Dashcam - help me understand its use

[hab66]

I was hoping to look at something that happened yesterday, but can only find clips relating to part of my journey today. The start of the journey is also missing.

I had hoped that it would just keep storing video data until the USB stick was full and then start to overwrite but this isn't the case (for me).

Putting the USB stick into a windows computer shows there is plenty of space on it.

The Dashcam is set for automatic.

Am i doing something wrong, or have i mis-understood its operation.

 

[MrBadger]

You have to manually save a clip soon after the incident has occurred, but not too soon after otherwise it will truncate before in incident occurred - see last comment.

It will also keep the last xx (60?) minutes of recording in a separate folder but this is likely to be overwritten unless quickly recovered after a drive - it may get overwritten even if car is not used.

Size of the media has little bearing over how much useful content is saved.

Tbh. Its not a dedicated dashcam replacement. It was a bit of an afterthought and poorly implemented.

 

[JHWL]

The dashcam only keeps about 10 minutes of footage whilst driving. It does not continuously record the entire journey and commit to memory like you want it too.

When you witnessed the event you wanted to store into USB memory, you should have told it to store it by pressing the dashcam button on the screen, honking etc (depending on your settings) within that ~10-minute window.

Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about the features you can use to record videos when driving.

www.tesla.com

 

[hab66]

Many thanks to you both for answering my post.

Looks like its my fault for not reading the manual and expecting it to work like a dashcam.

Now i just need to invent a time machine to go back 1 day.

 

[M1tch]

If I want to save something, I just do a short beep of the horn shortly after the event I want.

 

[Mr.S3XY]

Now i just need to invent a time machine to go back 1 day.

That will be easier than getting the Tesla dashcam function to work as it should.

 

[SO16]

If I want to save something, I just do a short beep of the horn shortly after the event I want.

Yes. Just make sure that option is enabled.

 

[Durzel]

And that you don't beep too soon after the event, like when you would instinctively do it, otherwise the cleaved video file might/will probably miss the exact thing you were beeping at in the first place.

Instead you need to beep randomly like 10 seconds or so after the dust has settled.

 

[fholbert]

Just drag and drop the Dashcam to the task bar, it’s always there, tap it when you want to save a recording.

I was driving out of my neighborhood and saw someone who looked suspicious. I didn’t want to honk so I hit the record button. It was nothing, capturing the video was simple.

 

[fholbert]

Now i just need to invent a time machine to go back 1 day.

You and a lot of 49er fans.

Too soon?

 

[Oxid8ter]

Worked well for me too back in 2022 when a skip lorry came around a bend too wide and forced me into a kerb to avoid him. I hit the icon, sent the footage to the skip company and they agreed to settle outside of insurance.

To be fair to the skip company, they were really good about it - "get the wheel repaired by a company you trust and get them to invoice us directly. Find the tyre you need online and send us a link along with your availability and we will pay for it/book it". Was sorted in the space of about 8 days.

 

[M1tch]

Worked well for me too back in 2022 when a skip lorry came around a bend too wide and forced me into a kerb to avoid him. I hit the icon, sent the footage to the skip company and they agreed to settle outside of insurance.

To be fair to the skip company, they were really good about it - "get the wheel repaired by a company you trust and get them to invoice us directly. Find the tyre you need online and send us a link along with your availability and we will pay for it/book it". Was sorted in the space of about 8 days.

Wow! Don’t normally get service like that these days.

 

[Oxid8ter]

Wow! Don’t normally get service like that these days.

I was pretty surprised myself tbh. I expected them to go "thanks for letting us know but please go via insurance", but much to my (pleasant) surprise they just paid to put the wheel right.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Many thanks to you both for answering my post.

Looks like its my fault for not reading the manual and expecting it to work like a dashcam.

Now i just need to invent a time machine to go back 1 day.

It loops an hours worth of clips into the Recent Clips folder. Not all is lost though. Safely remove the drive from your car (press until dashcam is grayed out then remove). Connect drive to a computer.
Then follow my instructions here to recover the deleted footage with a file recovery tool:

Dashcam in Auto

I got 2021.32.21 update. It has the "auto" mode for dashcam option which I thought is a good choice. I had an USB stick plugged into a usb slot of my Tesla 3 before, and it did record a lot of footage - so the car clearly didn't have a problem using the stick. Today I got in an accident when...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Js1977]

I was pretty surprised myself tbh. I expected them to go "thanks for letting us know but please go via insurance", but much to my (pleasant) surprise they just paid to put the wheel right.

Thats is really good and certainly not worth going through the insurance for the sakes of a wheel....

Im just surprised no has come up with any rubbish jokes

 

[WannabeOwner]

Just drag and drop the Dashcam to the task bar, it’s always there, tap it when you want to save a recording.

Surprised there is a little icon up the top of the screen (as is the case on MS / MX ... unless I'm having a senior moment!)

 

[Js1977]

Surprised there is a little icon up the top of the screen (as is the case on MS / MX ... unless I'm having a senior moment!)

Yes we used to have that but its no more on model 3 and I dont think the model Y ever had it here since it all changed before it came over.

 

[_MJF_]

Fairly sure I've got a long-press on the left scroll-wheel configured to save dashcam footage (in addition to the horn), for cases where something happens but you don't want to draw attention (or cause confusion) with the horn. Not sure I've ever used it, though, but think it's worth setting up.

 

[Rob_H]

I just use the voice command "Save that" and it seems to work fine.

 

[Regulo]

If you're really paranoid, get a proper dashcam. The Tesla implementation really isn't reliable enough for my liking. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. In my experience anyway.