Thermal Master NV300 MAX Review: A Night Vision Car Camera

If you live in rural areas and drive, you know that one of the worst things you can see, especially at night, is a flash of brown fur streaking across the road in front of you, followed by the thump of making contact. Hitting a deer is something that is on the minds of most drivers heading through rural areas, especially after dark. Deer seem to have this weird ability to jump towards headlights, and it is nearly impossible to see them until they are right in front of you. But what if seeing them became easier? That was the idea behind testing out Thermal Master’s NV300 MAX system. Think of it as a thermal camera for your car.

Really?

Like some of you, our first reaction to seeing this product was, “Really? How can that work?” We got to looking at the Thermal Master website and still had a few doubts and questions. In reality, the NV300 MAX works pretty slick and is quite simple. Think of it like a dash cam that reads out on a screen mounted to your dash. The camera, however, is mounted outside the vehicle on the roof. The camera feeds information to the screen, which gives you different viewing options, including thermal, thermal with life detection, regular video, and more. The regular video feed lets you use it like a regular dash camera, too.

How Does It Help?

This is the big ask. Does it do anything to actually help you avoid a collision? We’ve had it mounted to the roof of a truck for a couple of weeks now. With it installed, you become very aware of anything in front of your vehicle. It has a wide field of view that covers the ditches and alongside the roadway.

One of the first questions we had about the Thermal Master NV300 MAX is, how does it help you avoid a deer or other animal? Most car-deer accidents happen when the critter jumps up out of the ditch directly in front of you. Most people will say they never knew anything was in the ditch until it was too late. The NV300 MAX has a 300-meter range and lets you know if there is a living heat source anywhere within the viewable area.

Our tests have shown that it really does work in that capacity. Of course, closer objects are easier to determine as life forms. Driving around with it during the day showed that it can be tricked to an extent by things like dark-colored mail boxes and signs on the side of the road that heat up under the sun. The kicker here is that the system determines that the hot mailbox isn’t a lifeform, so while you will get that orange flash of a detected heat source, as you get closer, the camera figures out the difference and takes it off your screen.

Who Would Want One?

For starters, anyone who lives in a rural area that doesn’t want to have an animal encounter with the grill of his or her vehicle should consider it. This is especially true if you happen to live in areas where there is a high concentration of deer. And not just whitetail deer, either. We can see this being a good idea in moose country, too. If you spend a lot of time in your vehicle, either for work, on your way to work, or just because you like to drive, this is a cool way to help avoid car/animal collisions.

Urban areas usually don’t have the animal concentrations that would warrant the use of the Thermal Master NV300 MAX, but there is another reason that is even more important – people. It works very well at helping you see pedestrians. To test this, we have been using it while picking up our own kids from school. The parking lot becomes a complete madhouse after the bell rings, with kids of all ages piling out of every door. Many of them rush through the parking lot to find their ride, converge on the bus pickup line, and meander about chatting with friends or looking for something to do. The thermal camera helps you keep track of all of them. Imagine using it on a busy downtown street, or in a dark parking lot after a high school football game ends? It can literally be a lifesaver.

What You Need To Know

While the unit is quite handy and does what it says it will, the directions for installation and use are lacking. You’ll get all the stuff you need, but we found that it took extra time because there aren't exact instructions as to what cables attach where and how it all goes together. That said, it is pretty self-explanatory, especially once you see how it works.

There is a small screwdriver included. Use it to take the two-part cover off the camera. Then you can see the port to which the cable attaches. The cables all go together in one way only, so once you have that figured out, it becomes much easier. We found that there is a lot of extra cable after it was installed in our test vehicle, a Toyota Tacoma.

Action!

The camera shows you the thermal image in front of you. You can also see the standard full-color view in a split screen. The NV300 MAX also comes with a plug in that records your vehicle data, like speed, etc. Everything is automatically recorded, too, in 2,340 x 1080 HD. This is a nice feature for those instances when you need video proof. The 6.4 inch screen works as a dash readout and is Tesla compatible.

One of the coolest features about the Thermal Master NV300 MAX is the voice command. When designing the unit, Thermal Master wanted the driver to have total control over what information was being seen, and how it was being used. To make things as hands-free as possible, a voice command function was added that you can access by using any of the 30 available voice commands, or by saying "Hey Max."

It makes it easy to switch screen views between split, thermal and normal camera, plus there are several more options. With more states going to hands-free driving regulations, not having to take your hands off the wheel is a nice touch and yet another reason why this unit is one of the coolest safety tools we've seen in a long time.

Bottom Line

The Thermal Master NV300 MAX is an interesting tool to use to help you avoid accidents with anything living, or that gives off heat. It is perfect for anyone living or driving in areas with high concentrations of wildlife, or urban areas where there can be lots of people on or near the street. In testing so far, it does everything Thermal Master says it will and doesn’t take up too much space, or impede your vision. It is especially appealing to anyone who likes technology and gadgets, which includes us. It has a two-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

You can purchase a Thermal Master NV300 MAX on Kickstarter starting Tuesday, November 5 at 10am ET. There is a Kickstarter-exclusive price of $399 – a savings of 38% off MSRP. Learn more here.