Ring Car Cam

[reverend]

First of all Happy New Year to you all and hope you had a great holidays.

Have any of you got this on preorder? It's a Ring branded front and rear facing camera with internet connectivity.

Probably most of interest to existing Ring customers and has LTE support for remote access if you have the right plan.

This has the weight of Amazon behind it too for those that aren't familiar with Ring and their Doorbell ecosystem.

Ring’s new dashboard cam is now available to buy

“Alexa, record.”

www.theverge.com

In the past I had a couple of Ring Pro Doorbells that had focus drift when in direct sunlight so hopefully that has all been sorted now.

Their cloud connectivity will be slicker than probably anything the dashcam world has seen to date.

 

[TonyM]

So, it's a dashboard-mounted cloud-connected two-way camera. Powered by OBD-II, no microSD card, up to 1080p resolution. It seems more suited to security recording than continuous driving recording.

Ring Car Cam | Dash Cam, Security, Motion Detection, Parking Mode

Help protect your car 24/7 with Ring Car Cam, the dual-facing dashboard car security camera. Two HD cameras1 with Night Vision detect and record movement, break-ins, GPS, and more. Get real-time alerts when motion is detected.

ring.com

 

[reverend]

That Traffic Stop does seem strange if it only records for 20 minutes via the Alexa command.

A dashcam that doesn't record journeys certainly sounds a bit strange, maybe bad initial marketing that will become clearer. It could be the holy grail of just capturing accidents and thefts. Probably not though.

Maybe it's on a loop so when you say the command it saves just the bit you're interested in. The teardowns will reveal more in terms of actual hardware.

It seems it also does GPS tracking with the subscription, but it's much more obvious than a hidden device with an inbuilt SIM - this would get thrown out the window instantly by our local thieves

As this is from the Ring stable as like most modern tech it will most likely be crippled without the monthly sub. Seems to be Harvard 101 these days.

That new mount is different as well, time will tell how that plays out from there but you'd think they've spent a fair bit of budget testing various locations. If it works I guess that design will be getting reused quickly elsewhere.

 

[reverend]

 

[reverend]

Ah so Traffic Stop is if you get pulled by the police so it records that. The first press articles haven't really explained it that well but that makes sense.

 

[TonyM]

From a driver's perspective, the mounting location is not very discreet. It's certainly within the swept area, but rather small so should be OK for our MOT purposes?



That mount will not work for all windshield angles, but is probably OK for most.



OK, so if something happens while your car is parked at work, you will get the notification after you drive home and reconnect to your home WiFi.




So it has some local storage, but you need the app or cloud to access the videos.

 

[Dashmellow]

There have been a number of serious concerns regarding privacy issues in general as well as the amount of personal data collected by Amazon via Ring cameras, Blink, Alexa and other products. Data collection is a key element in Amazon's business model and this is baked into virtually all of their product concepts.

I wonder how this applies to a product that tracks you via GPS wherever you drive, listens in to your in-car conversations and monitors you on video, etc.?

All the Data Amazon's Ring Cameras Collect About You

The popular security devices are tracking (and sharing) more than you might think.

www.wired.com

Amazon's Ring Cameras Can Keep Various Records You Didn't Know About

Your Amazon ring doorbell can know more information than you can ever think.

www.techtimes.com

Amazon’s Ring privacy problem is back

Like it or not, Amazon can give Ring footage to cops without your permission — or even a warrant.

www.vox.com

 

[reverend]

We moved to the Nest Doorbell after having issues with the Ring hardware. Ironically one of the advantages was that it didn't have a battery, but eventually it turned out they did, weren't easily replaceable and failed

Privacy doesn't seem to be at the forefront of a lot of these devices in terms of data getting thrown around and as you say sometimes it's used nefariously and I've seen a few instances of Ring footage being used to help law enforcement.

The Google device learns faces and can announce who is at the door - the wife always gets upset when it confuses her with her mother

I was reading how a recent high profile murder case was solved with help from 23andMe and similar companies so it can be for the best although understandably some people won't realise how that data can be used.

Amazon were said to have cameras monitoring their drivers and it wouldn't be a huge surprise if they were testing for this.

The Nextbase IQ can't be too far away which is going to be similar.

 

[Dashmellow]

There are various reasons Amazon (and other corporations) want to collect so much personal data and none of it is good for society. We are living in the age of Surveillance Capitalism.

Personally, I avoid products like this as much as reasonably possible in today's world even if it means giving up the features and convenience they offer. One should consider the actual definition of "nefariously" in this regard as well as its implications for the future of our society.

Harvard professor says surveillance capitalism is undermining democracy

In her new book, “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,” HBS Professor emerita Shoshana Zuboff outlines her belief that surveillance capitalism is undermining personal autonomy and eroding democracy — and the ways she says society can fight back.

news.harvard.edu

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power - Book - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School

Surveillance capitalism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TonyM]

Personally, I avoid products like this as much as reasonably possible in today's world even if it means giving up the features and convenience they offer.

+1

 

[TonyM]

This 'dashcam' might be worth keeping in mind for all those newcomers to DCT who seem to want 24/7 remote surveillance inside their cars.

 

[Nigel]

In the past I had a couple of Ring Pro Doorbells that had focus drift when in direct sunlight so hopefully that has all been sorted now.

They don't seem to have had a great reputation recently from what I have seen?


The new Bosch one seems interesting, quantum sensors that will diagnose their owners brain problems!

Bosch RideCare is much more than a dash cam | CES 2023

LAS VEGAS – Sensors are everywhere. We find them in cars, smartphones, wearable devices, headphones, e-bikes… Nowadays there are no devices that do not

techgameworld.com

And a wireless emergency call button... don't cars come with those these days?

No mention of image sensor advances from any of these new ones!

 

[kamkar]

i see Alexa and my brain shut down, cuz hell no

 

[Inspector Gadget]

I like the features and sure the tech will be very reliable but data privacy will be the ultimate reason not to buy it, shame, looks like a solid unit.

 

[reverend]

Ring and Google do tend to do more on the machine learning / AI side with extra software processing than you get from a lot of other companies. Not always for the best though.

If they took a good base like the Starvis range and applied their software on top of that you'd be in for a good ride - unfortunately for this one with the size of the unit it would appear it's certainly not one of the larger sensors out there.

From memory they used to partner with Omnivision - not sure if that will be the case here but whoever it is will be putting out a press release at some point.

The camera mount does indeed have a hinge where it can be tilted and the interior camera has a piece which can be used to easily block the interior lens, they've certainly thought about things like that from the look of it. If it's hinged time will tell if it starts causing wobble when loose.

Give it a few weeks and I reckon we'll see those sticky cable clamps copied and on the market

Still no actual footage anywhere other than what you see from an example install in the above video - certainly a lot of hood in the XC90 MK2 when it's installed with default angles (like most people will).

I understand that all videos shared from the Ring app to social media will be prefixed with the text "Look at my Ring" (just kidding, but if they had a sense of humour they'd go for it!)

Ring and Google always liked simulated footage in their adverts.

 

[Dashmellow]

I recall when Amazon announced the autonomous flying home surveillance camera back in 2020 there was concern about a product that records and maps your entire home and everything in it but it was never offered for sale. It appears to still be in development and will appear for sale in about a year.

Meanwhile, the Ring Car Cam appears to have a "privacy shutter" so you can cover the interior facing lens. I would assume it continues to monitor audio so it can respond to voice commands.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

I recall when Amazon announced the autonomous flying home surveillance camera back in 2020 there was concern about a product that records and maps your entire home and everything in it but it was never offered for sale. It appears to still be in development and will appear for sale in about a year.

Meanwhile, the Ring Car Cam appears to have a "privacy shutter" so you can cover the interior facing lens. I would assume it continues to monitor audio so it can respond to voice commands.

The campaign by tech writers spreading the word about Ring's privacy policy allowing LE to access your data seems to have worked. A lot of people I spoke to about this have indicated they do not trust Ring anymore. Amazon could very well monetize your location history with ads and sell it to third parties. Guess I'm stickling to ROAV but it would be nice to see them have a cellular feature.

 

[Vortex Radar]

My preordered unit just arrived yesterday.



It's gonna be a little bit before I get to testing and the review since I'm still backlogged some other dashcams to review, lol, but at least they're starting to arrive.

 

[kamkar]

Nice. looking forward to hearing some feedback, even if i am not considering this at all, just nurturing my inner geek.

 

[Dashmellow]

I'm also looking forward to learning more about this camera @Vortex Radar and hearing what you have to say about it.

Based on our prior discussions, no doubt Amazon/Ring will be monitoring you very carefully too and will also want to know what you have to say about their product.