Not Yet a Serious Dashcam

⚠️ This wiki is community-maintained. The wiki should NOT be considered "word of comma". Edit suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

Consider another device for serious "dashcam" purposes. For a more traditional dashcam experience with reliability and accessibility in mind, consider a traditional dashcam (VIOFO A119 linked as an example).

• Comma devices can lose and have lost up to a minute of footage in the event of a crash and power cutout due to the way the comma device and openpilot records video. Traditional dashcams should handle power cutouts properly, which you can and should easily test.
• Getting the video off the comma device in a suitable and redistributable/supported format is a bit of a pain. You are on the right pages to learn how to do that, but it's a pain. You can plug a traditional dashcam's SD card into a SD card reader and some dashcams can also be themselves SD card readers when plugged into a computer via USB and expose the data over USB mass storage.
• The comma device does not record behind the vehicle. Recording inside the vehicle is not the same as behind the vehicle. This is an option with another dashcam vendor.
• There currently isn't an option to record during parking mode. There is no currently maintained software for this.
• Audio is not recorded by the comma device. You might want to read out license plates or other details that may not be visible in the video in the event of an incident.
• If you want to power your dashcam with the OBD port while the comma setup is using it, use a splitter or a specific hardwire kit.
• In comparison to the C3X, you can have more than 128GB of storage for the dashcam. There aren't developed instructions for external storage on the C3X.
• To be frank, comma has many focuses and the dashcam aspect of the comma device is a line item. Dashcam-specific vendors focus solely on dashcam features and reliability in a highly competitive market.

If Ever In An Accident...

⚠️ It is imperative that you try to collect, upload, and preserve data as soon as possible after an incident. Time and space will be working against you.

Keep In Mind

For video, the comma device and infrastructure should be considered as a backup dashcam, an interface if you're too lazy to walk out to the car, and for the purposes of recording and sharing data for openpilot development. This section is a summary of recommendations from many in the community.

While Comma Prime does offer some features to make the comma device slightly more suitable for dashcam purposes, it does not address many of the issues above.