Dashboard cam may catch thieves in the act
Motion-activated Owl cam records video of activity around vehicles
Ben Smith is all too familiar with car break-ins, especially from his time in San Francisco’s Mission District. Last month, he tried a new type of dashboard camera that made him, at least temporarily, feel a little more secure.
“I now have some sort of weapon at my disposal to help watch over my car,” said Smith, 42. “I didn’t expect that extra feeling of safety. I’m feeling like, ‘Yeah, at least I’m doing something.’ ”
Smith was an early tester for Palo Alto’s Owl Cameras, which began selling the self-installed Owl Car Cam this month. The device is part of a $349 bundle that includes a year of mobile wireless service — necessary, in the absence of Wi-Fi, to view live video on a smartphone and share clips. (After the first year, the wireless service will cost $10 per month.)
Owl Cameras is emerging at a time when an epidemic of car breakins has hit cities like San Francisco, where police received more than 30,000 reports of the crime last year. Police have made arrests in fewer than 2 percent of cases, and a loophole in the law forces a smash-andgrab victim to physically appear in court to testify that he or she locked the car doors, which elevates the crime to a felony.
The Owl Car Cam has a mount that slips between the base of the windshield and the dashboard. It has one forward-facing camera and one pointed to the rear. They provide a 120-degree-wide view, which can capture the scene ahead and the car’s interior and through the rear and side windows.
Owl Cameras CEO Andy Hodge — one of the first three engineers Apple hired to create the iPod — said that when the car is parked, the
“A home lot security of people camera. have a ... But far more things happen in the car.” Andy Hodge, CEO, Owl Cameras
device’s sensors can detect the slightest bump — from the thump of a police officer placing a ticket under the wipers to the crash of a thief breaking in to grab valuables.
The device is always recording, storing 24 hours worth of video before recording over. It draws a small amount of power through a car’s on-board diagnostics port, a standard feature on cars since 1996.
When the sensors are triggered, it sends an alert to the owner, who can view the event live on a smartphone. The owner can save and share from 30 seconds to 30 minutes of video, including the 10 seconds before the event. Drivers can also verbally tell the device to capture and save video clips while on the road.
With a break-in, the Owl Car Cam also brightly lights up the car interior, and the owner can shout at the thief through a speaker.
David Stevenson, a San Francisco police spokesman, said he couldn’t comment on specific products like the Owl Car Cam.
However, as is the case with home burglaries, “security and surveillance camera footage is often an important part of an investigation,” he said. “We encourage victims to provide the footage to police, if available.”
A video could become evidence showing property damage or property theft, although “the question of whether the door was locked or not would still need to be investigated,” he said.
Hodge — who has also worked on the first iPhone, Microsoft’s Hololens augmented reality glasses and the Dropcam home security cameras that were later acquired by Nest and Google — argues that the device could at least scare away potential thieves.
“A lot of people have a home security camera,” he said. “Fires, breakins, package thefts, those things happen. But far more things happen in the car. Crashes, dents, traffic stops and breakins in the car are more likely.”
The device itself could, of course, be stolen but each Owl has its own operating security code tied to its cellular account, so it can be disabled if that happens, Hodge said.
Dash cams, increasingly popular in recent years, can detect some of these problems. Last month, consumer electronics maker Garmin introduced its latest dash cam model integrated with Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant.
Jean Baptiste Su, vice president of the technology consulting firm Atherton Research, said the Owl Car Cam is the first dash cam he’s seen that uses a cellular network to alert the owner. Su said he wished he had one for his car, which was broken into twice in the past three years while parked on San Francisco’s streets.
Hodge emphasizes the Owl’s security features, but notes that it can also capture ordinary, unexpected events.
“For a lot of people ... pulling around a corner and seeing a family of deer, or a meteor ... can easily be the most interesting things that happen to you in a week,” he said.
Owl Cameras, founded in late 2016, has raised $18 million in financing from investors that include Defy Partners, Khosla Ventures and the CSAA Insurance Group.
Ben Smith learned about the Owl from a friend who works for the company, which loaned him a unit to test and provide feedback.
Smith spent 12 years in the Bay Area, and he remembers that his Mission District neighbors would leave their car windows rolled down at night, with notes saying there were no valuables inside, to avoid the hassle of replacing shattered windows.
Smith now lives in Los Angeles — where thieves once again broke into his vehicle.
“I’m just happy that there’s something out there now to protect my car,” he said.