The Nextbase iQ is a Google Nest-style dash cam with clever AI smarts

The Nextbase iQ is a Google Nest-mode dash cam with clever AI smarts

The Nextbase iQ dash cam on a blue background

(Paradigm credit: Nextbase)

If you lot've been looking for a cloud-connected dash cam that combines 4K recording with Google Nest-mode security features, the Nextbase iQ could be your adjacent big automobile upgrade.

The iQ volition exist a triple-photographic camera setup that can record both inside and outside your vehicle. The view in forepart will be recorded in 4K, while the rear and cabin views will be in 1440p. But this all-seeing eye's special sauce will exist its new AI-powered features, including 'Spatial Awareness' (for recording incidents when yous're away from the car) and 'Roadwatch AI', which will be able to monitor the speed and trajectories of other vehicles.

The merely downside? The Nextbase iQ won't be available until Fall 2022, which for those in the southern hemisphere ways somewhere between September and the end of November. That'south quite a long wait for the dash cam, but Nextbase thinks the iQ is going to be worth the wait.

The Nextbase 622GW currently tops the charts in our guide to the all-time dash cams, but the iQ is going to bring a host of new features that aren't available on that flagship model. Alongside those AI-powered features, the iQ will also offering real-time deject uploads (via both Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity) and a new dedicated app for existent-time alerts and checking your vehicle's video feed from afar.

This means the iQ volition offering like functionality to a dwelling house security photographic camera similar the Google Nest Cam, along with the real-time video analysis that can warn you of nearby threats and capture footage that could prove useful in the event of an accident.

Other features volition include vocalisation control, GPS tracking and a 'Vehicle Aware' system that will patently warn you lot of dangers from other cars or pedestrians in front of your vehicle. These join existing features that we've seen in previous Nextbase dash cams, similar the subscription-based 'Emergency SOS' characteristic for automatically alerting the emergency services with your location subsequently an accident.

There'south no price for the Nextbase iQ yet, simply given the range of features we can wait it to cost more than the Nextbase 622GW (£249 / $319.99 / AU$549.99) when it arrives in the third quarter of 2022.

Assay: AI camera tech meets the humble dash cam

The sides of the Nextbase iQ dash cam — (Image credit: Nextbase)

With many modern cars from the likes of BMW, Tesla and Citreon now including built-in dash cameras, Nextbase is clearly bully to accept the tech in its tertiary-party options to the adjacent level – and that's what information technology appears to take done with the iQ.

This has been possible thanks to what Nextbase is calling a new AI-capable chipset, which should allow the iQ to receive updates via the cloud. The downside of this new chip, though, is that we'll have to look a while to come across whether the iQ lives up to its claims. Hopefully that Fall 2022 release date won't get pushed back further by the global chip shortage.

Still, on paper, the iQ certainly sounds like a compelling combination of a Google Next-way security camera for your car and a smart assistant for capturing accident-based videos. We've previously been impressed by the quality of Nextbase's low-low-cal video quality, which can assistance you lot pick out number plates in challenging weather, and that'southward again been promised on the iQ.

Merely information technology'due south the iQ'southward apparent ability to automatically conceptualize incidents, whether y'all're in the vehicle or abroad from information technology, that sounds like a peculiarly useful upgrade compared to simpler nuance cams. Combine that with vocalisation-activated recording and a 'alive view' style for tuning into its cameras and you take a potentially compelling accessory, especially for older vehicles that may lack in-car smarts.

Whether or non these features all work as well as Nextbase claims is something we expect forrad to discovering when the iQ lands afterwards this year.

These are the best dash cams y'all tin buy right now

Marking is the Cameras Editor at TechRadar. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Marking is at present attempting to break the world record for the number of camera numberless hoarded by ane person. He was previously Cameras Editor at Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.television receiver, also as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff mag. As a freelancer, he'south contributed to titles including The Sun Times, FourFourTwo and Loonshit. And in a former life, he besides won the Daily Telegraph's Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting upwards at 4am for a photograph shoot in London's Foursquare Mile.