Does your dashcam icon show a red dot (recording) or a gray dot or X (not recording/fail)? If the latter, press and hold the dashcam icon to toggle recording. Does it change to a red dot?
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Dashcam implementation is idiotic
- Thread starter ChopinBlues
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Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Ok.
That has nothing whatsoever to do with recording video though.
Which, if you read and understood the manual as claimed, you'd already know.
So weird thing to mention.
Sentry does not record video. Ever.
Yes. Dashcam, the feature that is the only one that actually records video, constantly records the previous 1 hour of video to the drive if you have it set up properly and turned on.
Honking, or tapping the icon, will move the most recent 10 minutes of dashcams video to the "saved" folder.
The only thing sentry does, video wise, is move the most recent 10 minutes of dashcams video to the sentry folder if sentry is on and goes to alert mode.
BTW I know you said sentry was off, and the red dot is on, but is it possible you are confusing the red dot (in a circle) of sentry mode (which tells you nothing about if anything is recording) with the red dot of the rectangular/square dashcam icon which if NOTHING is being recorded likely does not show a red dot on your car?
Also might wanna check with Tesla if your car, since it's a recent purchase, was ever marked as "delivered" in their system-- it's a known issue that you often can't turn on dashcam if that's the case.
directly from the current Model 3 Owner's Manual, talking about the sub-folders on the flash drive:
* Sentry Clips: Contains the last 10 minutes of footage
from all Sentry Mode events that have triggered an
Alert or Alarm state. The footage from each event is
labelled with a unique timestamp.
I only mentioned it to clarify the settings I was using for the dashcam recordings. The part that makes no sense to me is why they don't just leave the last hour's worth of driving footage on the device, until you start driving again. What is the point in erasing them simply because you're parked and not driving, since it doesn't record while parked ?
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Notice how the word "record" does not appear in what you quoted?
When Sentry goes to an alarm or alert state it moves the last 10 minutes of dashcam footage to the sentry folder.
Sentry does not record. Ever.
Another way you can tell- remove the USB drive. You can't turn on dashcam anymore. You CAN still turn sentry on.
it absolutely records when parked if the car is awake.
If dashcam is on, it always records if the car is awake.
Sentry, if on, keeps the car awake so that dashcam (not sentry) keeps recording.
This is one reason the "exclude from sentry" settings exist- so you don't end up with a car that stays awake taking dashcam video in your garage all night if you don't want that.
Look, I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here, or quibble over minor details, but I have now read that dashcam section carefully for a 3rd time. Note that it's only 3/4 page long (the remainder discusses the mechanics of the flash drive and USB ports), and it's at best rudimentary, and frequently ambiguous.
Let's start with the first sentence in the "Retrieving Footage" paragraph:
"If equipped, you can review Dashcam and Sentry Mode video recordings on your vehicles touchscreen..."
Now I'm pretty sure that the average speaker of the english language would interpret this as saying that there are "dashcam" video recordings, and "Sentry Mode" video recordings, and that they are not one and the same.
There is another very confusing and ambiguous statement above that in the 2nd paragraph:
"Dashcam does not record video when your vehicle is powered off"
Now I'm pretty sure the vehicle is considered "powered off" when all passengers have left the car, and all doors are closed. (Locking is presumably not necessary). So the way I would interpret that sentence is that either no recording whatsoever takes place in the power off state, which would make Sentry Mode pointless, or, Sentry Mode is it's own mode of operation, separate from "Dashcam Mode", and makes it's own recordings, even in the "powered off" state, which is also what's implied in the earlier quoted sentence.
And finally, the clincher, from pg 140, which discusses Sentry Mode:
"In Sentry Mode, cameras and sensors remain powered on and ready to record suspicious activity..."
However, after all that, none of this, although peripherally relevant, really addresses my main issue, which I will now try to explain in detail:
The assumption here is that once you park the car after driving for at least an hour, your hour's worth of recorded dashcam video starts getting erased, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NO LONGER RECORDING, and after one hour, is gone for good. I think that's what happens, but I could be mistaken. I think this is a big mistake for the following reasons:
If you're in a serious accident, I doubt if the first thing on your mind is going to be to blow the horn, or retrieve the flash from the glovebox before it starts getting erased. You may not even be conscious. Even worse, the glovebox no longer opens with a physical button -- it's dependent on the car being in sufficient working order to bring up the screen containing the control, which may not be the case after a serious accident. That's why I'm so strongly opposed to this erasing business, or even limiting the recording to just one hour.
I'm also curious where you are getting your information from. You seems to know a lot more detail than what's in the manual, so it sounds like you either have an inside contact, or have done a great deal of experimentation with this feature in your own car. I plan on doing this as well, but I've only had the car for a week, and have been too busy to mess with it.
If anything I said here is inaccurate or doesn't make sense, please let me know.
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One of the recent updates saves the dashcam footage after it detects an accident.
2021.24
"Dashcam can now automatically save clips whenever your vehicle detects the occurrence of a safety event (such as an accident or airbag deployment). Recordings captured are stored locally and never transmitted to Tesla. To opt-in, tap Controls > Safety & Security > Dashcam > AUTO. To learn more about how to setup and use Dashcam, please refer to the Owner's Manual."
2021.24
"Dashcam can now automatically save clips whenever your vehicle detects the occurrence of a safety event (such as an accident or airbag deployment). Recordings captured are stored locally and never transmitted to Tesla. To opt-in, tap Controls > Safety & Security > Dashcam > AUTO. To learn more about how to setup and use Dashcam, please refer to the Owner's Manual."
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
But they'd be wrong.
Nobody said Tesla wrote the best manuals.
The actual functioning of the car.
Remove the storage- sentry still turns on just fine. Because it doesn't record anything, and thus does not need storage. It'll MOVE existing dashcam footage from one folder to the other if it exists, but that's the only thing it does video-wise.
Likewise- you have an icon for sentry and an icon for dashcam. Try turning OFF dashcam. See if you get any sentry "recordings". You won't- because sentry does not record anything.
Nope.
The car going "to sleep" is off. When you just step out it's still powered up (and you can often still hear fans running, etc) and still recording via dashcam if it was turned on before you exited the car.
If you exit the vehicle and have sentry off it'll eventually go to sleep and stop recording.
If you exit and have sentry on, sentry keeps the car "awake" and thus dashcam keeps recording.
It'll overwrite anything not saved (from manual saves, or sentry saves) that's more than an hour old, yes.
2021.24 firmware added this option:
Dashcam can now automatically save clips whenever your vehicle detects the occurrence of a safety event (such as an accident or airbag deployment). Recordings captured are stored locally and never transmitted to Tesla. To opt-in, tap Controls > Safety & Security > Dashcam > AUTO
Glovebox automatically unlocks (since 2018 when someone pointed out the problem with opening it after an accident) if car is in a crash
LOL "NO" It now biffs you to anywhere but a human. "Use the service app" click.
FYI you have to honk twice on my 2020 M3 to get it to save footage 1 honk doesnt do it, found out the hard way today I lost the footage of a hit and run on my car. (Wife was driving and called me I told her to honk the horn to save the footage, I got there,, looked at it and thought "sweet" this will help me NOT have to pay out of pocket. Watche the videop then all of a sudden the footage was gone.
Which is EXACTLY the point I was trying to make (go ahead, bring on the thumbs down — just makes you look even stupiderLOL "NO" It now biffs you to anywhere but a human. "Use the service app" click.
FYI you have to honk twice on my 2020 M3 to get it to save footage 1 honk doesnt do it, found out the hard way today I lost the footage of a hit and run on my car. (Wife was driving and called me I told her to honk the horn to save the footage, I got there,, looked at it and thought "sweet" this will help me NOT have to pay out of pocket. Watche the videop then all of a sudden the footage was gone.
Dash cam/ sentry use and set up is pretty straight forward and if you can’t make it to work open service ticket. Arguing on internet and claiming that you are some kind of specialist make you look like a fool. You don’t make any points. The end.
Marking every one my posts thumbs down no matter what makes you look like a fool. I am a specialist: I did s/w engineering for 30 years. And I was good at it. But even I had bugs. All s/w has bugs. The post by dwtaylorpdx is exactly what I’m talking about. Why take a chance on some “feature” working perfectly when there’s a better way? Why not just make this “dashcam” work like every other dashcam on the market, and keep recording while you drive, replacing older clips as need? Why erase everything after an hour, EVEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT RECORDING ANYTHING? It makes no sense. And dwtaylorpdx just got burned by this silly implementation.
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, this thread is an example of the Internet at its finest.
Of which your post is a terrific example. Instead of specifically stating what your objections are, and/or making a cogent argument for what you don’t agree with, you just post a snide remark.
HUH? Is it against the rules here to criticize Tesla? Is it against the rules here to disagree with someone else on the forum? Just what the hell is going on here?
That because there’s 2 jerks here who went and marked every single post I’ve left with a thumbs down, even the totally innocuous ones. I’ve already complained about this issue to the forum moderator. And you, like almost everyone else, still hasn’t answered my question, or even pretended to address the actual issues I’ve posted about
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