The Garmin DriveAssist 51 features a unique function called Travelapse, which is designed to capture a fast-motion overview video of your entire trip. This feature allows users to create a condensed video summary that highlights the journey in a convenient and shareable format.
Travelapse works by capturing video frames at set distance intervals rather than recording continuous video footage. For example, it can take one video frame for every kilometer or mile traveled. The device automatically sets these distance intervals based on the length of your route and the available storage space on your memory card. This method creates a time-lapse effect that accelerates the playback, enabling a long trip to be viewed in a much shorter period without losing the essence of the route traveled.
The Travelapse feature can be activated in two primary ways: automatically or manually. When you start navigating a route or embarking on a trip that is expected to last two hours or more, the device displays a Travelapse banner at the top of the map screen. Selecting this banner triggers the start of Travelapse video recording. The device then begins capturing frames according to the preset intervals during the navigation route. If the route recalculates or changes mid-journey, the device will prompt you to either continue or stop the Travelapse recording based on the new route. When you reach your final destination, the Travelapse recording stops automatically.
Alternatively, you can start or stop Travelapse recording manually. This can be done from the map screen by accessing the camera options or from the main menu by selecting the dash cam application and choosing the Travelapse recording feature. Notably, while Travelapse is recording, the device continues to capture regular dash cam footage as well. This means that while the Travelapse fast-motion video is created, the continuous video record of the journey is still available for any detailed review or incident capture.
In terms of the content creation, the Travelapse feature results in a short video that encompasses the entire trip, but in a condensed time format. The varying capture rate means the length and content density can adjust based on trip length and memory availability, ensuring efficient use of storage space without sacrificing the visual narrative of the journey.
Once recorded, Travelapse videos can be viewed directly on the device. Viewing the Travelapse video interrupts regular recording momentarily but allows users to see a high-speed recap of their trip. This video can be particularly useful for sharing travel experiences, scenic drives, or ensuring a concise visual record of a longer route for quick review.
Because Travelapse captures frames at intervals based on distance rather than time, the video effectively condenses long periods of travel into brief clips, emphasizing the movement and changes in scenery without showing every moment in real time. This makes it an innovative way to document road trips or long drives and share them in an engaging format.
The device uses the internal map and GPS to manage the Travelapse recordings, linking the video capture to the navigation data. This integration enables the automatic start and stop features related to routing and destination arrival. It also ensures the fast-motion video is geographically contextualized with the journey path.
In summary, the Garmin DriveAssist 51's Travelapse feature is a distance-based time-lapse video recorder that creates a fast-motion video of your entire trip. It activates automatically for longer trips or manually through user controls, capturing video frames at intervals adjusted by the device according to route length and storage constraints, while simultaneously continuing regular dash cam recording for comprehensive video coverage. This feature provides an innovative way to create shareable, shortened visual summaries of road trips or other drives.
All information provided is based on the official Garmin DriveAssist 51 user manuals and support documentation.