Wanted to thank everyone for their help here. We were able to find the owner, license plate and their insurance company. It turns out that even though the resolution of the video is less than ideal, there are other details in the TeslaCam videos that enable us to form a fingerprint-like match of the car. Also a little simple sleuthing of the accident scene helped turn up data on witnesses and other information. I really learned a lot here. Hopefully this doesn't happen to anyone else, but if it does... Here are some steps to follow before/after an hit&run on your parked Tesla:
1. DO check your USB stick and videos for corruption before any accidents, I had not checked my stick in a while and I had a corrupted partition
2. DO check your cameras, make sure they stay clear of dust
3. If you do get hit, or see a notification that your Tesla Sentry alarm went over, DO run right away to your car (obvious, I know
)
4. Immediately enter your car and pause the camera by holding the camera icon for a few secs, waiting a few more, then DO pull the USB stick. (If you are running low on disk space, there is a chance the Recent loop of video will get overwritten, though Sentry Alarm videos tend to hang around longer )
5. Don't leave the scene, DO make sure to snap pictures of *ALL* cars around you, even if they weren't involved in the accident, look for witnesses, don't just rely on your TeslaCam videos (it turned out later that another car was hit, not just mine, and other cars witnessed the accident in my videos)
6. If you see other Tesla's around you, DO leave a note or two, as they may have additional camera footage available on their SentryCams
7. If you see building cameras around, DO try to get footage from the building management (they often erase their videos after a number hours or days, so good preserve)
8. If you do not have a USB stick, or you have some corrupted video, DO call Tesla right away. Tesla keeps a copy of the 6 seconds of video recorded around a SentryAlarm, but only for 36 hours after the alarm, then it's automatically erased.
9. If you need to work through videos, recommend VLC and Elecard StreamEye which I found useful beyond the typical video tools.
Another thing as a side note, Police will not always do much leg work for you here. Unless someone is actively hurt, they told me they don't have time to research property damage in hit and runs here in my jurisdiction.
1. DO check your USB stick and videos for corruption before any accidents, I had not checked my stick in a while and I had a corrupted partition
2. DO check your cameras, make sure they stay clear of dust
3. If you do get hit, or see a notification that your Tesla Sentry alarm went over, DO run right away to your car (obvious, I know
)4. Immediately enter your car and pause the camera by holding the camera icon for a few secs, waiting a few more, then DO pull the USB stick. (If you are running low on disk space, there is a chance the Recent loop of video will get overwritten, though Sentry Alarm videos tend to hang around longer )
5. Don't leave the scene, DO make sure to snap pictures of *ALL* cars around you, even if they weren't involved in the accident, look for witnesses, don't just rely on your TeslaCam videos (it turned out later that another car was hit, not just mine, and other cars witnessed the accident in my videos)
6. If you see other Tesla's around you, DO leave a note or two, as they may have additional camera footage available on their SentryCams
7. If you see building cameras around, DO try to get footage from the building management (they often erase their videos after a number hours or days, so good preserve)
8. If you do not have a USB stick, or you have some corrupted video, DO call Tesla right away. Tesla keeps a copy of the 6 seconds of video recorded around a SentryAlarm, but only for 36 hours after the alarm, then it's automatically erased.
9. If you need to work through videos, recommend VLC and Elecard StreamEye which I found useful beyond the typical video tools.
Another thing as a side note, Police will not always do much leg work for you here. Unless someone is actively hurt, they told me they don't have time to research property damage in hit and runs here in my jurisdiction.
