It films the road in front of the car, like a dash cam, allowing you to get footage of interesting things that have happened on the road in front of you.
The camera also records what's going on inside the vehicle too, which can be used to scare off a burglar who's breaking into your car.
And if something happens to your car — like a hit and run — you'll get a notification. The Owl cam is constantly connected to the internet with an LTE connection.
The Owl cam records 24 hours of video before it starts overwriting what's in its memory. This allows it to capture events even if the user didn't specifically tell it to start filming. To save something you just saw, you say, "OK Presto" and give the clip a name.
Then it's sent to the Owl app on your phone. In the app, you can trim the clip, give it a title, and send it to friends or social media.
You set Owl up by plugging it into the OBD port in your car.
Hodge says the OBD port is only used for power and knowing when the car is turned on, and the company is taking automotive information security and privacy very seriously.
Because Owl has an LTE connection, when it saves a video, it goes to the cloud — not over Bluetooth to your phone. That being said, you do have to pair the two devices by scanning a QR code.
It's a cool product from a young company.
This is the first product out of Owl, a startup co-founded by CEO Andy Hodge, who worked on the iPod at Apple back in the Steve Jobs era.
Owl is based in Palo Alto and has raised $18 million in venture funding from investors including defy.vc, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Moment Ventures, and Sherpa Capital. It counts key iPod executives Joe Rubenstine and David Tupman as advisors.
The young hardware startup now has 38 employees, Hodge said.
