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How COMPLETELY useless is the dashcam in the Model 3?

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#21
cypho said:
Ohh, and it looks like JB HiFi should rename themselves JB HiPrice. That model that JB has listed for $179 is listed for $79 on Samsung's website. Or is 3x the USA price normal in Australia?
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Technology stuff is usually more expensive in Australia plus the exchange rate is currently around US$0.77 = A$1.00. The cheapest I have seen it online here is around $140 (= ~US$108).
 
#23
atj777 said:
I can't tell if you agree with me and are being sarcastic or you genuinely believe the software is good.

I need to make a list of all the poor design decisions and poor working aspects of my car. I love driving my car but it could be sooo much better if they stopped wasting time with fart noises and did some serious software development.
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It’s freaking brilliant. Beautiful and capable and maybe a decade ahead of the competition. But, like everything else in the world except Neapolitan pizza, not perfect. If you look at the software in your Tesla and see wasting time with fart noises instead of serious software development, I would respectfully suggest you reevaluate.
 
#25
atj777 said:
Does it still have to formatted as FAT (as the manual says that USB Flash Drives need to be)? Or can I buy one and just plug it in immediately - or even format it in the car (Model 3).
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All good. I was able to buy it, and format in the car in the parking lot of Officeworks.

So far so good. The two tests I've done seem to work well. I'll do some more tests.

If only the other problems were so easy to solve.
 
#26
atj777 said:
including missing the part that I wanted (a bunch of cyclists that wanted to become organ donors by riding in the middle of the road rather than sticking to their dedicated cycle lane in early morning where motorists are unable to see because of the sun).
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What were you planning to do with the footage? I seriously hope it wasn't to incite motorists to abuse a group of vulnerable road users.
 
#27
OT: I cycle in the car lane when the bike lane is stupidly designed and dangerous, as they often are. Perhaps that was a factor in your case (which you'd probably not notice while driving), or perhaps they were turning. Or perhaps they were being dickish.

Of course I also try to allow faster vehicles to pass whenever I can (my other car(s) need this behaviour also).
 
#28
atj777 said:
Does it still have to formatted as FAT (as the manual says that USB Flash Drives need to be)? Or can I buy one and just plug it in immediately - or even format it in the car (Model 3).
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Just use the car to format it. I have a 1TB Samsung T5 ssd. & the car formatted it to exFAT.
Also before unplugging the SSD from the car, I recommend that you disable sentry mode from the menus as well as toggling off the dashcam. I have found just toggling off dashcam & forgetting to turn off Sentry mode leads to the RecentClips folder being fried. Often some useful stuff in there.
 
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#29
Flatbat said:
Just use the car to format it. I have a 1TB Samsung T5 ssd. & the car formatted it to exFAT.
Also before unplugging the SSD from the car, I recommend that you disable sentry mode from the menus as well as toggling off the dashcam. I have found just toggling off dashcam & forgetting to turn off Sentry mode leads to the RecentClips folder being fried. Often some useful stuff in there.
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Thanks, yeah, I had a look in the car park after I bought the SSD and saw there was a format option. Is that new? I don't remember it being there when I first got the car in March last year and had to format in my computer.

Sentry mode is off when I'm at home but I will remember to disable the dashcam.
 
#31
bay74 said:
OT: I cycle in the car lane when the bike lane is stupidly designed and dangerous, as they often are. Perhaps that was a factor in your case (which you'd probably not notice while driving), or perhaps they were turning. Or perhaps they were being dickish.

Of course I also try to allow faster vehicles to pass whenever I can (my other car(s) need this behaviour also).
Click to expand...
There were 20-30 of them riding in a bunch and they were 5-6 abreast. They were basically all over the road. I had to wait a long time to overtake them because the sun was shining in my eyes and there was no way I could be sure a car wasn't coming the other way.

This is a road in southern Sydney that is very popular with cyclists. It is an 80 zone and it has a good cycle lane on both sides of the road. Riders can normally ride two abreast and stay within the cycle lane (well, mostly).

I do appreciate that they may not hear me coming and be aware, but I did have a situation where one cyclist was coming up behind another in the cycle lane and he turned around to see if it was safe to overtake. He saw me and yet still chose to pull out in front of me and I had to slam the brakes on (even though I was already slowing as I suspected he wouldn't even look).
 
#32
GrimRe said:
Because if you put any effort at all into researching the root cause rather than being such an entitled prick you would have found this out yourself.
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I may be an entitled prick but I did do some research!

First, even before I bought the car I researched what I needed to get and bought the first USB flash drive recommended by Tesla.

Second, I would occasionally get errors display with Sentry Mode about the USB device being slow, however, ALL my Sentry Mode clips were perfectly fine. I checked on the Tesla Forums about the error and at the time the general consensus was the error was incorrect. Sure enough after a later Software Update the error stopped occurring (and my Sentry Mode clips kept working fine). I have not seen that error in months. I have never received any errors on Dashcam. Not ever.
 
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#33
bpjod said:
Tesla’s software is Windows 10, not perfect and plenty of room for refinement. Other manufacturers’ software ranges from Windows 3.1 to Windows Vista. They may get the job done, they may even have a feature or two that Tesla doesn’t have or is slightly better then Tesla’s implementation, but that is about the kindest I can be.
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For me, comparing to Windows software is damning it. I hate Windows and always have. It has always be so buggy and lame. Granted, I haven't used Windows 10 all that much because I have been mostly using a Mac for the last 10 years but my few experiences with Windows 10 have not been great - especially since Microsoft did their usual trick of completely changing the interface so you have to relearn it.

Now, I will cut Microsoft some slack. They are writing an OS that is going on a hugely diverse set of hardware, most of which they don't control or own. So they have a massive challenge. Telsa control the hardware and it isn't that diverse.

Also, I won't say that Apple software is stellar, either. I much prefer the interface but it is full of bugs. Most time when I encounter something that is not working correctly and I check the fora I find hundreds of people with the same problem (sometime over many years) with no real solution. And this if for a company that mostly controls the hardware.

I don't have much experience with software in other makes and models, so I have to take your word that it is better than the others. However, that doesn't mean that the Tesla software shouldn't be better than it is. I'm not just talking about bugs but also dumb design decisions.

OK, I'll do a mea culpa on the dashcam - or will after I prove that I was wrong and it works properly for me after going with the SSD but there are so many other things.

For example, we can remotely turn on climate control using the app. Park the car in the hot sun and 5 minutes before you return to the car turn on the climate control and it is comfortable when you drive off. That's brilliant. However, If I'm standing behind the car after it has been in the hot sun with the boot open while I load my gear in, I can't turn the climate control because the boot is open. I can sort of understand that as they are worried about flow of temperature between the cabin and the boot space. BUT, and it is a big but, if I open any door, the climate control comes on automatically. What's with that? It is OK to be running climate control with a door wide open but not with the doors closed and the boot open? Who signed off on that?

Another example, I have Walk-away Lock enabled. It works great and I love it. If the car is unlocked and I walk away it locks. Again, brilliant! If I am standing next to the car and I power down my phone, I get a message on the console saying that Walk-away Lock is disabled. The thing is, 9 times out of 10 when I close up the car it locks itself. That works fine for me because I want it to lock in that situation, but what about the 1 in 10 when I have to lock it manually? What of the people that believe the message and get locked out of their car? I also don't understand why it isn't consistent. It should always lock or always not lock.

These are just two examples and I have lots more.
 
#34
atj777 said:
Thanks, yeah, I had a look in the car park after I bought the SSD and saw there was a format option. Is that new? I don't remember it being there when I first got the car in March last year and had to format in my computer.

Sentry mode is off when I'm at home but I will remember to disable the dashcam.
Click to expand...
In car formatting was initially added last year & at some point & a little later they added exFat support for the larger drives.
Even though your Sentry mode is off at home (same for me) I still recommend you go into the menus and disable it before pulling the USB. I have found at times it still borks the recentclips folder when pulling it with it inactive/off but enabled. To be sure I disable it fully in the menus. Probably overkill but cannot hurt.
 
#35
atj777 said:
For me, comparing to Windows software is damning it. I hate Windows and always have. It has always be so buggy and lame. Granted, I haven't used Windows 10 all that much because I have been mostly using a Mac for the last 10 years but my few experiences with Windows 10 have not been great - especially since Microsoft did their usual trick of completely changing the interface so you have to relearn it.

Now, I will cut Microsoft some slack. They are writing an OS that is going on a hugely diverse set of hardware, most of which they don't control or own. So they have a massive challenge. Telsa control the hardware and it isn't that diverse.

Also, I won't say that Apple software is stellar, either. I much prefer the interface but it is full of bugs. Most time when I encounter something that is not working correctly and I check the fora I find hundreds of people with the same problem (sometime over many years) with no real solution. And this if for a company that mostly controls the hardware.

I don't have much experience with software in other makes and models, so I have to take your word that it is better than the others. However, that doesn't mean that the Tesla software shouldn't be better than it is. I'm not just talking about bugs but also dumb design decisions.

OK, I'll do a mea culpa on the dashcam - or will after I prove that I was wrong and it works properly for me after going with the SSD but there are so many other things.

For example, we can remotely turn on climate control using the app. Park the car in the hot sun and 5 minutes before you return to the car turn on the climate control and it is comfortable when you drive off. That's brilliant. However, If I'm standing behind the car after it has been in the hot sun with the boot open while I load my gear in, I can't turn the climate control because the boot is open. I can sort of understand that as they are worried about flow of temperature between the cabin and the boot space. BUT, and it is a big but, if I open any door, the climate control comes on automatically. What's with that? It is OK to be running climate control with a door wide open but not with the doors closed and the boot open? Who signed off on that?

Another example, I have Walk-away Lock enabled. It works great and I love it. If the car is unlocked and I walk away it locks. Again, brilliant! If I am standing next to the car and I power down my phone, I get a message on the console saying that Walk-away Lock is disabled. The thing is, 9 times out of 10 when I close up the car it locks itself. That works fine for me because I want it to lock in that situation, but what about the 1 in 10 when I have to lock it manually? What of the people that believe the message and get locked out of their car? I also don't understand why it isn't consistent. It should always lock or always not lock.

These are just two examples and I have lots more.
Click to expand...
My model S decided to fully lower all of its windows last week, on a cold rainy day. The car was parked and locked but fortunately I was close by and observed it happening…all in unison. Amazing software means nothing if you no longer have the confidence that your car is safe and locked.
 
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