What’s good for your home, at least when it comes to security, is good for your car. That’s probably the thinking of video doorbell company Ring. The Ring Car Cam that it’s been talking about for almost a year and a half has finally been officially unveiled at CES 2023 in Las Vegas.
The in-dash dual-camera system looks almost exactly like the leaks we saw a good year ago. It’s a relatively compact box of cameras, microphones, speakers, and motion detectors on an extender that plugs into the dash. It is unclear if the Ring Car Cam can also be flipped over and attached to the windshield.
The Ring Car Cam has a host of useful, though not groundbreaking, security features. It can detect motion inside and outside your car and send notifications and video, which begin recording as soon as motion is detected, to the same Ring app you use with your other Ring devices.
If an intruder enters your car and you get an alert, you can even start talking (or yelling at) through Ring Car Cam.
Amazon owns Ring, so it should come as no surprise that the Ring Car Camera can also perform some on-demand recordings (up to a few minutes) that you activate with the phrase, “Alexa, record.” This can come in handy if you spot some motorists engaging in strange behavior and want to capture it and share it on your next TikTok.
Nearly all of these features, including two-way audio and audio recording, can be found in the other original dashboard-based Owl Car Cam that can view both the interior and exterior of your car, send motion-activated videos to a dedicated app, and even record Video based on voice commands. This product disappeared in 2020 and doesn’t look like it’s coming back anytime soon.
The Ring Car Cam has the undeniable advantage of joining the existing Ring ecosystem, and thus the Amazon Alexa orbit (it even has Alexa’s signature Blue Circle on top).
Ring told us that pre-orders for the Ring Car Cam begin today (January 5th). List price is $249.99 but there is a limited time deal for $199.99. While you don’t need a sub for all of the above features, you won’t be able to handle your car when you’re away from your home Wi-Fi unless you pay $6 per month ($60 per year) for a Ring Protect Go subscription that allows device to connect to an LTE network. This subscription also leverages the Traffic Stop utility, automatically uploading a portion of the recording to the cloud, while the Reaminder is stored locally on the device.
Like the Owl Car Cam, the Ring Car Cam communicates via an OBD II adapter, which plugs into your car’s OBD port (mechanics use this port to diagnose modern vehicles). While we hope for a wireless adapter, the Ring Car Cam is a device with a cable. This means that you have to put a thin snake around your dashboard (it can usually nest in the space between the windshield and the dashboard) and then down the dash to the port.
However, with nearly three-quarters of a million vehicles in the US and more than a hundred thousand vehicles in the UK stolen each year, there’s no doubt that a pair of watchful digital eyes could be a welcome addition to the dashboard of your beloved car.
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