Top Rideshare Dashcams for Uber and Lyft Drivers
Due to the events happening recently to Uber and Lyft drivers, many drivers are more concerned about their own safety. A few drivers I spoke to had gone out and purchased dashcams.
Before I write about the dashcams, I would caution drivers to look up the laws in their state about recording devices in a personal vehicle. Most of the time, you will need to tell your passengers that you have it on and it is recording. The reasoning is that the passenger has a reasonable right of privacy when getting into an Uber or Lyft vehicle, even though they are technically getting into someone’s vehicle. Recently, a driver turned himself into criminal charges when he was recording someone outside of his vehicle. It wasn’t even someone in his car!
I decided to go out and get two dashcams and review them. One is the #1 seller on Amazon. On Amazon, many of these cameras are in different categories so it is hard to say which one is the clear favorite, but I went through the reviews and picked the highest reviewed one. I also then found a good second, more affordable choice for those drivers who may not want to spend over $100 on a dashcam.
I just received both of them today, but thought I can post a bit about them before giving a more detailed review next week. When I start driving with it tonight, I will be notifying all my passengers about the dashcam. I’ll be driving at night mostly so I don’t think it would be very clear as an interior camera.
Dual Camera DashCams (one front facing, one for interior)
Both of these cameras are mounted on a giant mirror that clips over your rear view mirror in your car. This is how they generally work.
Top choice: Falcon Zero F360+ HD Dash Cam
It is definitely a bit pricey at $150, but it is the top rated camera on the market and has exactly what the drivers need. It has two cameras right on the mirror, both can be turned 360 degrees so you can face one of them forward and one of the in the interior. Some drivers just focus the interior camera on themselves but mostly aimed at the middle of the backseat so it captures everything in the car.
You can see my review of this product here.
Second choice: Z-Edge Dual-lens Car Camera
The biggest gripe I have with this one is that the second camera is remote mounted. It is not wireless and requires a cord to be connected to the mirror. The intended use for this camera was as a backup camera mounted onto the trunk of the car, but as an Uber driver, we would like to have it mounted inside the car. There are a few places to mount this camera:
- Stuck to the bottom thin edge of the mirror
- Slipped into the visor of either passenger or driver
- Stuck onto the dashboard with some 3M Command tape
You can see my review of this product below:
It still isn’t as convenient as the Falcon Zero model with two cameras. It works and I like this unit better since it is sleeker, but I would prefer to use the Falcon Zero model.
Single Dashcam (one front facing camera)
I have not tested these devices myself, but have researched around Amazon from the ratings. Typically, dash cams on the market are standalone cameras that stick onto your windshield, unlike the dual dashcams where it is part of a giant mirror that clips over your rear view mirror.
The top choice is Falcon Zero F170HD. There are two versions of these:
- Falcon Zero F170HD Dash Cam DVR (older version, $120 new, $100 used, prices quoted may change)
- Falcon Zero F170HD+ GPS DashCam (newer version, $140 new, $120 used, prices quoted may change)
I don’t have either one of these, but if you want the best camera on the market, get the F170HD+. The F170+ has upgraded features within the camera interface and also packed with an upgraded USB Car Charger, as well as updated GPS Software [source, Amazon Q&A]. I would take the gamble to get the F170HD used for around $100 USD and save about $40. It is sold by Amazon Warehouse and I’ve bought stuff from them before. I had a few issues but they were quick to issue a refund.
If you want to save some money on a dashcam, here is the next choice:
- HD 1080p Car DVR Vehicle Camera Gs8000l ($22 new)
If you do a search on the model number (GS8000L
), you’ll see a giant list of suppliers and seller of this thing. This is indeed one of those generic Chinese cameras and then gets relabeled and repackaged by a bunch of different sellers. I don’t think getting it from a more expensive “brand” will guarantee higher quality since it probably all comes from the same Chinese supplier. There are mixed reviews of this camera (I would say equal number of bad and good reviews) so be forewarned. Cheap really means cheap in this case.
- New Uber Drivers will get up to a $800 bonus after signing up: Sign up for Uber.
- New Lyft Drivers will get up to $800 if you sign up here using this link.
