Do Ring Doorbells Record Cars Driving By?

How to Record Cars Driving By With Your Ring Doorbell Camera 

• Go to the Ring App and and tap on the settings
• Find your Ring Camera in the list of selections. 
• Tap Edit Zones and adjust the sensitivity of your camera. 

Read more below to understand how this setting works and the best way to utilize it. 

Introduction: Does My Ring Doorbell Have Motion Detection?

While being away from home, you often worry about the deliveries waiting for you, when the garbage truck visits you, or what is going on across the street.

A Ring doorbell is another step up in your smart home security to protect what arrives on your front porch. Ring cameras provide you with 24/7 surveillance through the camera’s view, providing you with more ease of mind and additional protection.

What Is a Ring Doorbell and How Does it Record Videos?

Ring Products is a manufacturer that sells smart home gadgets, ranging from smart lighting to alarm systems. One of the most famous Ring products is their smart cameras, especially those doorbells designed to give homeowners more peace of mind when away.

Ring doorbells usually come with cameras that can be placed both inside and outside the home. Viewers can use the Ring App when the cameras detect any motion alerts throughout the day. The camera then captures a video recording of the event and uploads it on the Ring Cloud for the owner to view anytime they want. It is also in this Ring App where you can change any of the motion settings to your liking.

Every Ring doorbell comes with a two way talk feature for you to communicate with anyone at your door. This feature becomes especially important if you are away and cannot receive packages and deliveries.

Understanding Motion Zones in a Ring Video Doorbell

This doorbell camera can detect motion of up to 30 feet if it is set up in a clear and wide view. However, despite the advertised viewing range, there are many factors that can affect the motion sensors on the camera.

For example, a Ring camera might work less effectively in bright light and places with obscure vision.

Ring’s motion zones are a feature that allows you to set the depth of the motion sensor to as far as the device will allow. Selecting motion zones is free and easy to use. Using an outdoor camera, you can change your motion settings to detect any movement from your walkway, like those cars passing. You can also change motion detection for indoor cameras to focus on the only areas with moving windows and sliding doors.

Can My Ring Doorbell Sense Cars?

In short, yes, the motion sensor on your ring doorbell can detect cars passing by if you adjust the motion zone correctly. If you adjusted your motion zone correctly, your motion range will be around 5-25 feet, depending on the obstructions in front of you.

You also get about a 155-degree viewing range, which should be enough to effectively monitor anything happening at your front door.

The quality of the recording can be affected by various factors that might not allow you to view these recordings from the app.

Other Factors that Affecting Camera Range

Factor #1: Your Internet Connection is Unreliable

In order for your home’s security device to record, you need to have a reliable internet connection powering the device. A good internet connection is especially important if you want to catch criminals entering your apartment building, or your neighbors entering your home without explicit permission.

Fortunately, the Ring App makes it easier for you to check the strength of your internet connection by looking at the RSSI signal on the app. If the signal is green, then the Internet connection is strong enough to record anything you want.

Factor #2: Your Lighting May Affect Your Camera’s Frame Rate

We don’t need to get into the nitty gritty of cameras and their frames per second (FPS). The only thing we need to point out here is that the camera’s lighting may affect the videos you capture on the device.

For example, expect the FPS on your Ring camera significantly decreases at night, since it will need to rely heavily on its night vision rather than natural light.

Unfortunately, the night vision feature of most of the Ring cameras appears in black and white rather than their natural colors. If you need to see the true colors in your surroundings, you will need to buy the company’s advanced camera features.

How to Change Motion Zones in a Ring Doorbell?

As we stated before, you need to select motion settings very carefully if you truly want to detect vehicles passing by. Fortunately, the Ring App has made configuring your motion sensitivity easier through your phone.

You might experience a little discrepancy in adjusting the default setting between a hardwired Ring camera and a battery powered one.

On the one hand, adjusting wired Ring cameras are more customizable than a Ring camera with battery life. You will also need to make sure that Ring’s Advanced Motion Detection is enabled.

The following steps we will work in the app’s advanced feature:

• • Find your Ring Video Doorbell in Devices

• • Tap on Edit Zones in the Motion Setting

• • Select the zone in blue or add a motion zone to the current selection

• • Once you’re happy with the adjustments you made, click done.

Adjusting Your Motion Sensitivity

The Ring Doorbell has innovative motion sensors that can track the movements of anything within its motion zones. This feature proves especially important when viewing passing cars around your house or apartment building.

However, the Ring Doorbell is so good that it detects motion of bugs and stray animals. This means that Ring would send an alert to your phone whenever unnecessary objects enter the camera’s periphery. Eventually, this alert can become more of an annoyance than a useful tool.

The best way to solve this issue is to readjust the sensitivity of the Ring Camera to exclude areas that are not that important.

• • Tap Motion Settings in the Device tab

• • Tap Motion Sensitivity

• • Adjust the sensitivity of your Ring Doorbell to detect motion of the cars driving by

• • Save your changes

Remember that the higher the sensitivity of your Doorbells, the more often you will receive alerts from the Ring Camera. On the other hand, the lower the sensitivity of your Ring camera, the fewer notifications you will receive when anything happens in the street.

If you want your Ring Doorbells to send you a video of the cars in the street, you will want to change the sensitivity slightly higher than normal. This level should also be enough for you to be notified at night of any suspicious activities.

What Is Motion Scheduling?

You do not have the time to look at every video recording your phone sends you. You only need your motion sensors when there is a high level of activity in the street, whether it’s people, cars, or when you are expecting a delivery.

Motion scheduling enables your video recording in a specific time frame that you set.

For example, if you expect delivery at your door between 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, you can set your Ring Video Doorbells to record any street activities around you.

You can set a motion schedule by following these simple steps:

• • Find the three lines in your Ring App and tap Devices.

• • Enable Motion Warning to send you notifications when it detects any activities.

• • Go to Settings and find Mode Schedules

• • Enter the mode and time

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

#1 Can My Ring Doorbell Detect Police Cars Driving By?

The Ring Doorbell can detect any cars that pass by your door. This becomes especially important if your doorbell detects a police car stopping by your house. The Ring Camera will allow you to see the police officer, interact with them, and view any search warrant that they might have without leaving your home.

Many users incorporate the Ring Neighbors App to connect themselves to police and surveillance communities whenever suspicious activities arise in the neighborhood.

#2 Can My Ring Doorbell Have False Positive Notifications?

Ring Doorbells have a high success rate. But we cannot deny that there may be a few false positives from time to time. This may not be entirely the device’s fault, but the camera may have triggered high sensitivity to the movements of stray dogs and bugs.

This still should not invalidate the innovation of the Ring Doorbell. The company still exerts much effort in making its devices as accurate as possible.

#3 How Long Can My Ring Camera Record Videos?

The Ring Camera can record 30-to-60-second videos. The video only starts recording when its motion sensors activate. After the video stops, it will take another motion sensor activation for the camera to start recording again.

Final Thoughts: Do Ring Doorbells Record Cars Driving By?

A Ring Doorbell is the perfect addition to your home security to track any movements around your home from far away. With Ring’s recording devices, it can successfully track cars moving, especially those that stop by your house, like garbage trucks, police cars, and delivery trucks.