Vantrue Pilot 2 Review: A Dash Cam That Sees Heat

Vantrue Pilot 2 thermal dash cam with its 6.25 inch CarPlay head unit

The TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read):

The Vantrue Pilot 2 is a dash cam that sees heat. Its thermal camera picks up warm bodies in total darkness, through smoke and through dust, well past where your headlights stop. On a farm at night, or on a road with roos in it, that is a different proposition from any other dash cam we sell.

It is also the most involved fit in our range. Thermal cannot see through glass, so the camera has to go on the outside of the vehicle. We bought our Vantrue Pilot 2 out of our own stock, the same stock we sell, and it is on a farm 4WD right now. Below is what we can tell you so far, what Vantrue publishes, and what we are still testing.

Quick answer What we would tell you
What it does Three optical cameras at 2K plus a separate thermal camera, through a 6.25 inch CarPlay head unit
Best at Spotting living things in total darkness, smoke and dust, past headlight range
Cannot do The Thermal Camera itself cannot read a number plate, a road sign or a lane marking. That is what the three optical cameras are for
The install Exterior mount with a cable through the firewall. Worth booking an installer
Natural home Farm and station work, commercial and emergency vehicles, unlit rural night driving, mining or large construction

On this page

What does the Vantrue Pilot 2 do?

Four channels, and this is the part most descriptions get wrong. It is three optical cameras plus one thermal, not a thermal camera bolted onto a four-camera kit.

  • Front: 2560x1440 at 30fps, Sony STARVIS 2 IMX675, 158 degrees
  • Cabin: 1920x1080 at 30fps, Sony IMX662, 160 degrees, four infrared LEDs
  • Rear: 2560x1440 at 30fps, 165 degrees
  • Thermal: a separate IP67 module that mounts outside the vehicle

Those two sensor part numbers are not stated in the manual. They come from Vantrue's own product listings, so treat them as a maker's claim rather than something we have checked.

It all runs through a 6.25 inch touchscreen head unit that sits on the dash and does wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Vantrue calls parts of the interface a HUD. It is a screen on the dash rather than a projection onto your windscreen, so picture a small head unit rather than a fighter jet.

One thing worth getting straight. You may see 4K attached online and in some marketing to this product, even in the web address of its crowdfunding page. As best as we can tell it may have been pre-production goal to hit 4K on the front, but was later wound back to 2K for the final production model and it's left over/cached from back then. To be clear - The Vantrue Pilot 2 records 2560x1440, which is 2K. There is no 4K mode. Everything else about the camera is interesting enough without it.

Why does the thermal camera mount outside the vehicle?

Because ordinary glass is effectively opaque to the long infrared wavelengths a thermal camera works in. Point one through a windscreen and you do not see the road. You see the windscreen, glowing at its own temperature, and nothing behind it.

Vantrue's own manual says it plainly: thermal imaging lenses cannot penetrate glass, so the lens must be mounted outside the vehicle. The recommended spot is the centre of the bonnet, or above the number plate on a bracket. A reviewer at New Atlas tried a dashboard placement first and spent a minute wondering why the image was black.

So this is an exterior install with a cable run through the firewall. Every hands-on reviewer flagged it as the hardest part of the job, and one said most people will want professional help. It is not a Saturday afternoon with a trim tool.

The good news is that this is a solved problem. Our installer finder will point you at an independent installer near you. This is the one camera in our range where we would make that call. Our Vantrue Pilot 2 setup guide covers the menus once it is in.

What is thermal imaging good at, and what can it not do?

Being straight about both halves is the only way this product makes sense.

Total darkness: excellent. Thermal needs no light at all. It builds a picture from heat, so a moonless night on an unlit road is no harder for it than midday.

Living things: excellent. A roo, a cow, a person or a dog runs well above ambient temperature and radiates efficiently. Against cooler ground they stand out clearly, often well beyond your high beams.

Smoke and dust: very good. Long infrared wavelengths pass through smoke particles and airborne dust far better than visible light does. For bushfire smoke, and for following a mate down a dirt road, this is the real advantage.

Fog: better than your eyes, but not magic. Water droplets in fog are large enough to scatter infrared too. Thermal gives you a useful margin in light and moderate fog. In a genuine pea-souper, FLIR's own research says there is virtually no difference between a thermal camera and the naked eye.

Heavy rain: degraded, and Vantrue says so. The manual states raindrops absorb and scatter infrared heat and reduce image clarity. Its own rain and fog mode carries the note "not suitable for heavy rain". You will also see campaign material describing detection in heavy rain and hail. Those two do not say the same thing, and where the published material differs we go with the manual.

Number plates, road signs and lane markings: not what thermal is for. A number plate is the same temperature as the bumper it is bolted to. Its characters are paint, which is a light difference rather than a heat difference. Road signs are thermally flat. Lane markings sit at the same temperature as the bitumen beside them.

That last point is exactly why the Vantrue Pilot 2 has three optical cameras as well. Thermal tells you something is there. The optical cameras tell you what it was and who it belonged to. Thermal is an addition to a normal dash cam rather than a replacement for one, and that is how this system is built.

What does Vantrue publish about the thermal camera?

Less than you would want, and it is worth knowing which numbers exist before you compare it to anything.

The user manual we have gives no thermal specifications. No sensor resolution, no thermal sensitivity figure, no frame rate, no field of view, no focal length. Its spec section covers the optical cameras and stops there. Vantrue's published spec sheet gives the thermal module two lines: the detector type and an IP67 rating.

Press coverage reports a 256x192 thermal sensor and a 60 degree field of view, and Vantrue has confirmed neither in writing. We can settle the resolution question from our own unit: the thermal imager is 256x192, and it is displayed and recorded at 1024x768. So the output on screen is an upscale of a 256x192 image. That is normal for thermal, and useful to know before you judge the picture.

The detection range is quoted as 100 metres. Vantrue does not define what "detection" means here. Thermal manufacturers normally quote detection, recognition and identification distances against a defined target, and those three numbers differ enormously. A detection figure means "something warm is there", not "you can tell it is a kangaroo". A hands-on reviewer at New Atlas measured closer to 60 metres and said so.

None of this makes it a lesser camera. It does mean nobody, us included, can yet put it side by side with a purpose-built thermal device on paper. That is what our own testing is for, further down this page.

What is thermal crossover, and why does it matter here?

Thermal works on temperature difference, not temperature. When the background warms up to match the animal, the contrast disappears. The industry name for that is thermal crossover, and it is real, documented and well understood.

Here is why it matters in Australia. Bitumen and bare ground soak up sun all day and keep radiating heat well after sunset. A kangaroo sits around 38 degrees. On a hot day, at dusk, the road can be close enough to that for the animal to lose its outline. It can even appear darker than its background rather than brighter.

Dusk on a hot day is the peak kangaroo strike window, and it is also the hardest thermal condition of the day. That is an uncomfortable thing for a retailer to publish and we would rather you heard it from us.

Peer-reviewed Australian wildlife research backs it up. A 2020 study using thermal to survey koalas found detection worked in winter, in cool conditions around 11 degrees. Even then the animal was on average just 17 percent brighter than the canopy around it. That is a thin margin at 11 degrees.

The flip side is genuinely good news, and it describes a lot of inland Australian night driving. Once the ground has cooled, on a cold clear night in the small hours, contrast comes back strongly. That is when this camera is at its best, and it is also when you are least likely to see the animal yourself.

What should you know before you buy?

Five things to plan around. None of them changes what the camera does well.

The thermal view is narrower than the road. Reported at around 60 degrees, against 158 degrees on the front optical camera. Australian research on kangaroo strikes notes animals typically come from either side of the road. One entering from the verge can be outside the thermal frame until it is already in front of you. Read the thermal channel as a long, narrow spotlight rather than a wide net.

The detection boxes are live only. The on-screen markings that highlight a heat signature appear as you drive. They do not appear in the recorded thermal file, so the recording will not document that you were warned. The optical channels still record the incident normally.

It is a hungry unit. 14W, and it wants 5V at 3A, which not every hardwire kit supplies. Set your voltage cut-off conservatively, or better yet pair it with a Dedicated Backup Battery and ask us which kit suits your vehicle.

The lens wants cleaning. A bonnet or grille mount on unsealed roads collects mud and dust, and a dirty thermal lens is a blind thermal lens. The manual also advises against high pressure washing it. A wipe at every fuel stop covers it.

It is a big dash unit. A 6.25 inch screen cannot hide behind the mirror, so plan where it sits before you fit it.

What accessories should you add?

A memory card. Neither kit comes with one. Four channels at 2K is a lot of data, so use a high endurance card and size it properly. Our Vantrue microSD card guide covers it.

A hardwire cable. Neither kit includes one, and parking mode will not run without constant power. The unit draws 14W and wants 5V at 3A, which rules some kits out, so ask us which one suits your vehicle before you order.

Pro Tip: add the thermal lens to your fuel-stop routine. A wipe with a clean cloth each time you fill up keeps it working. A lens caked in bulldust is a lens that sees nothing at all.

Is the Vantrue Pilot 2 the first thermal dash cam?

Vantrue calls the Vantrue Pilot 2 the world's first four-channel dash cam with thermal imaging. That is the claim you will see attached to it everywhere.

Worth knowing for context. Thermal night vision has been factory fitted to cars since the 2000 Cadillac DeVille. A product called the Thermal Master NV300 was reviewed as a recording thermal dash cam in late 2024. Heat vision in a vehicle is not a new idea.

The combination is the part that stands up. We could not find another system that pairs a thermal channel with three channels of 2K recording and built-in wireless CarPlay. That is what matters when you are choosing between them.

What has the Vantrue Pilot 2 won?

The Vantrue Pilot 2 took a Techlicious Editor's Choice award at CES 2026, which we confirmed on Techlicious's own award pages. Worth knowing that CES awards are given to announced products before anything ships, so it recognises the idea rather than tested hardware.

On scored reviews: TechRadar gave it 4 out of 5, AppleInsider 4 out of 5, and Gadget Review 87 out of 100. Notebookcheck and New Atlas both published detailed hands-on pieces without a score. For a first-generation product in a new category, that is a solid reception.

One caveat worth knowing. Every hands-on review we could find was of a pre-production or early production unit, and several reviewers said so themselves. Their findings are the best evidence available and we have used them. Ours is a retail unit, which is one reason we are running it ourselves.

Which Vantrue Pilot 2 system should you buy?

We stock two, and the choice is about what is already in your vehicle.

System What you get Best suited to
Thermal only Thermal camera and the 6.25 inch head unit with CarPlay and Android Auto Vehicles that already have a dash cam, farm and commercial machinery, anyone who wants heat vision and nothing else
Full four-channel system Thermal, plus front, cabin and rear recording, plus the head unit One system doing everything, where the optical cameras give you the plate and the thermal gives you the warning

If thermal is not what you are after, browse the Vantrue collection for the conventional range. If you are weighing thermal against ordinary night vision, our guide to dash cam night vision and infrared is the place to start.

What we are testing on our own unit

Our Vantrue Pilot 2 is fitted to a 4WD on the farm. We are running it in the conditions it is built for: unsealed roads, dust, livestock, and stock crossing at dusk.

Because Vantrue publishes no thermal numbers, we are benchmarking it against the only other thermal device we can get our hands on. That is a HIKMICRO LYNX S LE15S handheld thermal monocular, the kind normally used for pest control and farm work.

These are not competitors and we are not pretending otherwise. One is a fixed, always-on vehicle recorder with GPS and a timestamp. The other is a 280 gram handheld observation tool with a narrow 11.7 degree view, an eyepiece and no GPS at all. A monocular has no place in your hands while you are driving, and HIKMICRO does not market it for that. We use it stationary, off-road, as a static benchmark.

The only thing the two have in common is heat. Both use uncooled thermal detectors in the same bracket. A like-for-like look at detection distance, image clarity and heat signature pickup therefore tells you something real. The monocular is arguably getting the easy run of it. All it has to do is look down a narrow cone at whatever you point it at, and we say so as we go.

The method is measured distances on a pegged course, with both devices at the same height and bearing. Exports are native files rather than a phone photo of an eyepiece. There are three sessions: just after sunset, the small hours, and a hot afternoon. We publish the failures alongside the good frames. If you want to know where we have got to before it is written up, ask us and we will tell you.

Vantrue Pilot 2 questions we get asked

Can the thermal camera go behind the windscreen?

No. Glass blocks the infrared wavelengths thermal cameras use, so mounted inside it will show you the windscreen and nothing else. Vantrue's manual specifies the centre of the bonnet or a bracket above the number plate. It is an exterior install with a cable run into the cabin.

What are the downsides of a thermal dash cam?

Three, and they are inherent to thermal rather than to this camera. It cannot read a number plate, a road sign or a lane marking, because those are light differences rather than heat differences. It loses contrast when the ground warms up to match the animal, which in Australia means dusk on a hot day. And the lens has to sit outside the vehicle, so the install is a real job and the lens needs cleaning.

Can thermal read a number plate?

No, and no thermal camera can. A plate is the same temperature as the car around it, and the characters are paint rather than heat. That is what the three optical cameras on the Vantrue Pilot 2 are for. Thermal spots the hazard and the optical cameras record the evidence.

Will it see a kangaroo before I do?

Often, yes, on a cool night with clear ground. On a hot afternoon or at dusk after a hot day it may not, because the road can be nearly as warm as the animal. The thermal view is also narrower than the road. An animal coming off the verge can be outside the frame until it is in front of you. Treat it as an aid rather than a guarantee.

Does the Vantrue Pilot 2 record in 4K?

No. The optical cameras top out at 2560x1440, which is 2K. You will see 4K attached to this product in places, even in the crowdfunding page's web address. There is no 4K mode on the camera.

The verdict so far

The Vantrue Pilot 2 does something no other dash cam we stock can do. On a dark rural road, that is not a small thing. Heat vision that reaches past your headlights, sees through dust and smoke and picks a living animal out of a cold paddock is genuinely useful. It is not a novelty. Pairing it with three channels of 2K recording and wireless CarPlay is a combination we could not find anywhere else.

Go in knowing how it works. The thermal camera lives on the outside of your vehicle, so book the install. Vantrue publishes very little about the thermal sensor. Thermal reads heat rather than detail. It will not give you a plate, it struggles in heavy rain, and it loses contrast on a hot evening. And it is a driver aid rather than a safety system. It highlights heat on its own screen. It does not brake, steer or intervene in any way. Keep driving to the conditions.

We are running ours on the farm now, with a head-to-head against a dedicated thermal monocular. We would rather show you that than guess at it.

One honest word on who this is really for. This is a fixed, dedicated recording system with an exterior camera and a proper install behind it. Its natural home is commercial and emergency vehicles, farm and station work, and anyone who really does drive unlit rural roads at night. For a normal suburban car it is more camera than the job needs. It is a cracking bit of kit, and we would rather say that up front than have you find out afterwards.

Wondering whether the thermal-only kit or the full four-channel system fits your vehicle, or what the install involves? Give Michael or Harrison a yell. We have one in a paddock, so we can tell you what it is actually like to live with. No worries either way.

Last reviewed: 27 August 2026. Vantrue publishes very little about the thermal module, so the thermal figures here come from our own unit and from named press reports rather than from a manufacturer specification, and our own testing is still running. If a specification, a feature or a claim on this page is wrong or has gone out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Commercial disclosure: The Dash Cam Guys sells both Vantrue Pilot 2 systems, so read this as retailer buying advice rather than an independent laboratory test. No brand paid for, sponsored or supplied anything for this review. We buy the cameras we review out of our own stock, the same stock we sell, and our Vantrue Pilot 2 is fitted to a vehicle on our own property. We do not sell HIKMICRO and we have no commercial relationship with them; the monocular used as a benchmark was bought the same way. Specifications come from the official Vantrue Pilot 2 user manual version 1.0 and Vantrue's published specification sheet. Sensor part numbers are not stated in either and come from Vantrue's own product listings, and are identified as such in the text. Vantrue publishes no thermal sensitivity, frame rate or field of view, so we have not stated any. The 256x192 thermal resolution and the 1024x768 output are from our own unit. Figures reported by press outlets are identified as such, and every published hands-on review we could find was of a pre-production or early production unit, which we have said rather than presenting those findings as retail-product results. The Techlicious award and the TechRadar, AppleInsider and Gadget Review scores were each confirmed on the publication's own page. We have not published our own controlled test measurements for this model, and we have not tested plate detection distance, heat behaviour or parking-mode battery draw under controlled conditions. If a specification, a feature or a claim on this page is wrong or has gone out of date, tell us and we will correct it.