvue cloud to view it - the latter would be a huge bummer.

 

[StrayCam]

thanks @StrayCam for the recommendation. I was looking at the DR750 LTE plus - got a few questions.
1. it sounds like it needs a data subscription, and that it comes with a simcard from blackvue. Question is - if i don't want to signup for the 11$/month sub from blackvue, can i stick in any data simcard and have it work (eg. I have some data sims on google Fi on a pay per gig basis, would it work?)
2. the dr750 comes with many storage options, but from what i can tell, it's using a MicroSD card. Can i pick the smallest memory, and replace it with a larger MicroSD card?
3. it is not clear if i need the seperate blackvue cloud subscription (10$/month) if i wanted to view the video on the MicroSD card - my assumption is no - but i keep reading about needing to upload the video from the MicroSD to the cloud in order to view, and i'm not sure if it's now needed. The lowest plan also limits the amount of videos stored in the cloud, so i'm not sure if its worth it.

Thanks again!

You don't need to sign up for the $12 per month Blackvue Cloud Plan, but if you don't, your Live Views and number of views of recorded dashcam videos is limited. The later I believe is limited to 100 video views per month (viewing front & rear videos of a file counts as 2 views) and the Live Views where you can see what the dashcam sees at anytime is limited to 10 minutes per day. That might be just fine for you. You can learn to function with those "free plan" limitations.

I believe most SIM cards will work in U.S. but BV officially says to use AT&T or T Mobile; I know Verizon will work as well. Having the SIM data card installed and using the free (or paid) BV cloud plan will also allow you to get push notifications of any triggered events on your son's car.

You can indeed purchase the smallest BV sd card and swap it out with a larger less expensive card. Samsung Evo cards (green) seem to work well. Since you have 2 dashcams (front & rear) you should get at least 128 gb, 256 gb would be optimal.

I hope the above helps. If you have other questions, just let me know.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Thanks for the tag @kamkar. So if you want a dashcam that can upload footage when you get home, you can skip the cloud features that connect over in-car LTE and instead take a look at some third party software.

One option is to use Blackvue Downloader that might be a solid fit for you. It will let you download footage from your dashcam to your computer whenever the car comes back home and the dashcam connects to your home WiFi.

There's another option if you have a Synology NAS. There's scripts available that let you copy the footage over WiFi directly to your NAS instead.

 

[Fractk]

Wow looks like the Blackvue is the right option for me. Except in my understanding it does not have IR/Radar motion detection. If that is indeed the case it’s almost a deal breaker.

However I am glad they have automatic download to PC solutions. That’s important. Messing with these tiny cards is not fun. The only use they could have is post accident forensics assuming any law enforcement is wise enough to look for it.