Ring Car Cam -- Tesla partnership is weird

[noshadow]

The Ring Car Cam was announced: Ring announces new line of security cameras for cars

It's weird it works with Teslas first, because Teslas already have video cameras and Sentry mode. The only new feature that I like is when you're pulled over, you can tell Alexa to start recording during that traffic stop.

This seems like a feature that Elon will eventually see enough tweets about and add it in.

 

[getf88]

The Car Cam works with any vehicle. The Car Connect currently will only work on a Tesla and makes perfect sense because of the ease of integrating with the Tesla system. Sentry is great, but it doesn't let me pull up a real time feed, it doesn't store the video in the cloud, and it doesn't integrate with my other Ring devices. Another pro is that it is supposed to tie into an existing Ring subscription.

 

[BreatheEasier]

The Car Cam works with any vehicle. The Car Connect currently will only work on a Tesla and makes perfect sense because of the ease of integrating with the Tesla system. Sentry is great, but it doesn't let me pull up a real time feed, it doesn't store the video in the cloud, and it doesn't integrate with my other Ring devices. Another pro is that it is supposed to tie into an existing Ring subscription.

Agree, I feel like this has been a huge omission with Sentry. It is too late when I get to my car and find it vandalized. I want an alert on my phone immediately when Sentry is activated, and either real-time streaming, or at a minimum access to the saved videos, either directly from the car, or from the cloud. If this is what Car Connect is promising, I'm buying this as soon as it is available.

 

[jf64k]

This looks great. Does the pic look like this is an add-on piece (similar to a Taptes/Jedda USB hub)?

 

[BreatheEasier]

Yeah, which would suck since I purchased a Jeda hub...although, none of us have received it yet, if this beats it to market, I may be canceling my Jeda order, because this will provide more capability that I want.

 

[asa8080]

The feature IMO already available for Tesla - watch "live" stream (or footage) from cameras on app. Like I'm in mall and would like to check the surroundings of the car. Why involve 3rd party here while Tesla has everything available for that?

 

[mswlogo]

Anything that plugs into the OBD-II port is a non starter. I know of other products that do that and they are nothing but trouble. They cause 12V batteries to die in ICE cars (because they don’t sleep). They cause error codes to get thrown etc. kinda funny they mention Tesla that has no OBD-II port in the Model 3/Y and only a crippled one in S/X.

 

[getf88]

Why involve 3rd party here while Tesla has everything available for that?

Possibly because it’s not necessarily a simple service to develop and support. Consider also the cost of mobile network bandwidth. It will be interesting to see if this device will work with the Amazon Sidewalk network because that is definitely something that Tesla does not already have.

 

[Lozzy]

Anything that plugs into the OBD-II port is a non starter. I know of other products that do that and they are nothing but trouble. They cause 12V batteries to die in ICE cars (because they don’t sleep). They cause error codes to get thrown etc. kinda funny they mention Tesla that has no OBD-II port in the Model 3/Y and only a crippled one in S/X.

I read somewhere that it will plug into USB for Teslas

 

[Klau2]

Anything that plugs into the OBD-II port is a non starter. I know of other products that do that and they are nothing but trouble. They cause 12V batteries to die in ICE cars (because they don’t sleep). They cause error codes to get thrown etc. kinda funny they mention Tesla that has no OBD-II port in the Model 3/Y and only a crippled one in S/X.

I believe this just plug into the usb port. no osd-ii port involved.
Tesla Sentry Mode is coming to Amazon's Ring with new USB hub - Electrek

The feature IMO already available for Tesla - watch "live" stream (or footage) from cameras on app. Like I'm in mall and would like to check the surroundings of the car. Why involve 3rd party here while Tesla has everything available for that?

? how do you watch live stream now? you got some advanced version of sentry mode? sounds like the ring hub will allow live footage through the ring app if you subscribe to them, something sentry mode can't do right now. sentry mode in current version only allow us to watch recordings in the car or take out the memory card to watch on phone or computer. no idea how you can watch live footage.

 

[mswlogo]

I believe this just plug into the usb port. no osd-ii port involved.
Tesla Sentry Mode is coming to Amazon's Ring with new USB hub - Electrek

? how do you watch live stream now? you got some advanced version of sentry mode? sounds like the ring hub will allow live footage through the ring app if you subscribe to them, something sentry mode can't do right now. sentry mode in current version only allow us to watch recordings in the car or take out the memory card to watch on phone or computer. no idea how you can watch live footage.

How is Ring gonna get it up to the cloud?

HotSpot on the car? Not many cars have that today. Does Ring have Cellular chip in it? Or does it need this new Amazon WiFi?

 

[Klau2]

How is Ring gonna get it up to the cloud?

HotSpot on the car? Not many cars have that today. Does Ring have Cellular chip in it? Or does it need this new Amazon WiFi?

Not sure. I guess either through the Tesla cell signal or it has its own. According to the electrek article, you can watch the footage directly from your phone anywhere.

Tesla Sentry Mode is coming to Amazon's Ring with new USB hub - Electrek

 

[brkaus]

How is Ring gonna get it up to the cloud?

HotSpot on the car? Not many cars have that today. Does Ring have Cellular chip in it? Or does it need this new Amazon WiFi?

it says on the ad posted above. Optional LTE plan.

It also doesn’t say in partnership with Tesla. It says for Tesla.

 

[Klau2]

it says on the ad posted above. Optional LTE plan.

It also doesn’t say in partnership with Tesla. It says for Tesla.

Haha, if only people would read before judging a product

 

[asa8080]

? how do you watch live stream now? you got some advanced version of sentry mode? sounds like the ring hub will allow live footage through the ring app if you subscribe to them, something sentry mode can't do right now. sentry mode in current version only allow us to watch recordings in the car or take out the memory card to watch on phone or computer. no idea how you can watch live footage.

I'm not saying I'm watching it now in app, I'm saying all infrastructure is here, they need to enable it in app like you can monitor you car range, etc.
But Tesla is not willing to do it themselves but (selling?) access to 3rd party instead.

 

[Klau2]

I'm not saying I'm watching it now in app, I'm saying all infrastructure is here, they need to enable it in app like you can monitor you car range, etc.
But Tesla is not willing to do it themselves but (selling?) access to 3rd party instead.

i see what you mean now. Reread your post. yes i agree, Tesla can probably do it if they want to. i think it's due to the bandwidth involved with this.

 

[getf88]

I'm not saying I'm watching it now in app, I'm saying all infrastructure is here, they need to enable it in app like you can monitor you car range, etc.
But Tesla is not willing to do it themselves but (selling?) access to 3rd party instead.

We don’t know what infrastructure Tesla has for real time video streaming and storage. Just because there is hardware in the car doesn’t mean there are the prerequisite services and infrastructure. It’s also not in their core competency, it is in Ring’s. This isn’t some trivial thing Tesla can just have a couple guys wire up in a day.

 

[asa8080]

We don’t know what infrastructure Tesla has for real time video streaming and storage. Just because there is hardware in the car doesn’t mean there are the prerequisite services and infrastructure. It’s also not in their core competency, it is in Ring’s. This isn’t some trivial thing Tesla can just have a couple guys wire up in a day.

I’d partially agree. Most “heavy load” of recording itself, storing etc already done. Local player access it. The missing part is download the video and stream to client player. I doubt the video would be physically hosted on Ring server, rather Tesla provide api to link user player to file on USB in the car. However it’s possible Ring could let say by event download video on his server from where client can get (like they are doing with doorbells)

 

[brkaus]

I’d partially agree. Most “heavy load” of recording itself, storing etc already done. Local player access it. The missing part is download the video and stream to client player. I doubt the video would be physically hosted on Ring server, rather Tesla provide api to link user player to file on USB in the car. However it’s possible Ring could let say by event download video on his server from where client can get (like they are doing with doorbells)

I’m betting it’s simply a box that plugs into the USB port and pretends to be a USB drive. Ring software can then do whatever it wants with it. Archive it within the box. Upload it via their WiFi. Upload it via an LTE modem if the customer activated it.

nothing required from Tesla at all. Except perhaps a commitment to not change the storage method without notice.

 

[getf88]

I’d partially agree. Most “heavy load” of recording itself, storing etc already done. Local player access it. The missing part is download the video and stream to client player. I doubt the video would be physically hosted on Ring server, rather Tesla provide api to link user player to file on USB in the car. However it’s possible Ring could let say by event download video on his server from where client can get (like they are doing with doorbells)

Historical video for this type of application is not typically streamed from edge devices because that adds hardware cost and is a unreliable way to ensure a good user experience due to connectivity variables. Videos tend to be optimized for streaming along with associating various metadata on centralized infrastructure. Real time streaming will likely be relayed for the same reasons. The Ring device should be able to operate independently of Tesla’s API. Dash cam storage is a simple file system. All the Ring device needs to do is read files and upload to servers. The heavy part is actually the service infrastructure.