I have a V3 set up in a window at the front of my house. The problem I have not been able to solve is that it’s constantly picking up headlights from cars going by. I’ve tried adjusting sensitivity and detection zone to no avail. The camera Has to face the direction it is facing because that’s the area I am trying to monitor. It’s even picking up reflections on my driveway from cars that are passing by and headlights streaming across the driveway. Consequently I’m getting countless Video clips to short through in the morning to see what’s real and what isn’t. By far the the headlights have the most videos And are useless to me. Any ideas?
1 Like
I have battled the same issues.
Are the headlight initiated event videos being tagged as a Smart AI objects or just Motion?
I have 3 V3 shooting thru windows pointed at the road. Constant cars. Trees in the yard to reflect etc.
1 Like
Not sure how to determine this…
When you view the events tab, AI tagged event videos will have a blue AI tag indicator. Motion only video events will have grey untagged motion indicators.
One of the things I do to cut down on the hundreds of motion activated events from lights, birds, bugs, cars, trees, etc. Is to filter OUT all the motion only events that have no real value to me. I only want to see Person and Pet events on those cams.
So, I only allow those cams to record Person and Pet Events in the Event Recording Smart AI settings and I turn off “All other Motion Events” in the notifications settings.
Filtering Event Videos using the Quick Filter Buttons: Blue = on, White = off
Filtering Event Videos using the expanded Cam Event Filter UI (funnel button):
2 Likes
I see what you are saying about filtering out everything except Person and Pets. That certainly does cut out LOTS of motion detected videos I don’t want.
But (there’s always a but isn’t there ?) It would not pick up cars going in and out of my driveway which I do want to see in daylight hours.
If I could filter out motion at night but not filter it out in daylight I think that would fix it for me. But (another but) that does not seem to be an option. Or am I missing something else. Thanks for your input which is very helpful.
You could leave vehicle filter enabled if you still want to see cars
I don’t use the Vehicle Smart AI for my front cams only because they are pointed at the road. I do have it on for my driveway cam and I exclude the road in my detection zone.
In your case, it sounds like the headlights are triggering more motion only event videos than tagged ones. This is because of the lights, not the cars themselves.
If the road is within the frame of your cam when you enable the vehicle Smart AI, you will get a vehicle AI tagged video and notification every time a car goes by. If this is the case, you can use the Detection Zone to restrict detection from the road but not your driveway. You should still get all the Smart AI events and notifications you want from your driveway, just not all the motion only untagged ones. You can add the vehicle filter to show in the Events Tab.
Scheduling filters in the Events Tab is not a function or capability at this time. And, about the only option you have in rules is to disable motion detection or notifications for a period on each cam, which you don’t want.
1 Like
My experience with Detection Zones is they don’t seem to work when it comes to blocking bright lights like headlights etc. I don’t know why but it just doesn’t block them in several places I’ve tried….Tom
You are correct, the headlights don’t do well with detection zones unless they are hitting a flat surface. When they are cast across a wider area of the cam field, which is much harder to block out in the DZ when it covers most of the field, they do cause motion activations because of the light pixellation changes in adjacent pixels, but a very low fraction of those result in positive AI tags unless the lights are illuminating an inanimate object that resembles a person, pet, or vehicle. The light activates the motion event but it is rarely what is tagged.
Using the DZ for you wouldn’t be to cut down on light activated motion events but Vehicle activated AI tagged events on the road when you have the Vehicle Smart AI tag enabled…unless you want to be notified of every vehicle on the street.
If I disable Vehicle Detection under Smart Detection should that stop triggerng events of vehicles passing by on the road at nighttime ?
In addition if I want notifications of vehicles pulling in my drivrway but not passing by, will it work to turn on “Detects any other motion” under Notifications ?
If you disable vehicle detection it will stop ALL Smart AI Vehicle detections, both on the road and in your driveway. It will not affect the motion activated videos from the headlights or the Smart AI tagged errors from the headlights illuminating other objects.
If you want to be notified of Vehicles in your driveway, but not in the roadway, you will need to leave Smart AI Vehicle Detection on and use a Detection Zone exclusion to block out the roadway.
Turning on “Detects any other Motion” in notifications results in a notification for every single motion event, AI tagged or not. Even if you have the motion only events filtered out in the events tab, you will still be notified. This can get quite tiresome.
To be notified of only Smart AI events and Vehicles (plus any others you want) in the driveway but not on the road: Vehicle Smart AI must be on (with any others you want), Detection Zone blocking the road, Any Other motion notifications off, motion events filtered out in the events tab.
Sorry, Uploaded Notifications screen shot twice.
My experience is that the traffic going by with lights on at night do not get blocked with Detection Zone Blocking enabled.
The only way the detection zone will keep the cam from initiating a motion activated event when headlights drive by is if you can somehow change the laws of physics and keep the light from illuminating any of the squares in the Active Detection Area in your yard and driveway.
That is what we have been discussing several times above.
Wyze cams “detect” motion using a perceived change in light between adjacent cam pixels within the detection zone. Any change in light will cause this and the cam will perceive it as motion. Shine a flashlight onto the ground in front of the cam from outside the frame and the change in light between adjacent pixels in the cam will perceive that light on the ground as motion and initiate motion activated event recording. The headlights are the same way. It isn’t the light inside the Excluded DZ causing the Motion Activated Event, it is the light that travels into the Active DZ and illuminates your yard and driveway causing events. That’s why you just filter out motion events in the events tab and keep those notifications off.
The only adjustments to mitigate that effect are widening the Excluded Detection Zone or reducing the Sensitivity.
The thing to monitor when you are adjusting your settings you is how many false positive AI tagged events you get when a car goes by at night. If the light from the car headlights illuminates the white post, or the trees on the right, or the bushes in the middle, it might be possible that the AI is interpreting these as people, pets, or packages. But, it shouldn’t be tagging them as vehicles unless they drive through your yard or driveway. When the light hits a solid object, it is that object that is interpreted, not the light that is hitting it. It is good to have Motion Tracking on so that when you review videos, you can see what within the Active DZ is being perceived as motion. The green MT box may show within the Excluded DZ, but the server ignores these when interrogating the video for AI.
Also, if you are using IR NV rather than Color NV, the resulting video will be more susceptible to light activation and AI tagging since white light is highly amplified in IR NV.
Dialing in a cam for optimal performance is an art form. It is NOT point and shoot regardless of how easy they make it sound. Every cam placement is different, every cam setup is different, lighting conditions are infinitely conditional. With adjustments in placement, sensitivity, detection zone, IR NV, etc. It can be a long process before you get optimal performance. It took me weeks to get all my cams exactly the way I want them and I still make minor adjustments because the darn trees and bushes refuse to stop growing!
Your detection zone and settings look good… For now. So long as you have your Detects Motion on and your Smart AI on, the only other things to think about are the sensitivity and your IR NV settings.
It takes time. Be patient and only make minor adjustments until it reaches optimal performance. Be aware though, you will still get false positive events. Especially in adverse weather as this changes all the environmental conditions for which your cams were set. The AI is not 100% perfect.
Thanks for your instructive reply to my concerns about headlight issues in my nighttime recording.
I’m making adjustments based on your input. Especially widening the DZ to reduce yard illumination from headlights passing by.
I’ll see if that helps tonight after darkness arrives.
Thanks again….Tom
1 Like
Here is an alternate method I use. My front door & driveway cams used to pick up headlights all through the night and early morning hours. Pretty useless.
Then I switched off both camera’s motion detection from sunset to sunrise, and added a Sense motion sensor just above the front door. When that PIR motion sensor trips, it tells the 2 cameras to upload a 12-second clip to the cloud, which sends me a sensor alert. If I need anything more than 12 seconds, then I get that from my SD card later. But I am really only looking for the alert.
The result is I now ONLY see cars and people in my driveway at night. Whether they have headlights on, or not. Tip-toeing up in all-black clothing, or not. It’s wonderful. 
I also use the trigger to light up and clear a Wyze Bulb, which happens before the notification (which come in very fast for me), and even beats them to the doorbell if they are walking up.
I started out using an old V1 motion sensor with a V1 Bridge. I still use that old V1 sensor, but now with the new Hub for the V2 Sense system because I have that.
The main catch is you have to be careful on how you position the motion sensor. I am very lucky that I have an overhang over my front door, so all I had to do is Velcro the motion sensor high enough to see midway down the driveway, but have the overhang block any view of the street, or the public sidewalk out front. I also positioned it so it is turned away from my neighbor’s lawn mower, kids, and pets. You can do that with a bent back L-bracket if you don’t have a flat surface like the top door molding to mount to.
Also, sensor alerts have no AI, so you don’t get identifications as to whether it is a person or a car. Or even an animal. But for me, when that Bulb lights up I don’t care. Time to look now.
About the only maintenance I have is changing the battery once every year or two.
So no more headlight trips; just valid trips on warm engines and bodies in my driveway.
And the occasional cat, lol. But still, far better.
2 Likes
Newhound, Great ideas.
Thanks, Tlhutch4
2 Likes
I have canceled the Plus account for lots of the same reasons. I was deleting videos every morning of insects, motion lights coming on, shadows, and you name it. In the day time I would get vehicle detected notifications of my truck that had been sitting there all day and never moved. Tree shadows moving in the wind, bird flying by, and then when the mailman would come up on my porch, nothing !! I have called for tech help and submitted videos of this kind of notifications happening. I finally canceled and asked if you ever get the Plus to do what you say it will do then give me a call, it certainly isn’t worth paying for like it is.
1 Like
Richw, thanks to posters on this forum I have slowly made decent strides in the areas you mentioned.
Headlights were a big issue for me and I found that the advice I received to utilize the Detection Zone blocker more judiciously was a huge help.
Also, I greatly reduced bugs etc triggering my events by turning off Night Vision mode and IR lights on a cam that had ample ambient lighting.
As far as false triggers it’s difficult due fix things that you mentioned such as shadows moving trees swaying etc but it’s fair to say that I was ready to throw my hands up like you but am now In a way better place from the great suggestions people posted to me on this forum.
1 Like
I have the same issue but it does not bother me. Some times i look through the video just to be nosey of what has been happening outside. I really only need to go back through the videos if something happened and i need to find the main cause of it. I really wish you could see the events by filtered time instead of having to scroll through every single event that has happened until you get to the specific time frame you are looking for.