FAQ

FAQ

Which vehicles does this work with?

Any GM vehicle with the built-in Surround Vision Recorder dashcam (newer GM EVs and ICE vehicles) that records to a USB drive. The car records four cameras — front, left, right, rear — as 5-minute MP4 segments; 2027+ models add an interior camera, which Dash USB's viewer supports too.

Confirmed working on a 2026 model. GM's spec sheet says the drive must be USB 3.0, but the car accepts the Pi's USB 2.0 gadget fine.

Does this void my GM warranty?

We can't speak for GM — read your warranty terms if it matters. The Pi connects to a regular USB-C port the same way any USB drive does. It writes to itself, not to your car.

Does GM officially support this?

No. Dash USB is a third-party project, not affiliated with General Motors.

Does it cost anything?

The software is free for noncommercial use under the PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 license (source-available). You only pay for the hardware (Pi + SD card + cable).

Why does the car only keep 2 hours of footage?

That's GM's firmware: it hard-deletes recordings older than a rolling ~2 hours from any USB drive, regardless of size. Dash USB exists to defeat exactly this — it snapshots the recordings every 15 minutes, before the rolling delete reaches them, and archives everything to your server. Your full footage history lives under Viewer → Recordings (organized by day) and on your archive server.

When does the car actually record?

While the vehicle is on/driving. The Surround Vision Recorder is a driving dashcam — it doesn't record while the car is parked and locked. Expect roughly 5 GB of footage per hour of driving (four cameras × ~106 MB per 5-minute segment). A tiny few-MB clip at the end of a drive is normal — that's the partial segment written when you switch the car off.

Why does the dashcam drive have to be 64 GB?

The car checks for a drive of at least 64 GB with 32 GB available and refuses to record otherwise. Dash USB handles both requirements automatically: it presents a 64 GB FAT32 virtual drive and always keeps 32 GiB free on it as it archives and cleans up.

Can I use it without internet?

Yes. Dash USB only needs internet for:

• First-time setup (downloads the binary, installs system packages).
• Updates (auto-update checks).
• Some archive backends (rclone to cloud storage).

All local archive methods (CIFS, NFS, rsync to a LAN server) work offline.

How often does it archive? Can I trigger manually?

The Pi snapshots the car's recordings every 15 minutes (configurable), and archives the snapshots whenever it connects to a known WiFi network. For most users, that means every time you park in your driveway or garage.

To trigger manually, open the web UI and click the Archive Sync action at the top of the Settings page.

Can I run it on hardware other than a Raspberry Pi?

Recommended: Raspberry Pi 4B, Pi 5. Should work: Pi Zero 2 W, Pi 3 Model A+.

Not supported: Pi Zero W and Pi 1 (armv6, the installer will refuse), and the Pi 3 Model B and B+. The 3B/3B+ send their single USB channel through an onboard hub chip that provides Ethernet and the USB-A ports, so the micro-USB port is power-only and cannot act as a USB gadget. The 3A+ has no such chip, so its micro-USB port works.

Anything else is uncharted — community help on Discord is your best bet.

Is there a phone app?

Mobile push notifications work today via the Sentry Connect push service — pair from Settings → Notifications in the web UI (see Notifications). The Sentry Connect app's Bluetooth device pairing doesn't recognize Dash USB devices yet; a dedicated Dash Connect app is planned.