Arlo security cameras are getting new facial and vehicle recognition capabilities

Arlo is upgrading its security cameras and video doorbells with additional AI capabilities. The company is adding the ability for its cameras to recognize people and vehicles, and learn to detect custom objects or changes in the surroundings. While an Arlo camera can currently alert you when it spots a person or vehicle (as well as packages and animals), it can now be trained to tell you exactly who it sees and which vehicle.

The new capabilities are part of Arlo Secure 5, a package of AI-powered features combined with machine learning. Secure 5 is available now to Arlo users in the US, Canada, and Asia-Pacific, with other regions coming soon, according to Ashton Good, senior director of marketing at Arlo.

If the new alerts work well, they could be hugely helpful. Ideally, they’d cut down on nuisance notifications — which has been something of a white whale for security cameras — and only send alerts you actually need to know about.

Arlo Secure 5 brings three new features. With enhanced people detection, Arlo cameras can now offer “personalized alerts labeled with names from your private library of named faces,” according to a press release. (Google and Eufy already offer similar facial recognition features for their cameras.)

Good says the processing for facial recognition is done in the cloud, not on the device, but the images gathered “are unique and specific to each account and are not shared with other users or used in any central database.” Arlo encrypts video and data during transmission and when stored in the cloud, according to Good. 

The second new feature, vehicle recognition, will send alerts “labeled with known vehicles that you previously named,” says Arlo.

Custom detection is Secure 5’s third capability. Currently in beta, this feature allows you to train Arlo’s AI systems to recognize specific objects or changes around your home and send you notifications. Arlo provides examples of a camera telling you when the garage door is open or one sending an alert if you left the lights on in your basement.

All current Arlo cameras and video doorbells will be compatible with Secure 5 and do not require an Arlo base station, says Good. However, Secure 5 features will require an Arlo Secure Plus or Premium subscription (starting at $17.99 a month); as they aren’t included with the Arlo Basic plan.