Tested: Navman MiVUE 860DC Tyre

Multi-tasking has always been a goal of technology companies and many tech gadget equivalents of a Swiss army-knife have had varying levels of success over the years.

Recently we took a look at the Navman Drive Duo 2.0, which makes the rather obvious move to combine dash cam with GPS satellite-navigation device.

But the convergence of these technologies was probably not the best choice, as we noted:

“There may be some compromise required, and this is the biggest downside of a converged device.

“Using the satellite-navigation features requires the device to be within hand reach and visually positioned for the driver without blocking crucial line of site out of the vehicle.

“Conversely, the camera needs to frame the road ahead to best record road activities and incidents and to take advantage of the Drive Duo’s feature set.

“These include Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) which provide Lane Departure and forward collision warnings. These warnings need clear calibration of the view ahead to be of any use.”

This made using the Drive Duo a little awkward, so Navman has returned to the market with a different combination of technology.

Instead of sat-nav, this Navman dash cam includes some simple tyre monitoring tech in the mix.

In the burgeoning Navman box you get the excellently sized and lightweight dash cam with one of the most responsive touch-screens (2.7-inch) Navman has ever produced, a rear camera and all the required cables and mounts needed to hook these up reasonably elegantly.

The windscreen mount and charging cables are simple and functional, as is the instruction booklet.

Then there is the equipment for tyre monitoring, including four screw-on ‘wireless’ sensors with fixed anti-theft rings as well as batteries and an inline receiver module (which may require a rethink about mounting your dash cam in order to maintain aesthetics).

I will admit I was a little bewildered by the just how much configuration I would need to do. Documentation is minimal and I assumed there would be some sort of connection and calibration process.

I was correct about the latter, but needed have worried about any connection issues with the sensors. It just works; each receiver module is pre-tuned to a set of four sensors, so you will immediately receive real-time pressure and temperature information about your tyres.

Alerts are configurable so you will know when there may be issues with arguably the most important safety aspect of your vehicle.

Then there are all the existing dash cam features that come with the MiVUE860, including quite good day/night recording quality, monthly ‘safety camera’ updates and a series of driver alerts such as lane departure or collision warnings.

These last features are particularly better suited to the MiVUE860DC Tyre rather than the Drive Duo as the dash cam can be optimised for positioning to ensure these kinds of camera-based alerts can be calibrated for the best results.

Like the Drive Duo, the MiVUE860DC will record the driving direction and critical incidents using a three-axis g-sensor to give as much important detail as possible.

This includes the Parking Mode which will ensure recording during any collision with your car even when nobody is driving it.

The device can automatically send event information to a smartphone for sharing, either for legal purposes, or perhaps -- as is so much the case lately – to social media.

So the MiVUE860DC Tyre is a much better example of gadget convergence. Many modern cars feature tyre-pressure monitoring but for older cars that don’t the ability to combine this handy safety feature with a top-notch dash cam is a very smart idea.