Dashcam failure when needed!

[Durzel]

Upload it as "Unlisted" and then stick the link in here If you're out in public your expectation of privacy is necessarily lower. I could go to a car park now and start writing down numberplates or whatever.

You can blank/blur out plates using DaVinci Resolve (there's a free version), but it's not a 2 minute job.

 

[Zakalwe]

I had an incident over the weekend where I was driving along a dual carriage way where the road goes from 2 lanes to 1 (left hand lane stops so you have to merge into right hand lane), although no signs specifically saying merge in turn or signs/road markings saying the road goes from 2 to 1 lane for that matter! I knew the road so slowed down so I could merge after the last car in the right hand lane to find an idiot in a Ford ST racing up the right hand lane stopping any left hand lane cars merging, which caused me to slam on my breaks to avoid me crashing into the side of him or riding up the curb (I honked my horn to save the footage).

About a mile up the road I came up level with him at a roundabout (he was turning right and me turning left) so gave him a what the F*** was that about stare. He then proceeded to cut up the person behind me to follow me down the left hand turning, dangerously over take me, slam on his breaks, causing me to emergency break and then get out his car, inviting me to get out my car for I imagine a ruck (which I politely declined, although I did point out to him I have dashcam running in the event he wanted to start a fight with my car).

Any ways I am pleased to report all footage saved successfully on the Tesla Dashcam (I have a Samsung T5), clearly showing his number plate and as a bonus he helpfully got out the car so have his face too. Uploaded the footage to the Humberside Police Dashcam reporting website. I am no expert but I have spotted at least 2 instances of dangerous driving, see where it goes.

I had a similar event. Was following a car through a local village where the passenger was lobbing rubbish out the window. We stopped at road works where he did it again. I pipped the horn to record it and he jumped out, all hard man. After a few seconds of simian-like waving he booted the door of the car causing about £2K of damage.
The police are investigating and have invited him in for a voluntary interview (they tracked him down through the license plate of the car he was in) with a view to prosecuting for criminal damage. My employers insurer is also on the case and has a solicitor ready to go once the police conduct the interview. The dashcam footage was crucial to this as they have the footage of him chucking rubbish, threatening behaviour and him damaging the car. I hope that they throw the book at the knobhead.

 

[M3noob]

I was going to, but not worked out how to blank out number plate/face on the video :-(

Too kind...

 

[Nick77]

Glad to hear that the dashcam has been doing its job for people and that idiots like those have been getting their comeuppance.

I have to say that in my car after 2 months of ownership it's not really fit for purpose. I have plenty of missed sentry events (alerts on screen but no footage when clicked on) and missed drives that I'm so glad I have my own as a backup.

I have gone back to the Tesla supplied 128GB stick but it seems to have made no difference. I'm hoping the new update with improvements isn't just limited to picture quality and it'll become a bit more reliable. Not holding my hopes out though.

I'd recommend everyone fit a standalone dashcam as a more reliable piece of hardware and use the Tesla one as a backup.

 

[Wol747]

Very glad I installed my dashcam out my old car now as the Tesla one is very flaky. It didn't record any of my drive yesterday, and often sentry events will just be 1s of footage repeating over and over.

And playback is hit and miss. Sometimes it's OK, other times it jumps and skips around and won't let you manually skip to different sections.

I installed a new 128Gb MicroSD card via an adapter that I formatted as FAT32. I've read that exFAT is what is best. The car wouldn't even let me format the new card, just wouldn't recognise it at all.

So I might try putting the original Tesla USB back in to see if that's a bit more reliable.

Same here: it was never particularly great, but seems to be quite random these last few weeks - update, anyone?

For example, I tried the horn save - it didn’t.

 

[Zakalwe]

I found the Tesla supplied stick very flaky. I'm not convinced that hanging a long USB drive out of a USB port in a car that is subject to vibrations, rattling and things moving in the glovebox is a recipe for a reliable connection. I changed mine out for a Sandisk one which is barely longer that the plug and I haven't had many, if any, problems. Prior to that I was getting loads of failures.

 

[jimbo_hippo]

press to save is still useless at the moment and still actually misses the incident completely on press. Had a low speed minor bump from behind this week with, miraculously, no damage but click to save means I have a video of my pastey white legs in shorts examining the back of the car and nothing else.

it’s not my drive. My Models S has a Samsung T7 in there which has only ever been formatted for the car and by the car. I use T5s and T7s all the time for work. I know them well and how to handle drives. I also use a Sandisk SD in our model 3 amd it behaves the same.

Today, after updating the Model S to 2021.24.4 I tested it again in a local car park by waiting for a passing vehicle and hitting save. Missed each one. So the update hasn’t changed any of that.

 

[Wol747]

I found the Tesla supplied stick very flaky. I'm not convinced that hanging a long USB drive out of a USB port in a car that is subject to vibrations, rattling and things moving in the glovebox is a recipe for a reliable connection. I changed mine out for a Sandisk one which is barely longer that the plug and I haven't had many, if any, problems. Prior to that I was getting loads of failures.

View attachment 701951

I use that too - so small it’s not easy to push in but works well.

 

[Nick77]

I had 4 sentry events showing on the screen yesterday morning. Said "footage unavailable" upon pressing, and not one of them showing in the viewer list.

1 more in the evening parked away from home which was a 5s clip repeating over and over showing nothing.

Absolute rubbish.

 

[Rooster6655]

SD card has been fine for me, the endurance SD I had kept corrupting ironically but the standard one has been fine.

 

[rincewind]

I would recommend replacing with one of the new SanDisk Max Endurance SD cards

^^^ This. SD cards are designed for video recording and endurance. I've had one in the car for for 20 months with no issues.

 

[Wol747]

^^^ This. SD cards are designed for video recording and endurance. I've had one in the car for for 20 months with no issues.

It CAN be an issue with card speed or formatting, but lately the whole system appears wonky. As others say, it will record just a few seconds and repeat them indefinitely, or not save at all. But it seems random: can’t put my finger on anything specific.

 

[johnmwingnut]

Slightly related Sentry has failed me today. M3 parked in town car park all day. Came back to some nasty damage to the rear bumper.

Needless to say, Sentry has recorded everything but my car getting hit, which I really don’t understand and is really quite poor, considering that’s what it’s there for!

Looks like quite an impact, so I am also surprised it didn’t set off the alarm.

 

[Nick77]

Slightly related Sentry has failed me today. M3 parked in town car park all day. Came back to some nasty damage to the rear bumper.

Needless to say, Sentry has recorded everything but my car getting hit, which I really don’t understand and is really quite poor, considering that’s what it’s there for!

Looks like quite an impact, so I am also surprised it didn’t set off the alarm.

That's a real kick in the nads. Some people really are cvnts.

Problem with Sentry is it doesn't trigger for rear events.

 

[Wol747]

Yet it does - when it's actually working - trigger for people walking nearby.

 

[johnmwingnut]

Yet it does - when it's actually working - trigger for people walking nearby.
Yer, mine has picked all that up, but not actually getting hit by another vehicle.

 

[Wol747]

Sorry, cross purposes! I was meaning that the event is recorded, not that the alarm goes off. I take it that you don't have the movie of the event?

 

[johnmwingnut]

Sorry, cross purposes! I was meaning that the event is recorded, not that the alarm goes off. I take it that you don't have the movie of the event?

Basically, has recorded people walking beside and behind all day, but not when it got hit.

 

[Wol747]

Bummer! That was not a slight "glance".

 

[Nick77]

I've NEVER had a sentry event of someone walking behind the car, or even to the side. They have all only been in front.