YADA Drive

The camera itself records decent video quality, but the app is extremely unreliable. Connecting to the camera through Wi-Fi usually takes multiple attempts (sometimes 6–7 tries before it finally connects). Once connected, trying to view videos stored on the SD card often causes the app to crash, forcing you to start the entire connection process all over again. A major problem is that the dash cam does not reliably maintain the correct date and time. Every time the vehicle is turned off, the camera may reset its clock. The only way to correct it is by connecting to the app, but because the connection is so unstable, the recorded timestamps can end up being completely wrong. For a dash cam, accurate date and time information is critical in the event of an accident or insurance claim. Unfortunately, the poor app performance makes this feature unreliable. The camera hardware is acceptable, but the app experience is frustrating enough that I cannot recommend it.

Interferes with CarPlay so I need to manually turn off Bluetooth to connect, and then once connected only lets me change the settings. Viewing videos on the app don’t work very well, it infinitely loads. You can however press the download locally button and that works (though slow) and then you can view the video in your photos app or the local section on the app (for some reason you need to still be connected to the dashcam to view local videos). The GPS feature is also only useable in the app, can’t use the GPS in any way other than see it overlayed onto a map while viewing in the app. I got a 4K camera and while its quality is decent, it’s very noisy/grainy.

I use this dashcam because I’m a pilot/escort for oversized loads. I was fortunate enough to have my dashcam on when one of the team was rear-ended by a semi. However, I will say the process to be able to pull this footage from the camera is very painful. I currently have my camera set to record in 3 minute increments, anything larger and the videos are too large to share on most platforms. So going through a full day on the road to locate footage took me forever. Once I located the footage, then I had to download it to my device, only to discover that I an unable to share footage from my iPad. If I try, the app crashes. OK so go through the process of downloading footage to my phone…NOW I can share. I really considered purchasing a rear camera to ensure I’m covered 360 degrees, however after the experience I’ve had with this and other apps, I will be purchasing a dashcam from another manufacturer.