Dash cam keeps wrecking USB drives

[Berridge]

The dash cam keeps failing randomly and when I try to format the USB drive I find the USB drive is copy protected so there is nothing I can do but throw it away.
I have tried changing the attribute on the drive to "not read only" and that succeeds, but the drive remains read only.
This has happened on two different USB drives and I am getting tired of it.

I realised that there was a problem because the sentry program did not work and then I noticed that the dash cam icon on the screen was greyed out.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did you fix it?

Thanks.

 

[Tam]

...USB drive...

What brand?

I've been using SanDisk with no problems.

 

[Dave EV]

What kind/size of USB drives are you using?

I've killed a Sandisk 32GB Cruzer Blade. I also have a Sandisk 64GB Cruzer Fit that's been working well for a while. Bought a 64GB Samsung Fit Plus to replace the dead Cruzer Blade which is working well so far since it's a good idea to carry a backup drive in case one fills up or dies.

I'd recommend staying with a name-brand as well as buying at least a 32GB if not 64-128GB as they will last longer before the flash memory dies.

 

[Berridge]

I'm using 16 Gb Sandisk USB drives. I'm sure it's not a hardware program. I'm sure it is the crappy Tesla software.
They obviously don't know how to interface to USB drives.
I wish they would spend time getting the bugs out of the user interface instead of enabling games.
I love games, but not in a car!
They obviously have very limited software resources so they should concentrate on the things that matter.
Sorry about the rant. I have had my model S for 18 months and have been plagued with simple bugs that show that they don't test anything properly. (I have spent my life in the software business and know just how hard it is to test code properly.)

 

[DontBetAgtsEln]

I'm using 16 Gb Sandisk USB drives. I'm sure it's not a hardware program. I'm sure it is the crappy Tesla software.
They obviously don't know how to interface to USB drives.

The fact that it's 16GB could be the issue. I started with that size also and was told by a few owners that that was way too low. I now use a 500GB drive without issues.

 

[terrywhite]

Spend a few more bucks for a better/faster thumb drive. No issues with this one:
https://amzn.to/2E5U1Vf

 

[Berridge]

Thank you for your suggestions.

OK I'll try a bigger USB drive. However this last one was only half used. Half of it had no data on it.

If this is a requirement, why isn't it documented somewhere?

Why does Tesla expect you to debug their software by trial and error. (What we used to call "poke and hope".)

 

[Bet TSLA]

The dash cam keeps failing randomly and when I try to format the USB drive I find the USB drive is copy protected so there is nothing I can do but throw it away.
I have tried changing the attribute on the drive to "not read only" and that succeeds, but the drive remains read only.
This has happened on two different USB drives and I am getting tired of it.

I realised that there was a problem because the sentry program did not work and then I noticed that the dash cam icon on the screen was greyed out.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did you fix it?

Thanks.

Been happening regularly on my Model S. Going grey that is. I just reformat it and it's fine. No read only stuff.

I use one of these (32GB).

 

[Berridge]

Yes I have been having it regularly, but fixed it by formatting the USB drive. However now I can't format the drive because it is write protected. This is the second time I have had to throw away the USB drive.

I attach an image from the corrupted drive, together with another image a couple of seconds later.

 

[Bet TSLA]

Yes I have been having it regularly, but fixed it by formatting the USB drive. However now I can't format the drive because it is write protected. This is the second time I have had to throw away the USB drive.

I attach an image from the corrupted drive, together with another image a couple of seconds later.

You're thinking the hardware is broken in some way, which seems unlikely. Have you looked at the USB stick's manufacturer's web site to see if there's anything about how to get a drive out of being read only? Or searched the web? Just seems unlikely that a programming error would cause an irreversible change.

Of course we know that the whole Tesla dash cam thing is a quick and dirty hack that is slowly being improved. Probably some intern's project that they just shipped when Elon said gimme now. There's no doubt in my mind that this was the right thing to do (meaning I'm glad I'm not still waiting around for Tesla to produce the perfect dash cam but am instead using this somewhat crappy one), but it means that we're all dealing with something clearly inadequate if we want to use it.

 

[Tam]

...why isn't it documented somewhere?

Why does Tesla expect you to debug their software by trial and error. (What we used to call "poke and hope".)

Because it is still beta.

If you are a beta tester, you would love it.

If not, of course beta is not for you and you should not touch it or you might just get more frustrated.