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The 5 Myths of Wi-Fi Function on Dash Cams

Does Dash Cam Need Wi-Fi?

Preface

The concept of Wi-Fi seems to have caused a great misunderstanding to consumers in the U.S and other markets. Many people mistakenly think that Wi-Fi is the so-called Internet, assuming it can be connected directly to your car from your home, mobile phone, or a remote device. But the so-called Wi-Fi is just a channel protocol for direct connection between devices, mobile phones, or home network devices. As early as 2012, our company has launched our multi-function Wi-Fi dash cam UDV-888 in various countries. Still, users do not fully understand this technology, which has contributed to poor user experience. Today, I will briefly explain the advantages and disadvantages of Wi-Fi functionality.

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1. Live viewing connection distance

Pro: Connect directly between the Dash Cam Wi-Fi signal to mobile phone/tablet. Video footage will then stream to the app. The viewing distance is about 6 – 10 ft distance; there should be no wall, metal, or other sources of interference in between.

Myth: This feature is not very helpful for dash cams; if it is within this distance, you can see your car with the naked eye, and there is no need to watch it through your phone; if there is any obstruction in between, it seriously reduces the signal strength from the screen affects the viewing quality and delay. In addition, if you have used a screenless Wi-Fi driving recorder from a well-known Korean brand, you will know that this feature is not very user-friendly when installing for the first time; depending on your mounting position, the Wi-Fi signal might drop and be interrupted. It is very inconvenient when adjusting the recording angle.

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2. Operating and changing menu settings through mobile device app

Pro: With the mobile app, you can control and change settings on dash cam.

Myth: This is a highly complex setup. The connection is set up directly between the Dash Cam and your smartphone or tablet, exploring how to modify the settings, and this experience is not very user-friendly.To improve the quality of experience, our default settings have been adjusted to the parameters we believe are optimal. We are making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of connecting. Our dash cam is equipped with an LCD display and buttons to make the operation more intuitive and the convenience of adjusting the angle in the previous position. The setting can also be changed directly on the device.

3. Download the videos from your dash cam

Pro: Download, view, share, and upload your video to cloud storage on your mobile device app.

Myth: Our dash cam comes with a screen and a playback function, users can watch the video immediately through the playback mode on the device. It can save the trouble of downloading footage and operating on your mobile device. Downloading a one-minute video is about 100MB; with the current limitations of Wi-Fi technology, it takes almost a minute, basically not as fast as expected. The video quality may be delayed due to buffering depending on compressed format, making sharing with other people (police, insurance company) hard.

However, there are times when footage must be viewed on the mobile device, and users think the dash cam screen is too small. We suggest that users buy an OTG USB adapter, remove the SD card from the dash cam, and use the OTG device with the mobile phone/tablet. iOS/Android can read or access videos commonly. The only setback is that if you are an Android user, when a memory card of 64GB or higher, sometimes your Android device does not support exFAT format, a prompt will pop up asking you to format the memory card. You need to do at this point to download an App called exFAT/NTFS for USB by Paragon Software. After completion, you need to purchase the exFAT format in the App, and the price might vary in different regions (check the pricing on Google Play Store). After that, you can use it normally; some mobile phones come with this format themselves, for example (High-End iPhone and Android phones).

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4. Watch footage and driving data

Pros: View the footage and the driving data with Google Maps and data Graph on a mobile device

Myth: We agree that this feature is nice, but this feature is useless; when and if something happens, the user will be busy and overwhelmed. We suggest carefully reviewing the captured videos information and enjoying the convenience and comfort on your computer or using an OTG adapter.

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5. After reading all this information, you might ask, why not develop a dash cam that can support 4G LTE/5G?

Pro: You can back up your video files to the cloud service thru 4G/LTE/5G.

Myth: The answer is in the "Price.” First, the hardware that can support the 4G LTE/5G function is costly. It will drive up the price of the dash cam; in addition, when you need to backup and upload to the cloud, users will incur the cost of cloud server space, and mobile service providers might make users purchase a certain amount of cloud space for a specific fee every month.

Then again, because 4G LTE/5G function needs an Internet connection, unlike smart home security solutions or home cameras, those devices can connect to the Internet at home.

To monitor your car remotely when the user is out and about for dash cam vehicles set up, one must purchase an additional SIM card for network connection. You can imagine the cost of an extra unlimited mobile data bill every month. Therefore, such a feature is not suitable for now, the price is too high.

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Conclusion

We are still working hard to develop our mobile app, which is currently used by our B2B customers indeed. It's just that we don't think we need to add this mod for our current lineup for our own brand now. It's a waste to have it and not use it; we will be adding and removing some features to serve our future models better. Let us thank our engineers and designers, we thank you and appreciate your hard work. Let us know what feature you are looking for on a dash cam through website contact us page. We will gather everyone's opinions and report to our development team for discussion to see if any feature will be added to our lineup.