As recently as ten years ago, the only people who used a dashcam were Russians and racing enthusiasts. Russians needed them, because the Russian insurance industry is notoriously corrupt and drivers need video evidence to protect themselves; racing enthusiasts loved them because how else are you going to show your friends what it’s like to sit in the cockpit of that sweet new street triple motorcycle?
But two things have changed in the past decade. First, the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor brought dashcam footage to the global stage, since scientists and the public were able to view the impact from multiple angles from various dashcams in the area. Next, and more importantly, the rise of rideshare services has created a whole new market. Uber and Lyft drivers need extra protection, primarily to ensure that customers who damage their car are charged for the damages.
To find the best dashcam for Uber drivers, we’ve enlisted the combined help of three major subreddits. First, if we were going to make a Reddit dashcam recommendation, we wanted to start with the experts at /r/Dashcam/. After that, we also checked with the folks at /r/uberdrivers/. And to ensure that we also found the best dashcam for Lyft, we double-checked with /r/lyftdrivers/.
From there, we’ve looked for dashcams with the best resolution, the longest battery life, the most connectivity, and the best app control. But your own needs may vary. So we’ve also considered video framerate, security features, and the size of the camera’s profile — the smaller the better. When we looked for Reddit best dashcam suggestions, we weren’t disappointed. Here’s what we found.
The BlackVue DR900S has every feature you could ask from a premium dashcam, from parking monitoring to a quality, 1080p rearview camera.
Check Prices On AmazonReddit’s best dashcam is, without a doubt, the BlackVue DR900S. This camera offers ultra-clear 4K resolution on the front camera, and even the rear camera records in crisp 1080p. Now, you might be wondering why you would need a 4K dashcam. After all, isn’t 1080p good enough for reading license plates?
Under most circumstances, 1080p is indeed just fine. But throw in other variables like night driving, snow, and fog, and a 4K camera can oftentimes allow you to read a license plate that might otherwise have been obscured. Even if you don’t have a 4K screen to review your recordings, 4K allows you to zoom in further without any pixelation. In a lot of cases, that can make the difference between being able to prove an at-fault accident and being left with no evidence.
In addition, the DR900S’ rear camera records in 1080p, so you’ll get better rear video than you will from most dashcam kits. The rear camera can either be faced inward towards the passenger compartment, or out the rear window to capture footage behind your vehicle.
If you decide to hardwire the DR900S, you’ll have access to parking and anti-theft features. These include push alerts, which you can receive by using BlackVue’s companion app. That said, the app requires a monthly subscription, so you’ll need to be prepared to pay for some of the DR900S’ more advanced features.
The Blueskysea B1W is an excellent choice if you’re on a tight budget.
Check Prices On AmazonThe Blueskysea B1W is a slim, cylindrical dashcam that’s designed to maintain as low a profile as possible. At less than an inch and a half thick, it won’t obscure your vision. While this does mean there’s no LCD for watching quick previews, it also means a clear view through your entire windshield. And because there’s only one camera, wiring is minimal. All you need to do is plug the 12-volt adapter into your car’s cigarette lighter. Alternatively, you can buy the hardwiring kit, and wire the B1W directly to your car’s electrical system. This will allow you to use the parking camera feature.
The downside of this inexpensive camera is that the collision detection is a bit picky. So while it will activate if your car actually slams into something, it won’t always pick up slightly less sudden movements, like if you need to make a sudden swerve.
The B1W includes a free companion app for your smartphone. And while many dashcams offer an app as a value-added feature, the app is absolutely essential to using the B1W. This is because there’s no control panel and, as we mentioned, no screen. As a result, the app is the only way you have to review footage, save clips for later, and manage your camera’s settings. Recordings are stored in 1080p at 30 FPS. That’s not exactly impressive, but it’s good enough for most purposes.
The Garmin Dash Cam 55 is a compact USB-powered camera that’s designed for easy setup and quick removal.
Check Prices On AmazonIf you’re looking to move your dashcam between vehicles, you can easily get stuck between two less-than-ideal options. First, you could use a mount with an adhesive pad, but those aren’t made for quick removal. Unless you’re only going to move your dashcam once a year — for example, for a vacation rental car — these adhesive pads may as well be permanent. Conversely, you could use an old-school suction cup mount, but those aren’t always as secure as we’d like.
Garmin has come up with an intriguing solution: a magnet that permanently adheres to your windshield. If you have multiple vehicles, you can simply install a magnet in each one, and moving your Garmin Dash Cam 55 from one to the other will be easy. This camera also uses USB power, which means you can plug it into a two or three-port adapter without the need to monopolize your car’s cigarette lighter.
The quality on this camera is good, but not great, at a solid 1440p. However, the main attraction is the built-in GPS. GPS is what Garmin is primarily known for, so it should come as no surprise that the accuracy on the Dash Cam 55 is quite good. And if you turn on geotagging, all your videos will be annotated with your location and speed.
The Street Guardian GC Series offers crisp, clear night vision so you can read a license plate even in the dark.
Check Prices On AmazonThe Street Guardian GC Series — we looked specifically at the SGGCX2PRO+ — is a rugged camera with an anodized aluminum frame. If you’re concerned about your dashcam getting damaged, you should definitely give the GC Series a look. We’re not saying it’s as impenetrable as an airliner’s “black box”, but it’s tough enough to handle a drop or two.
In the daytime, this camera is a reliable workhorse, laying down 1080p video at a steady 60 FPS. That’s not going to win any world records, but it’s not bad. Then again, the Street Guardian isn’t made for social media. It’s designed primarily for safety, and the night vision is perfect for that purpose. The camera’s wide dynamic range allows it to pick up true color in all but the darkest conditions. City streets are almost as vivid as broad daylight, and even in darker rural areas you’ll still see a lot of detail, certainly enough to read a license plate.
One other thing that we should point out is that while the Street Guardian ships as a single camera, it does function as true dual-channel. In other words, if you decide to buy the optional rearview camera, the channels will be synchronized. You won’t need to do any fancy video editing afterwards to match up what’s happening when.
The Papago! GoSafe S810 is a mid-sized camera that includes a dual-channel backup camera.
Check Prices On AmazonIf you want a dashcam that offers some of the safety features of a Tesla, the GoSafe S810 is tough to beat. Veteran dashcam manufacturer Papago! has really outdone themselves here, with a front and rear camera combo that’s a great value. The profile is a hair larger than we would have liked, but at 2.2 inches high it’s not exactly a huge obstruction.
The safety features include a driver fatigue alert, which notifies you if you’re starting to drift out of your lane, as well as a stop and go mode. In this mode, the camera will automatically record whenever you’re in motion, so you won’t need to remember whether you’ve got it turned on or off. The suction cup mount is a bit bulky, but pivots easily in any direction, so you should be able to easily operate the controls regardless of your height or seating position.
The rearview camera is very compact, and attaches with a small adhesive mount. Depending on your needs, you can place it inside your rear window for use as a backup camera, or leave it rearward-facing inside the windshield if you’re running a rideshare vehicle. You can also attach a third-party GPS unit for geotagging, but in most cases that’s probably more trouble than it’s worth.
The Viofo A119 v3 is the latest iteration of Viofo’s powerful, affordable night vision dashcam.
Check Prices On AmazonViofo’s A119 has been one of the most popular dashcams on the market for several years. Over that time, it’s received a few enhancements and upgrades, with the most enhanced version being the current v3. This is one of the more affordable cameras on the market, but it’s still got a lot to offer.
The A119’s biggest attraction is the Starvis night vision sensor. It provides full color images, where other cameras would display only black and white or very dull color. Like most night vision systems, this does depend on some amount of ambient light to work properly, so you’ll still be limited to black and white if you’re in the middle of nowhere on a moonless night. But in urban and suburban settings, you get excellent picture quality.
The A119 also features a parking mode, which puts the camera to sleep, but leaves the motion and impact sensors active. In this mode, you’ll get recordings of parking lot bumps or vandals. Be careful about using parking mode if you’re plugged into your cigarette lighter, though. There’s no low-voltage cutoff, so it can and will drain your battery. To use parking mode most effectively, you’ll need to hardwire your camera through the fuse box, and the hardwiring kit is sold separately.
The Thinkware F770 has a 1080p rear camera, for excellent detail inside the car.
Check Prices On AmazonOne unique concern of rideshare drivers is that passengers sometimes make a mess. And for every 99 honest riders, there’s that one passenger who has made it their life’s mission to get drunk, vomit all over your back seat, and then complain about the cleaning charges. Now, Uber, Lyft and other rideshare companies are generally supportive of their drivers. But if your cleaning fee comes down to a “he said, she said” argument, you might end up paying for a deep cleaning yourself. A rear-facing dash camera helps you avoid this nightmare scenario.
Here’s the thing: most rear-facing cameras record in 720p or even lower. This is fine if you’re putting them in your rear window, since low resolution is good enough to read a license plate from a few feet away. But for interior work, higher definition can really help you out.
In addition to an excellent rearview camera, the F770 also comes with a built-in WiFi hotspot. This allows it to upload video to the cloud as it’s recorded, and you can even view videos remotely from your Android or Apple phone, and you’ll get an alert in the event of an impact. If you park your car in a public lot, or even in a parking garage on a regular basis, you’ll appreciate these alerts, although you’ll probably want to turn off motion alerts, since otherwise you can get a push notification every time some random person walks past the front of your car.
The Rexing V1 has an ultra-wide, 170-degree lens that captures everything going on around you.
Check Prices On AmazonIf you want a single camera that can capture as much as possible, it’s hard to pass up the Rexing V1. This windshield-mounted wunderkind has a 170-degree field of view, offering a full panoramic display of everything that’s happening in front of your vehicle, as well as most of what’s happening on the sides.
This camera has a built-in WiFi hotspot, and includes a free companion app. This allows it to push alerts to your phone if anything happens to your car while it’s parked. The downside is that parking mode requires the Rexing to be hardwired. Fortunately, a hardwiring harness is included in the kit, but the stock harness only ever draws from an always-on circuit. If you want your camera to switch over to an ignition-operated circuit when your car is turned on, you’ll need to buy a third-party wiring harness.
Without such a wiring harness, you can still use the 12-volt adapter to plug the Rexing directly into your car’s cigarette lighter. You may prefer this method anyway if you have multiple vehicles, since the Rexing’s suction cup mounting bracket is easy to move between two, three, or more vehicles.
The video quality is good, but nothing to write home about. At 1080p, it gives you enough detail to dispute an accident and read a license plate. But you’ll probably want a higher-resolution camera — or one with a narrower field of view — if you’re trying to stream driving videos.
If you cruise /r/Dashcam/ for a few minutes, the verdict is clear. While there are many quality dashcams on the market, the BlackVue DR900S is the best of the bunch. It records in gorgeous 4K, so you can catch a road rager on a snowy day — or just have a higher quality video to use for streaming. Not only that, but the security features and parking mode are excellent, provided you’re willing to pay for the monthly subscription.
If you’d rather not pay for a subscription service, but you still want to protect a rideshare vehicle, the Thinkware F770 is a solid choice. It offers a true 1080p rearview camera and a companion app, although the fact that it’s out of production means you’ll be paying a premium for a used model.
Finally, the Blueskysea B1W offers the best bang for your buck if you just want a barebones camera that works. It will handle your needs 90 percent of the time, although there’s no parking mode. Still, the 1080p camera is quite good, and will allow you to read license plates in the majority of circumstances.
