Dashcam Feature Coming Soon

[insaneoctane]

Excited about this possibility. Cautious, though, due to Elon's chronic optimistism. What a FANTASTIC example of how powerful Tesla's OTA and constantly improving fleet really is valuable! If they do this, they need to talk it up, as it might just be the best example of their superior infrastructure allowing post sale functionality I think that I have heard of.

 

[chillaban]

Do you have additional technical details on the camera hardware that Tesla uses? Cause this seems to directly contradict the linked article.

Sure — take some time (it's a long one) and read through this thread, especially the picture attachments: AP2.0 Cameras: Capabilities and Limitations?

The folks participating in that thread have done a fantastic job with raw picture/video extracts from the Autopilot 2.0 telemetry snapshots, and attempting to put them in a colorspace that makes sense to humans.

Here's one of Damian's videos:
main_replay - Streamable

And a post with a composite image: AP2.0 Cameras: Capabilities and Limitations?

 

[strykeroz]

That is awesome! So in Tesla time that would between tomorrow and sometime next decade...

Perfect! That's right around the time I'm expecting to take delivery

 

[Tam]

...directly contradict the linked article.

The article says:

"Tesla is using NVIDIA’s Drive PX 2 computer onboard to process the images and eventually, it could probably use more of its power for its neural net and to process color images – especially for different types of traffic lights (though colors are not the only differentiator) and things of the sort."

1) time frame is unknown "eventually"
2) Not sure "probably"
3) the computer can process which does not say that current cameras are color capable.
4) If you look at every single photo from AP2 cameras in the article, it is all black and white superimposed with color markers.

 

[BluestarE3]

I would think all of the models would be getting this feature since it's all the same hardware.

But would they make this dashcam feature available only to those with EAP even though all cars have the hardware?

 

[Runt8]

Sure — take some time (it's a long one) and read through this thread, especially the picture attachments: AP2.0 Cameras: Capabilities and Limitations?

The folks participating in that thread have done a fantastic job with raw picture/video extracts from the Autopilot 2.0 telemetry snapshots, and attempting to put them in a colorspace that makes sense to humans.

Here's one of Damian's videos:
main_replay - Streamable

And a post with a composite image: AP2.0 Cameras: Capabilities and Limitations?

Awesome, thanks. I have some reading to do...

The article says:

"Tesla is using NVIDIA’s Drive PX 2 computer onboard to process the images and eventually, it could probably use more of its power for its neural net and to process color images – especially for different types of traffic lights (though colors are not the only differentiator) and things of the sort."

1) time frame is unknown "eventually"
2) Not sure "probably"
3) the computer can process which does not say that current cameras are color capable.
4) If you look at every single photo from AP2 cameras in the article, it is all black and white superimposed with color markers.

The article also says:

"As you can see, the cameras are feeding black and white images. The cameras themselves can record in color and high-definition, but black and white images can be processed quicker."

 

[Tam]

"...The cameras themselves can record in color and high-definition, but black and white images can be processed quicker."

I missed that. Thanks for pointing that out.

I am not sure where the idea of color-capable cameras come from because all the evidences that we see so far are not.

From the horse's mouth:

------
Elon Musk‏
Replying to @ID_AA_Carmack

we could enable that, although the cameras use grey, grey, grey, red detection, so it would look a little greyish red

5:53 AM - 16 Nov 2016

-------

 

[SMAlset]

When we were at the owners event at Seaside during Monterey Car Week a few weeks back, we spoke to Jon a bit about our MS having been just that previous Sunday broken into. Talked to him about that small rear window that gets typically broken and the whole chrome frame by necessity also needed to be replaced and how costly this is. Kind of hoped there could be a design change in materials used or even locks put on the back seat to prevent the flipping down of seats to peer into the cargo area. Talked a bit about lack of investigating these type of crimes too. We then broached the subject of how we were looking to update our Blackvue DR650S with the newer lower light recording of the DR750S, we got the cryptic message that we might want to hold off. Mentioned the new DR750S was coming out in September. We kind of tried to get an idea of how soon any update on the car might be but best we could get was "I'd wait to order" as I recall. We were reminded the cars have been equipped with 8 cameras around them. Clearly we knew that was about the best we could learn until an announcement was made. Did notice that a roadster owner mentioned something about this in a thread back then, but given how the term "soon" can be vague, haven't seen the need to further comment until Elon's tweet.

We're waiting for reviews of the new dashcam and kind of doing a wait and see now. Not sure how easily accessible the video will be for Tesla owners to get a hold of if they have an accident or break-in or especially if you just want to scan through video footage--8 cameras would take some time. Definitely would be great to have the option with our car and love how that could give Tesla an advantage over other mfgrs. right now with their camera/sensor approach to self-driving goal. I'm guessing here but thinking it will be available for accidents only as we were asked what's your main purpose for having a dashcam--our answer was accidents number one. An important distinction is that with our dashcam we can just take out the microSD card which we use 24/7 and simply view it. When our car is parked outside our house it also acts as a security camera for deliveries and such. So thinking maybe we would still want that extra layer of protection. Been waiting for Elon's heads up on this and now hoping soon is real soon to get a good feel for what will be provided. I know Blackvue charges for their cloud service to check dashcam videos stored there so maybe that will be an aspect with Tesla's. A lot of people use their dashcam footage for road trip videos and such so still feeling separate dashcams will have a purpose.

 

[brkaus]

I'm guessing "soon" isn't too far out (months). Elon has been tweeted this request many times over the years. He is just now replying to one such request, makes it look like it was a great idea and acted quickly.

Time will tell. Hopefully not too much time. And hopefully for all the existing AP2.0+ cars.

 

[Canuck]

That is awesome! So in Tesla time that would between tomorrow and sometime next decade...

Agreed although tomorrow is far too soon when it comes to Tesla.

This is from Oct 22, 2013, just before I ordered my car...

Tesla's Model S may soon be as friendly to developers as it is to drivers. Elon Musk has revealed at a Munich reception (shown after the break) that he hopes to open the EV's infotainment system to third-party apps by the end of 2014. As part of the software transition, the sedan will also get Google Chrome -- a big improvement over the current browser, particularly for web apps.

Today is Aug 30, 2017 and I'm still waiting.

I don't think Musk should tweet or say anything that will get people's hopes up unless it is all but a certainty. Also, he should have others vet each tweet before it is sent out, to ensure it accords with reality, at least in my view. I don't think he does it intentionally. I just think he's overly optimistic (perhaps an understatement) and then when reality sets in it doesn't make Tesla look good.

 

[Runt8]

I missed that. Thanks for pointing that out.

I am not sure where the idea of color-capable cameras come from because all the evidences that we see so far are not.

From the horse's mouth:

------
Elon Musk‏
Replying to @ID_AA_Carmack

we could enable that, although the cameras use grey, grey, grey, red detection, so it would look a little greyish red

5:53 AM - 16 Nov 2016

-------

Oh come on, electrek is never wrong!

 

[BerTX]

The question tat pops into my brain: Will the Tesla Dashcam be as good as the Tesla Navigation system?

 

[Doug_G]

This is great news. Now if only we can tell what "coming soon" means.

Twitter

Adjusting for Elon Standard Time... couple of years.

 

[Tam]

Oh come on, electrek is never wrong!

Would you be their editor? They say Model 3 AP2 has "Seven cameras". And still can't figure that out!

AP1 has 1
AP2 Enhanced Autopilot has 4
Self Driving Capability has 8

So.... Does Electrek average it out to 7????

 

[DamianXVI]

I doubt they would spend more money for color cameras for Model 3 when they don't for Model S/X.

The reason they are using RCCC cameras instead of RGB is not the price. RCCC sensors are certainly not cheaper than the full color ones. Those cameras have the same hardware structure, same electronics, and pretty much the same sensor design. The only difference is the different color filter coating put on top of the image sensor. Color cameras in practice almost always have a so called Bayer filter put on top of the pixels, which means every pixel sees only one color (Red, Blue or Green). RCCC sensor leaves three out of every four pixels Clear, and one out of every four have a Red coating. Not a big difference from a manufacturing point of view. More over, because of supply and demand situation, I would expect RCCC sensors to be more expensive. I would say that bigger impact on the price of Autopilot cameras have the fact, that those are HDR capable, hight sensitivity, automotive grade sensors.

So to sum up, they are using RCCC sensor not because of the price, but because of their properties, like bigger light sensitivity on grayscale pixels, better effective resolution or lack of Bayer mosaic artifacts.

 

[artsci]

This is great news. Now if only we can tell what "coming soon" means.

Twitter

• Very likely this will join the now very long list of things Elon said would be done but never materialized. Just re-read Ashley Vance's book on Elon. Over-promising is characteristic and perhaps a major flaw of a very driven but incredibly accomplished man. So don't hold your breath waiting for this.

 

[CameronB]

I just bought a Blackvue. If a software update were to come along in the next 1-3 months to enable a built in dash cam. Or even multiple cameras, I'd like to check that out before installing the Blackvue. On the other hand, "soon" could mean 6 months or a year. It's really hard to say. As @artsci says, Elon is the eternal optimist. He doesn't say things like "soon" and then not deliver on those statements because he is deceptive. He honestly believes that some of these things should be simple and quick. Then for various reasons (I'd guess likely resource like developers and others working on other things that were already on their roadmap) they get delayed. I worked with Elon and can confirm he's a super driven, super-optimistic guy. Be that as it may, we never know if "soon" means a month or a year+. When I heard about the auto tilt of the steering wheel and retraction of the seat upon parking (another "coming soon" item), I, too, honestly thought that it would be SO simple, they could have easily added that in the next software update. Seemed so trivial to implement. But we haven't seen that yet. And dash cam functionality (at least being well thought out and usable) seems harder than auto-wheel-and-seat-retraction-upon-parking function. So...

If you were me and already had a brand new Blackvue camera (still sealed in box), but have heard of this future dash cam feature, would you still go ahead and just install it now or would you wait to see how the software version is first? And if you'd wait, how long would you wait?

 

[sitter_k]

• Very likely this will join the now very long list of things Elon said would be done but never materialized. Just re-read Ashley Vance's book on Elon. Over-promising is characteristic and perhaps a major flaw of a very driven but incredibly accomplished man. So don't hold your breath waiting for this.

Que up the Tesla apologists. "It's a $35k car what do you want?!?!"

 

[CSFTN]

[QUOTE="CameronB, post: 2284788, member: 54754"

If you were me and already had a brand new Blackvue camera (still sealed in box), but have heard of this future dash cam feature, would you still go ahead and just install it now or would you wait to see how the software version is first? And if you'd wait, how long would you wait?[/QUOTE]

i'd install the camera. Its kind of fun, and an accomplishment to do so. Especially if you conceal the cable to the rear cameras across the hatch.

 

[TaoJones]

If you were me and already had a brand new Blackvue camera (still sealed in box), but have heard of this future dash cam feature, would you still go ahead and just install it now or would you wait to see how the software version is first? And if you'd wait, how long would you wait?

Yeah, I'd go ahead and install it - actually a pair of its, as it were, for 360-degree coverage along with cloud access providing you have a decent hotspot.

Then, if and when existing cars get dashcam and hotspot functionality (note this would most likely have to be retrofittable similar to the 2015 LTE upgrade), you will be able to compare and contrast Blackvue versus Tesla before selling the dashcams - if in fact Teslacams come to pass.

My confidence in any promises made to existing owners is less than very low.