Vantrue E360 & LTE Parking Impact

TonyM

TonyM

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My car was hit whilst parked yesterday. The incident was recorded on the E360 that I'm testing, and I received an impact notification on my phone via the Vantrue 4G LTE module that I'm also testing.

The video below is a compilation of a few clips from the E360:
- Driver pulls out of adjacent parking space and clips the front right corner of my car
- Driver stops, reverses, and appears to notice my dashcams (E360 and A139) before driving away to find another parking spot.
- Driver returns on foot to inspect my car, and sees the dashcams again
- Driver returns again with phone to take notes and photos
- Driver returns to leave a note


For comparison, this is how the impact was recorded on my A139


I have a few observations about some things the E360 and LT01 did well, and some recommendations for improvement.

Good:
- The E360 was recording in Low Bitrate Parking Mode (1080P, 15fps). The combination of the ultra wide angle view, continuous recording and good audio captured all the evidence I might need in this low-speed incident.
- The default G-sensor settings (3,3,3) were sufficient to trigger an impact notification that was sent to my phone. FYI, the g-sensor on the A139 did not trigger an event despite being set to High sensitivity.
1736804268627.webp

- I had a very bad phone signal in a nearby shop so I did not receive the notification immediately. When it did arrive, I was able to connect to the E360 and see a live view of the lady walking away from the car.
- The Vantrue Connected app shows the event detection in the message center
1736804670841.webp


Needs Improvement:
- No files were saved in the Event folder. The 'event detection video' remained in the Parking folder with all the other videos.
- I would prefer a native 1440p option in low bitrate mode, especially for a 180deg wide angle view. The detail is reduced when the video is downsized to 1080p and 5Mbps. It was OK this time, but on another day it might miss something.
- When I returned to the car I tried to connect to the LT01, both over 4G and directly over WiFi, so that I could download the event video or snapshot image to my phone. I could get into the app, but I could not browse the files easily. Even clicking on the links in the message centre alert did not work for me. I think the camera was busy making thumbnails for all the parking videos, I'm not sure. After 10 minutes I gave up and drove home. I have successfully connected to the LT01 from my office a few times, watched live view and downloaded sample video clips, so I know the setup is working. But on this occasion it was a frustrating experience. I have not yet had time to troubleshoot the app / LT01 / phone combination.
EDIT: I did not realise that the Vantrue Connected app is discontinued and has been replaced by an updated version of the Vantrue app.

General Observations
- I think low bitrate mode is the best way to record events like this, or buffered motion detection. Collision detection can be unreliable for small impacts, and the recording usually starts after the impact. Collision detection would not show the driver returning to inspect the car, or leaving a note on the windshield.
- Having a dashcam visible from outside the car might have influenced this driver's behaviour. It's hard to be sure of course. Perhaps she just reversed to glance at the space and check that I wasn't parked over the line. Maybe I should have more faith that people do the right thing and own up to their mistakes?
- Cloud notifications can be useful. In this instance I was expecting to see some damage when I returned to the car. Without that (and the note under the wiper), I could easily have got in and drove home without noticing the damage to the front corner.
 
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This is of course a very unfortunate situation. However, it is awesome that this incident allowed you to show us that the LT01 does what it is advertised to do.
The 360 view is definitely an upgrade in parking mode when compared to a normal dashcam.
TonyM said:
I would prefer a native 1440p option in low bitrate mode, especially for a 180deg wide angle view. The detail is reduced when the video is downsized to 1080p and 5Mbps.
Click to expand...
I agree. It can't hurt to have some more pixels.

TonyM said:
When I returned to the car I tried to connect to the LT01, both over 4G and directly over WiFi, so that I could download the event video or snapshot image to my phone.
Click to expand...
This might be a dumb question. If you want to connect with WiFi, why not directly to the E360?
 
Julian23 said:
This might be a dumb question. If you want to connect with WiFi, why not directly to the E360?
Click to expand...
I did try that too. I'm not sure if my phone auto connected to the LT01 hotspot, which then made connecting to the E360 more difficult. I was trying to use the newer Connected app because that had the impact notification, so I was testing its functions. But clicking on the link in the message did not take me to the specific video clip. I disconnected from the LT01 and connected to the E360, but it was behaving very slow, almost like it was still creating all the thumbnails to share with the LT01.

As I said, it was a frustrating experience, and I probably had less patience after my car had been hit. But that's no different to most drivers in such a situation. Even with prior experience of the app, I couldn't get the file I wanted. It would have been much simpler to eject the card from the camera and use a USB-C reader in my phone.
 
Bummer that your car got hit, but totally awesome that the E360 + LTE combo did its job and notified you! It is exactly this scenario where those wide angle lenses are great. Interesting that the Viofo didn’t flag an impact even on the high sensitivity setting.

Low bit rate recording is definitely best for parking mode...
 
TonyM said:
I did try that too. I'm not sure if my phone auto connected to the LT01 hotspot, which then made connecting to the E360 more difficult. I was trying to use the newer Connected app because that had the impact notification, so I was testing its functions. But clicking on the link in the message did not take me to the specific video clip. I disconnected from the LT01 and connected to the E360, but it was behaving very slow, almost like it was still creating all the thumbnails to share with the LT01.

As I said, it was a frustrating experience, and I probably had less patience after my car had been hit. But that's no different to most drivers in such a situation. Even with prior experience of the app, I couldn't get the file I wanted. It would have been much simpler to eject the card from the camera and use a USB-C reader in my phone.
Click to expand...
Very good breakdown of a real world instance of the E360 and it's integrated capabilities with the LT01 kit.

Are you on Android? The old Vantrue and Vantrue Connected apps were folded and there's only one Vantrue (new) app now..
 
TonyM said:
Or leave it in normal recording mode all the time.
Click to expand...
My testing with another camera shows a very minimal reduction in power consumption between drive and park mode (less than one watt). The most significant difference is the resulting filesize. With a big enough SD card, that’s not really an issue either…
 
Agie said:
Are you on Android? The old Vantrue and Vantrue Connected apps were folded and there's only one Vantrue (new) app now..
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm on android. Both apps are still present, although I cannot find the newer Connected app through the search option.
 
TonyM said:
Yes, I'm on android. Both apps are still present, although I cannot find the newer Connected app through the search option.
Click to expand...
The Connected app was pulled. It's a dead link if you Google it manually too

So the Vantrue app has all the functionality of the old Vantrue and Connected apps in one. I remember Jeff saying something about how it was folded into the one app now
 
Agie said:
Maybe in your region, not showing up for me. It's only the one app.
Click to expand...
It looks like the new app supports the LT01.
Agie said:
The Connected app was pulled. It's a dead link if you Google it manually too
Click to expand...
That must have happened recently. I downloaded it no more than 2 weeks ago when the E360 and LT01 arrived.
 
TonyM said:
It looks like the new app supports the LT01.

That must have happened recently. I downloaded it no more than 2 weeks ago when the E360 and LT01 arrived.
Click to expand...
Yeah the old app had references to the LT01 so guessing it worked too. But whether it worked properly who knows...

I was running both the Vantrue and Vantrue connected app til I saw it was folded into the one all last week, uninstalled the old one
 
can someone post a link for the correct android app please

hope the damage isnt too bad and gets fixed
 
I always wanted Viofo to have an audio readout of how many G-force events when you get back in your car after parking, but this is 1000x better!
 
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