What is an IR Dash Cam?

Infrared is a form of light. It’s light that we cannot see with our eyes. When we think of light, we think of a nice sunny summer day, or even the soft glow of a light bulb. But visible light, the light our eyes see, makes up just a tiny sliver of all the light around us, and infrared light is light that we cannot see with the naked eye. The term infrared means “below red” and everything around us emits some form of infrared light depending on its temperature.

Just like how a flashlight emits light in a dark room so you can see, the IR camera emits infrared light, which can be viewed by the IR sensors of the camera, which is then translated into the video, viewable by you. Infrared can travel through fog, dust and smoke no matter how thick, making it quite reliable in all sorts of poorly lit situations.

Many people might confuse IR cameras with thermal cameras. IR cameras, like the ones used in security and dash cameras, capture images in the dark by using an infrared light source. Thermal cameras, on the other hand, use thermal sensors to capture the contrast in heat in the objects around them to create a heat map.

Now let’s talk about the case for dash cams. IR dash cams are two-channel dash cam systems that include a front-facing video and a secondary camera that records the vehicle's interior. Only this interior-facing camera uses IR.

If you look closely at an IR dash cam, you will notice little lights around the outer edges of the camera lens. These tiny lights are known as infrared LEDs, and they are responsible for the dash cam's night vision, as these LEDs are what can view and translate these light signals invisible to the naked eye.

This makes it an efficient solution for rideshare users like Uber and Lyft, as well as commercial users like fleet managers, whether it is used to monitor drivers or to record the rear of the vehicle (often driven at night time). This is an excellent tool in analyzing driver behavior, capturing events including sleeping at the wheel, being on their phone, or exhibiting dangerous maneuvers.

IR dash cams have proven to save fleet managers thousands of dollars in the potential damage that their employees would have caused to their commercial duty vehicles due to negligence. Most importantly, dash cam footage can literally save not just drivers, but the entire commercial trucking company from going out of business as the authorities do suspend a business license if dangerous driving behaviours are exhibited continuously.

You could, but we would not recommend doing so. If the IR dash cam is mounted up against the windshield (pointing through the glass to capture outside of the vehicle), the infrared light can instantly reflect off the windshield, resulting in a reflection or glare that will blind the camera. This will cause your videos to be overexposed or washed out, drastically limiting the effectiveness of the infrared outside.

Beyond that, since IR cameras detect light sources outside our normal spectrum, they can often lack standard colouration, providing black-and-white footage or sometimes a purple hue, depending on the model.

Even if you’re using the most advanced dash cam like the Thinkware U3000, which has Super Night Vision 4.0, Super Night Vision is not true infrared night vision. If you park in a pitch-black area like a closed garage with no lighting, the dash cam will not be able to pick up anything. In other words, dash cams with Super Night Vision still require a minimal level of light in the environment, whether it’s light from oncoming headlights or dim streetlights. IR is true night-vision in pitch darkness, but Super Night Vision? Not so much.

We all know how dark it can get inside a car when driving at night. Since you usually won’t want your cabin lights on when driving, infrared LEDs can illuminate the car’s interior without bothering the driver—because infrared light can’t be seen with the naked eye. Super Night Vision is still the go-to for recording outside situations in dim lighting, and IR is the go-to for recording in pitch darkness over a very short distance.