Start Driving and Mapping
You’re in the driver's seat. Now what?
The dashcam draws power from the car battery. It may take about 60 seconds for the lights on the dashcam to turn on once your car is turned on.
There are three lights on the back of the Hivemapper Dashcam (HDC).
If you mounted the dashcam correctly, these lights are facing you on the left side of the dashcam. When the dashcam boots up, these lights illuminate. They all turn light blue once the dashcam has connected to your phone, found a GPS lock, and is collecting images.

There's one light on the back of the Hivemapper Dashcam S (HDC-S).
If you mounted the dashcam correctly, the light is facing you on the right side of the dashcam. When the dashcam boots up, the light illuminates white and then blue once the dashcam has connected to your phone, found a GPS lock, and is collecting images.

You do not need to be connected to the dashcam for it to map.
No. The Hivemapper Dashcam can map disconnected from your phone for 8-10 hrs
Some phones will automatically pair to your dashcam when you come into Wi-Fi signal range. Other phones will require you to pair manually. You can pair manually by opening the Hivemapper app and selecting “Connect dashcam Wi-Fi” on the dashcam tab.
It may take a minute for the dashcam to get a GPS lock. This light may also turn light blue if your vehicle is in a location with poor signal. Tall buildings, overpasses, and parking garages can all interfere with the GPS lock. If you are in a location with clear lines of sight to the sky and you still don’t have a GPS lock, make sure the dashcam isn’t next to anything that could interfere with the GPS signal.
We recommend that you drive like you normally do, and simply keep the dashcam mounted properly. The dashcam will automatically stop mapping when it’s no longer day time. If it’s raining or snowing, focus on the road and the dashcam will take care of the rest.
When you’re on the “Map” tab of the Hivemapper app, you may see the roads around you shaded in different colors, ranging from bright pink to pale pink to black. This indicates how recently the specific tiles of the map have been mapped.
- Bright pink: These tiles were recently mapped by a map contributor.
- Pale pink: These tiles were mapped by a contributor, but a while ago.
- No-pink: These tiles have never been mapped.
This information may be relevant to the rewards you will earn while mapping. Tiles refresh to a max earnings rate after a certain period of time, which is currently every seven days across all regions. If a tile is mapped again before seven days have passed, it will yield rewards at a lower rate. For this reason, when you are otherwise impartial between two routes that will take you to the same destination, you may wish to take the route that has been mapped less recently.
Note: Rewards are calculated separately for front-facing and side-facing dashcams, as well as for vehicles traveling in different directions.
Some users want to keep a copy of the imagery they generate for personal use. Currently, there are three requirements for recording footage onto a USB drive:
- 1.USB flash drive with USB-C adapter
- 2.Flash drive formatted to FAT32
- 3.Folder on flash drive called
recording
(case sensitive)
This video shows how to format a flash drive to FAT32 on Mac.