Guides

Using Rivian camera footage for an insurance claim or police report

Updated October 2026

If someone hits your Rivian, damages it while parked, or breaks in, the vehicle’s own cameras may have the best record of what happened. Here’s how to keep that footage safe and hand it over in a form an insurer or police officer can use.

1. Secure the footage first

The vehicle records over old footage when the drive gets full, so copy the recordings you need as soon as you can. Copy every camera for the event, not only the front: the side and rear cameras often show the other vehicle or person best. Keep the original files exactly as the vehicle wrote them, with their names unchanged.

2. Find the right moments

Look in IncidentCam for driving incidents, GearGuardVideo for anything while parked, and RoadCam for the drive around it. Note the exact time and which cameras show it. In Overlook you can bookmark the key moments, add a note, and take snapshots of a license plate or damage.

3. Make it easy to watch

Adjusters and officers rarely have time to open dozens of files. Two things help:

• A combined video: all cameras side by side in one MP4, with the date and time on screen, trimmed to the part that matters.
• Stills: a few clear snapshots of the key moments, such as the plate or the contact.

4. Show it hasn’t been edited

A combined video is easy to watch, but the strongest evidence is the original files. An Overlook evidence package (Overlook Pro) copies the original files unchanged into one folder with:

• a manifest listing every file with its size and SHA-256 fingerprint, plus the vehicle, time, time zone and location;
• a plain-text explanation of how anyone can recompute the fingerprints on a Mac (shasum -a 256) or Windows (certutil -hashfile) and compare.

If even one byte of a file changed, its fingerprint no longer matches, so the recipient can check the files are exactly what the vehicle recorded.

5. Send it

Video files are large for email. Common options:

• a link from a cloud storage service your insurer accepts;
• an Overlook Plus share link to one recording or just the marked part, with an expiry date and with downloads on or off. Location is hidden unless you choose to include it;
• a USB stick, if the police station or adjuster asks for physical media.

Privacy

Footage can show other people, plates and places, and file details include your VIN and location. Share it with the people handling your claim rather than posting it publicly, and check local laws on recording and sharing video.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your insurer or a lawyer can tell you what they need.

More guides

• How to watch Rivian Gear Guard footage on a Mac or PCStep by step: take the USB drive out, open it on a computer, and play every camera in sync.
• What’s on your Rivian’s USB drive: folders and files explainedGearGuardVideo, RoadCam, IncidentCam, file names, cameras and 15-minute segments.
• Gear Guard vs RoadCam vs Incident Cam: what each Rivian camera mode recordsWhen each mode records, where it saves, and which to check after something happens.