Cart

Dash cam with Internet: The Owl car camera can grab and stream video of crashes and break-ins

By February 9, 2018August 7th, 2020Press

You can come up with several reasons why you’d want a security camera recording everything in and around your car, even when the vehicle is parked. And perhaps a reason or two why having such a camera affixed to your dashboard might creep you out.

The cloud-connected Owl Car Cam that’s now on sale at owlcam.com promises the same peace of mind for your vehicle that you get from the security camera in your living room, whether helping to prevent or catch a thief or supplying a video in case you’re involved in a fender bender. It’s not the first dash cam for the car, but in connecting to the Internet and automatically dispatching video to your phone, it appears to go further.

Owl mounts on the dash and connects to the onboard diagnostic port (OBD) available in all cars for a couple of decades now. Owl consists of forward- and rear-facing HD cameras that connect to the Internet via LTE.

The launch cost is $349, with service for the first year thrown in for free. You’ll pay $299 for the unit and around $10 per month after that. Captured video is sent to an app on your phone only. It is up to you whether to edit and/or share the video from there.

The Palo Alto, Calif., start-up behind Owl has been in stealth mode for just more than two years and is the brainchild of Andy Hodge, a former Apple executive who was heavily involved in developing the original iPod and has since spent time at Microsoft (HoloLens) and Dropcam. Hodge believes that video, sensors and intelligent software can help you deal with whatever life throws your way — certainly when you’re out on the road. And though there are other car cameras out there, he believes his goes the furthest.

READ MORE

Source: USA TODAY
Author: Edward C. Baig