I remember when I had a car. I was living in Queens, and avoiding tickets was an absolute nightmare—that is, until I was informed of a neighborhood cheat code. There was a street sort of near where I lived where I could just leave my car—no alternate side parking, predetermined hours, nothing. Naturally, I went straight there and parked my car and tried my best to forget that I had one until I needed it. I thought about that car every single day. Was it still there? Had it been smashed to pieces? Abducted by aliens? Did a pack of wild rats chew their way in and declare it “Ratopia”? My point is, there’s an anxiety to leaving your car places, whether we want there to be or not, and though we can’t be omnipresent, a watchful eye would be the next best thing.
In that vein, a new solar-powered security camera from Baseus—the same company that makes these intriguing wireless headphones and earbuds launched at IFA this month—seems specially designed for people who want to leave their car for long periods but also keep an eye on it. Baseus is billing the PrimeTrip VD1 dashcam (which is actually two cameras for the front and back of your car) as the first to offer a “hardwire-free parking monitor.” That’s thanks to what it calls a “Solar Sync System” that uses a small, high-efficiency solar panel to juice up the camera’s battery, allowing it to remain powered without being charged by a car battery.
It’s not completely set it and forget it, though. According to Baseus, the PrimeTrip VD1 has 14 days of standby parking monitoring, which is still a pretty solid amount of juice for a camera that doesn’t even need to be plugged in. To help give it longevity, Baseus equipped the camera with a motion sensor, so it’s not recording all the time. Instead, it will flick on when motion or impact is detected, and will then automatically record 30-second clips from both front and rear cameras. Baseus says its camera can store up to 20 events, or a total of 40 clips. That footage can’t be watched remotely (there’s no 5G on this thing), but it can be downloaded via Wi-Fi to an app. You should also know that there is a difference in front and rear camera resolution; the front is 4K, and the rear camera is 1080p.
I don’t own a car anymore, but if I did, this feels like a solution I may actually opt for, especially because I can’t really afford a car with built-in security like the kind Tesla puts in its EVs. It may not give you total peace of mind while you’re away from your vehicle for long periods, but a helping hand (or at least confirmation that someone stole your catalytic converter) doesn’t hurt.
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