Access to Front Camera

[Chasedrgc1223]

I'd love to see what the front camera (on AP cars for lane watch) can really see. I think it'd be great to have the ability to save a recording file to the car or a USB whenever the driver wanted to, such as a mountain drive or something, and/or have it save a recording when a "marking event" occurs, such as a sudden brake or collision. Essentially a dash cam built into the car.

 

[Todd Burch]

I'd love to see what the front camera (on AP cars for lane watch) can really see. I think it'd be great to have the ability to save a recording file to the car or a USB whenever the driver wanted to, such as a mountain drive or something, and/or have it save a recording when a "marking event" occurs, such as a sudden brake or collision. Essentially a dash cam built into the car.

I agree this would be a great idea. Also, automatic recording of the rear camera when a marking event occurs would be very useful in case of accident. I mentioned that idea somewhere on these forums about 2.5 years ago. Maybe it's still (way down) on their list of features to implement?

 

[Barry]

It would also be nice to be able to access the cameras remotely, but I suppose that would increase data usage astronomically.

 

[Chasedrgc1223]

Yes, remote viewing would be fantastic. Maybe it could initially stream over WiFi and have an option to enable 3G streaming. Also love the rear camera event flag.

 

[morbot]

It's a shame that the autopilot cars seem to be so close to having built in front & rear dash cams... but they fall short of it. Granted, we don't know what the camera "sees" or what the specs are... but it seems like with just a bit of software and a storage device, the car could have built in cams.

Maybe they felt in the "driverless future" dash cams would be less important? But even in best case scenario we've got decades before we see the last human controlled car off the streets, and until then there will be a desire to record evidence to protect yourself.

 

[AziwA]

Just thinking out load but could one reason tesla does not unlock such a feature would be it could also potentially incriminate the driver? Also not all countries allow dash cams if I am not mistaken?

just a thought.. I would love to see it happen

It's a shame that the autopilot cars seem to be so close to having built in front & rear dash cams... but they fall short of it. Granted, we don't know what the camera "sees" or what the specs are... but it seems like with just a bit of software and a storage device, the car could have built in cams.

Maybe they felt in the "driverless future" dash cams would be less important? But even in best case scenario we've got decades before we see the last human controlled car off the streets, and until then there will be a desire to record evidence to protect yourself.

 

[MarkS22]

Just thinking out load but could one reason tesla does not unlock such a feature would be it could also potentially incriminate the driver? Also not all countries allow dash cams if I am not mistaken?
just a thought.. I would love to see it happen

You could always make it optional in settings and let the driver decide. A simple "Record Front & Rear Camera [On/Off]" in Settings. If it's not legal in a country, it would be a simple software switch.

 

[Patrick W]

If they did that and the feed could be recorded I would not have to mount a GoPro on the dash. Maybe someday...

 

[AziwA]

Good points.

You could always make it optional in settings and let the driver decide. A simple "Record Front & Rear Camera [On/Off]" in Settings. If it's not legal in a country, it would be a simple software switch.

 

[Mookuh]

Just thinking out load but could one reason tesla does not unlock such a feature would be it could also potentially incriminate the driver? Also not all countries allow dash cams if I am not mistaken?

You're not mistaken, at least in Germany they're still considered illegal because it's an "unwarranted collection of mass data". The cynism here in the light recent affairs around our intelligence service makes me cringe.

 

[Saghost]

You could always make it optional in settings and let the driver decide. A simple "Record Front & Rear Camera [On/Off]" in Settings. If it's not legal in a country, it would be a simple software switch.

I like it.

You'd want to have some way of exporting the video - either an SD card it can be saved to (or any device/hard drive you plug into the USB?) or possibly an option to download to the connected smartphone through the phone app when the car and phone are on the same Wi-Fi.

The ideal application would also automatically pull a separate clip out of the rolling video record for any time the accelerometers indicate a collision - and possibly every time the ABS triggers (presumably near miss events,) and save be it for later review.
Walter

 

[AziwA]

Quick question: are we certain that the Tesla front camera is a 'normal' camera? also can can it simultaneously record feed to a storage device and provide data to the autopilot (whatever that may be, Nvidia chip, mobileeye etc?)

I like it.

You'd want to have some way of exporting the video - either an SD card it can be saved to (or any device/hard drive you plug into the USB?) or possibly an option to download to the connected smartphone through the phone app when the car and phone are on the same Wi-Fi.

The ideal application would also automatically pull a separate clip out of the rolling video record for any time the accelerometers indicate a collision - and possibly every time the ABS triggers (presumably near miss events,) and save be it for later review.
Walter

 

[Saghost]

Quick question: are we certain that the Tesla front camera is a 'normal' camera? also can can it simultaneously record feed to a storage device and provide data to the autopilot (whatever that may be, Nvidia chip, mobileeye etc?)

I'm fairly sure that it is a traditional high resolution camera. The video feed gets a lot of post processing, but there should be no issue with making a copy first. I'm not sure that the field of view will be ideal for dash can duty, though (probably a narrower field focused on the road ahead.)

 

[Chasedrgc1223]

That's what's key here; is the front camera specifically a lane watch camera or does it have a much broader angle. Would Tesla actually give access to a feed over WiFi?

 

[MarkS22]

That's what's key here; is the front camera specifically a lane watch camera or does it have a much broader angle. Would Tesla actually give access to a feed over WiFi?

The front camera is also used to read speed limit signs and detect oncoming lights to control the automatic high beams, so the field of view should be plenty. None of the other hardware, like ultrasonic or radar would be able to handle those functions.

I don't suspect access over wifi will happen any time soon, but loop recording to a USB could be a great feature.

I'd love to see Tesla offer uploading of 10 second clips for bug reporting. For example, my lane departure warning is often activated erroneously when there's a sealed crack in the road. It would be awesome to use a voice command "report autopilot bug" and upload the last 10 seconds so they can improve their detection algorithms with a much larger real-world sampling. All the pieces are there. Maybe, along the lines of your thought, it uploads "autopilot bug reports" later when wifi is detected.

 

[Chasedrgc1223]

Excellent point... The auto highbeams completely slipped my mind! Also, Elon had said autopilot will work with traffic signals and, I'm assuming, other road signs too.

 

[tom66]

Any good system design for an autopilot would keep the front camera independent of systems like the Touchscreen. This is because it is a safety-critical device.

If it does support recording, that will only be via the onboard memory built into the Mobileye processing board, if there is any at all...

 

[AziwA]

I remember once seeing a video where they tore down the entire model S.. But I think this was a few years ago prior to autopilot.. Would be interesting to see if anyone else has done the same thing more recently.

Any good system design for an autopilot would keep the front camera independent of systems like the Touchscreen. This is because it is a safety-critical device.

If it does support recording, that will only be via the onboard memory built into the Mobileye processing board, if there is any at all...