Help me identify license plate on Sentry hit and run video

[okolehao]

An Acura MDX smashed into the back side of my car and the car next to it. The car pulls into the next spot bumps one car then backs up, pulls forward, and smashes my car hard. The funny thing is the share number of witnesses who watch it happen and go about their day despite the loud Sentry Alarm going off in front of them as they watch or peek at the accident. One witness was in a car directly behind the car doing the damage, gladly takes the spot as the other car flees the scene.

I ran back to my car after getting the Sentry Alert and pulled the USB stick thinking I captured everything. By the time the police arrive and pull the video, we discover pretty everything there is to see, except the exact license plate number. The police require a full plate number to work off of. In the future, it's pretty key I think to have a plan in place if you have a Hit & Run on your Tesla. 1) Pull the USB as soon as possible, as their is a Recent as well as Sentry captures, I waited a few extra minutes 2) Get witnesses, if there are other Teslas around see if you can pull their Cam footage as well 3) Make sure to test your USB storage solutions before accidents with Sentry

in any case, here are the videos in case anyone is better than me at doing better image work on the license plates, most of the action is in the Back and Left cameras, the Right camera briefly captures it. The left camera appears to be corrupted, not sure how the video got corrupted so easily. I hit the camera button and waited a few secs before ejecting.

Dropbox - 2020-02-15_10-06-08-back.mp4 - Simplify your life
Dropbox - 2020-02-15_10-06-08-front.mp4 - Simplify your life
Dropbox - 2020-02-15_10-06-08-left_repeater.mp4 - Simplify your life
Dropbox - 2020-02-15_10-06-08-right_repeater.mp4 - Simplify your life

 

[jsanford]

I caught a hit-and-run driver striking my neighbor’s car and was sure of all but one plate number—and very sure of the year, make and model. Googling around, I found a website that matched plate values with the year, make and model registered under it. Not sure if your state has this, but it might be an avenue open to you.

Also, I see they damaged their car. That should help.

 

[PianoAl]

Can you find a professional image enhancement company?

 

[webbah]

That hurts! This is exactly why I supplemented the Sentry with some Blackvue dual channel D900S UHD/4K cams. Even with a direct view of plates Sentry video is often not clear enough to make the license plates out.

 

[okolehao]

Yea, it would be great if there was a better way of capturing plates. I did not realize it until it was too late that my cams could not read plates very well. Also some of the disk data on my USB stick was corrupted, so for the future I just put in a higher speed USB/SD card.
@gulbrillo mentioned he may have tricks, hopefully he can post here what he does. He had some luck on image sharping before. @jsanford Would like to know the URL of the site you used. All the license to VIN number sites I've seen always take a full plate number. I need a way of going from partial plate & car model/color/year to full license plate.

 

[PianoAl]

I'm ignorant about some insurance stuff. Would you pay any less if the perp was identified?

 

[okolehao]

Yup, would have to pay more. I didn't have rental car insurance which means I have to pay for renting an ICE car for 3 weeks. Tesla body parts take a few weeks to get in. Plus I have to pay a deductible. Also since it's a claim on my insurance, even though I wasn't driving, it could be a consideration that my insurance company uses to raise my rates. If they were found, then their insurance would have to pay everything.

 

[hugh_jassol]

I'm ignorant about some insurance stuff. Would you pay any less if the perp was identified?

Hit-and-run is illegal. So, if identified, they would be held financially responsible and could be charged with a crime... so yes, he would to pay less, likely nothing.

 

[brkaus]

Where was it? Type of place someone would frequent? Stalk the parking lot for matching damage. Ditto for nearby body shops.

 

[okolehao]

Where was it? Type of place someone would frequent? Stalk the parking lot for matching damage. Ditto for nearby body shops.

Will try that. Is there a Database of Hit & Run cars, where we can upload the Sentry pictures and video and body shop owners can check cars? Would be a great idea for someone to setup if not.

 

[Need]

I'm ignorant about some insurance stuff. Would you pay any less if the perp was identified?

I thought it depends on the states. Some states are no fault states.. not California though. I thought NY is a no fault state, so even if he stopped and give you his insurance info, I think each insurance will just pay for it own damage, but I am not an expert on no fault states.

 

[okolehao]

Wow, just found out a critical thing here that I missed. Everyone should know this. If your video is corrupted but Sentry mode is on, CALL Tesla within 72 hours of the accident. Tesla records 6 seconds of all Sentry alarms for 72 hours. So upset I missed the 72 hour window.

@Need - NY is a no fault, but since I had a parked car. The other car still needs to pay.

 

[Transformer]

Surely the police can search a database with partial license plate, make, model, and color info, yes? Do they need to be asked?

I would like to hear the tools and techniques for enhancing sentry video to read a license plate.

 

[jsanford]

How Do You Look up License Plate Numbers?

Keep in mind, in my situation, I was certain of all but one plate character, so I was using the online resources to match a vehicle year, make and model to the possible values of the character I wasn’t sure about. It was easier to find out, for example, that a given plate number has been registered to a 2011 Toyota Tacoma, than who owns the Tacoma. That’s all needed in this situation for the police.

As for software, you might try capturing some stills and trying contrasting colors/sharpening detail—Gimp is a shareware flavor of Photoshop-type software. You might haunt an Acura board for clues to help determine the exact year the MDX is.

 

[cgiGuy]

Wow.. I hope that's not the typical quality of sentry mode videos. The amount of compression artifacts make those videos worthless, if you're trying to read a plate number. And, unfortunately, no amount of "enhancing" is going to help.

 

[BeeGood]

I’m hoping you can find out who did that so the police can pay them a visit.

On a side note, looking at your left side cam, it’s pretty obvious that the white van is parked over the line and that person wasn’t getting their SUV into that spot. And smh at the person in the equally large car that comes up behind them and attempts the same maneuver.

Just park farther away people. The extra steps aren’t going to kill you. Yeesh.

 

[Petermcg]

With ten digits and 26 letters there are only 36 combinations possible. Just plug each one into your search until one matching the vehicle turns up. That’s your perp.

 

[cgiGuy]

With ten digits and 26 letters there are only 36 combinations possible. Just plug each one into your search until one matching the vehicle turns up. That’s your perp.

That math checks out..

 

[okolehao]

@cgiGuy Is there an API I can use to try different combos on license plates? If so, I can write some code to find matches...

 

[cgiGuy]

@cgiGuy Is there an API I can use to try different combos on license plates? If so, I can write some code to find matches...

I'm not a code guy, so I'm afraid I can't help you with that. I'm a graphics guy, so I was offering to help blur the plate for you.