Three different types of dash cams are available: single, cabin, and dual view. Discover their benefits and which best suits your needs.

Dash Cam Options: A Comprehensive Guide

Popularly known as dash cams, dashboard cameras have become an essential tool for drivers seeking to enhance safety and accountability on the road. 

This comprehensive guide explores the various types of dash cams available. We explore each type’s unique features and benefits, helping you understand which one best suits your needs. Whether you’re looking for a basic model for personal use or an advanced system for fleet management, you can use these valuable insights to make an informed decision.

Dash Cams: Exploring the Options

There are three types of dash cams available: single, cabin, and dual-view models. Learn more about them below and find the model that best suits your needs.

Single-View Dash Cams

Single-view dash cams are basic models that record video footage of the road ahead of the vehicle. These models are usually the most affordable and easiest to install. When used with a vehicle tracking system, they also keep an accurate record of the vehicle’s exact location at any given time. You can access the securely stored video footage via an app and share it with third parties as and when necessary. 

Whether used in a private vehicle or in fleet vehicles, single-view dash cams can help protect against ‘crash for cash’ scams, and they can provide valuable information regarding responsibility in the event of a collision. You can combine single-view dash cams with cabin-view models. They can also detect and alert drivers and fleet managers to driving behaviours such as aggressive acceleration, harsh braking, sharp cornering, speeding, and idling. 

Cabin-View Dash Cam

Cabin-view dash cams from Crystal Ball face into the vehicle, providing recordings of the driver (and potentially any passengers) in the cabin. This type of camera is a popular choice among fleet managers, taxi drivers, and drivers who carpool. You can combine cabin-view dash cams with single-view dash cams for a record of what happens both outside and inside the vehicle.

Cabin-view dash cams have several advanced features that offer various benefits to fleet managers and private vehicle owners who share their vehicles with others. One of these benefits is driver identification, which offers increased security and accountability. Drivers are required to log in using a unique username and PIN code to verify their mileage.

Another beneficial feature of advanced AI cabin-view dash cams is the use of facial recognition technology to recognise signs of distracted driving. These signs include looking to the right or left for too long, yawning, closing eyes, using a mobile phone, smoking, a lowered head, falling asleep, and if nobody is at the steering wheel when the vehicle is in motion. It’s important to note that if you opt for a cabin-view camera, you or your drivers must inform passengers that they are being recorded in compliance with privacy laws.

Dual View Dash Cams

The most popular type, dual view dash cams are highly beneficial for private vehicle owners and fleet managers. These multiple-lens cameras are available as a single unit or as two units. The forward-facing camera records footage of the road in front of the vehicle, while the rear-facing camera may either be focused on the cabin or record footage of the road behind the vehicle. Either way, they create a valuable record of events that can help determine liability in the event of an accident, especially if the incident was a rear-end accident. 

If the second camera is cabin-facing, it can be used for driver identification, and it can use facial recognition technology to recognise signs of distracted driving, as described above.

When choosing a dash cam for your vehicle or fleet, consider your needs. If you’re a private vehicle owner, you might only use the most basic functionalities, but if you’re a fleet manager, you may find access to numerous advanced features more advantageous.