

There are a few situations in which your dash cam will not record all the time. If your dash cam is plugged into an always-on accessory port or hardwired for power, you may also be able to record when the car is off, but this depends on the available features of your camera. Many cameras allow you to turn the power on or off manually, but most power up immediately and begin working as soon as they are plugged into a 12V power source or hardwired into the car's fuse box. This frees up space on your camera's SD card and makes it simple to edit and share footage as needed.ĭash cameras are designed to record all the time when your car is powered on. Smart dash cams also offer cloud video management, which allows you to easily transfer your saved videos to online storage. A larger SD memory card is recommended for road trips or other situations in which you want to make sure that you keep as much video as you can. This allows for a nearly endless capacity for video recording without worrying about where to store all the footage.

Manually locked and emergency videos are stored so that they are not erased. Most quality cameras have continuous loop recording, which means that, when they run out of storage, they record over the oldest footage.

Remember that, even with a limited recording time, a good dash cam won't simply shut off recording once the memory card is full. However, with a high-quality recording (1080p), you can expect the camera to record for about this long: The recording quality, the size of the camera's SD card capacity, and other factors can all affect how long a dash cam records for. Saved recordings can often be uploaded to a cloud for safe keeping and shared with insurance companies, the police, or others after an incident to help protect you in the case of accidents, insurance fraud, or other unexpected events. Most are simple to set up, easy to power using your car's battery, and don't require you to manually start, stop, or save recordings. As long as the camera has power and is turned on, it will record video of everything within its field of view.ĭash cams are a better option than other video recording technologies that aren't specifically made for this purpose because they are designed to record high-quality video while your vehicle is parked or in motion in daytime or nighttime environments, can withstand extreme temperatures when mounted on your windshield, and can save videos automatically when a collision is detected. By recording continuously, the dash cam can capture footage of any incident or unexpected situation, such as a reckless driver, an accident, or even a traffic stop. Dash cams work by using your vehicle as a power source, recording video whenever the car is on or, when the device is hardwired into your vehicle, when a sensor detects a collision or when the camera detects motion. A dash cam is a convenient and, in some cases, life-saving tool that allows you to record the road ahead – or behind with some models – as you drive.
