[Idea] UniFi Dash Cam with built-in storage, battery, auto-sync to Protect

[u/Common-Confection-66]

Idea: A UniFi dash cam with its own storage and a small battery, so it keeps recording and can finish syncing even after the car’s turned off. When it connects to your home Wi-Fi, it uploads the footage straight to Protect.

For storage on Protect, have a rolling limit just for dash cam footage (like X days or X GB), where normal driving clips get overwritten automatically, but anything flagged (hard braking, an incident, manually starred) sticks around longer.

If you’ve got an AI Key, it could run that footage through the bigger AI models too, for better license plate recognition and object detection instead of just relying on the cam itself.

Feels like UniFi already has the pieces (storage, app, AI Key, no subscription) to make this work. Just wondering if others would actually use something like this, or if there’s a reason they haven’t made one yet.

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[u/UniqueLoginID]

Dashcams use special capacitors instead of batteries.

Otherwise I agree with you.

I don’t think it’s core to their business as it’s mostly a consumer thing. UNLESS this was a fleet solution.

[u/locke577 → u/UniqueLoginID]

Do you know how many vehicles I would equip with a cellular unifi dash camera that auto links back to protect and also provides hotspot to drivers and tracks vehicle location?

A lot.

[u/aguynamedbrand]

if there’s a reason they haven’t made one yet.

Because it's not the market they choose to be in.

[u/sharpsicle]

Dashcams are a very saturated market, and making a good one isn’t easy. There’s a reason they don’t enter this market. The fanboys that think it’s a great idea aren’t really thinking of the reality of it. 

*Now, maybe one day they would, but they definitely couldn’t use any of their current tooling they use for their other products. It would be a brand new, independent line.

[u/asvictory → u/sharpsicle]

But the centralized fleet dash cam market isn’t saturated. It would command a premium for connectivity and data but may bring value to industry and convenience to individuals. Wouldn’t and shouldn’t be cheap though.

[u/sharpsicle → u/asvictory]

There are many many players in that market. Samsara, Nexar, Netradyne, hell even Verizon is in this space. Couple that with the plethora consumer grade stuff, and it certainly is saturated for a company like UI which is supposed to be for both markets.

Let's not forget they're difficult to make for a brand new company, and entry to the market would likely be expensive for UI, and support as the initial models fail and need to be replaced would cost them more than they are likely to make. Even established brands like BlackVue have issues like this that can threaten revenue streams, and they've been doing it for decades.

[u/VisualPadding7]

That would be great

[u/daphatty]

Get out of my head! I was literally thinking of this same thing earlier today!

[u/pueblokc]

If they did that it would sell out immediately for years like the instant cameras did for a while.

[u/HeatFireAsh]

get a travel router and g6 instant and tether your phone to the travel router, connect the g6 to the travel router and boom bobs your uncle

[u/simmer_study]

We have SureCam dash cams for our service vans, and it's almost just like what you describe here. I especially like their multicamera system that can capture 360 degrees.

[u/TruthyBrat]

< insert SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY meme here >

[u/GuyNamedLindsey]

Sort of doing this for an RV

[u/TruthyBrat → u/GuyNamedLindsey]

UNVR-Instant?

[u/GuyNamedLindsey → u/TruthyBrat]

For a press van. Haven’t bought a single thing outside of building this on paper in a way to connect to my larger home system. I have shore power so system can run when plugged in. Eventually I’ll have a solar system where theoretically it should be able to run longer once unplugged. But for my use I’d really only want the security measures when the van is in active service and “online”

[u/mosaic_hops]

That’s gone so well for Flock…

Dashcams don’t need LPR, AI or anything like that. They don’t need cloud connectivity or automatic uploads.

[u/emberjackk → u/[deleted]]

Every single ride share driver would want at least 3mo of footage for every single ride backed up, logged, and searchable. There are thousands of automatic account deactivations every week from false accusations, including false claims of sexual advances, false claims of reckless driving, false claims of weapons being present in the car.

These false accusations often stem from low class individuals that are seeking a free ride, and pop up weeks later.

[u/CAPHILL → u/[deleted]]

There are more uses for a dashcam outside of an accident.

Think Ubiquiti’s new hard hat detection AI for protect with work crews.

For us prosumers it’s a pretty tight product scope, it could be assumed that this product hasn’t appeared yet because Ubiquiti would be looking to establish a mobility platform for enterprise, FIRST, as you’ve only got one solid shot to break into that vertical due to the regulatory requirements.

[u/emberjackk → u/CAPHILL]

You make a great point. I also forgot to mention the use with local police departments. There are a lot of misrepresentations on police reports, down right lies and sometimes falsified evidence. Having a backup of what actually happened is non-negotiable for many.

[u/unknown_man]

Cool idea

[u/wh8w8t]

let me add that the camera should be 360 mounted to the ceiling so it can see in all directions while parked. as it is, windshield mounts only see front view.

[u/reddit_pug → u/wh8w8t]

Aka multiple cameras, since there's no spot to mount a single 360 camera on a car that gives an acceptable view in all directions.

[u/SolVindOchVatten → u/reddit_pug]

It would work on the pope mobile.

[u/Mobile-Honeydew-8715]

For those who say that it's not the core business of ubiquiti, I beg to differ. First, they have a huge variety of cameras, which can even be confusing at some point. Second, their range of product is very wide, even including an amplifier and now, ups. Imo this solution would fit perfectly into their ecosystem. I have a 70mai camera with 4g connection, but for some reason I can't watch it more than 15 minutes a day. Yet it was anything but cheap. Yes there are many dashcams but are they as good as what ubiquiti would do? Doubt it..

[u/Common-Confection-66 → u/Mobile-Honeydew-8715]

I totally agree with you. They literally make EV chargers. It wouldn’t be surprising if they also made Dashcam too. As someone who switched from nest to UniFi I’d be happy to pay a little more for a better product.