Car parked on a city street

Dash Cam Parking Mode Explained: Protect Your Car While It's Parked

Many incidents happen when nobody is in the car: a door ding in a parking lot, a scraped bumper on the street, or a break-in overnight. Without footage, the damage is usually yours to pay. Parking mode lets your dash cam keep watching while you are away.

How parking mode works

Most dash cams offer one or more of these modes:

  • Impact detection: the G-Sensor wakes the camera when it detects a bump or collision, then saves and locks the clip.
  • Time-lapse recording: the camera records continuously at a low frame rate, so hours of parking fit on the memory card.
  • Motion detection: on some models, recording starts when movement is detected in front of the camera.

Cars on a city street at night

What you need: a hardwire kit

When you turn off the engine, most 12V sockets stop supplying power, and the dash cam switches off. To record while parked, the camera must be connected directly to the fuse box with a hardwire kit.

A good hardwire kit includes a low-voltage cut-off: it switches the camera off automatically before your battery drops too low to start the car.

Should you install it yourself?

Hardwiring involves identifying the right fuses in your vehicle. Fuse box layouts vary from one model to another, so if you are not comfortable working with your car's electrical system, a professional installer is the safest option.

Tips for reliable parking recording

  • Use a high-endurance microSD card, designed for continuous recording.
  • Format the card in the camera regularly.
  • Choose a model with a rear camera: many parking incidents happen at the back of the car.
  • In hot climates, avoid leaving the camera in direct sunlight for long periods when possible.

Explore our dash cams with 24H parking mode.

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