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How to access Sentry recordings on MS with HW 2.0 and MCU 1?

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I have a 2017 MS with HW 2.0 and MCU 1 with eMMC replacement. I have the most recent version of the car software and the Android app. I see the Sentry mode on in the car and have it tuned on in the app.

I have a Samsung T7 1GB formatted in ExFAT with a single folder created named, "TeslaCam"

After creating a Sentry event by bumping my car without the key or phone present, the display of the car shows that it is recording.

If I go back to the car after unlocking it, remove the SSD, and look at its contents on my MacBook Air, it shows nothing in the TeslaCam folder.

What am I doing wrong? I've seen support for formatting the drive in both ExFAT and FAT, but it seems that later discussions have said that the preferred format now is ExFAT. I can't seem to get recorded files anywhere or find where the car recorded them. There is no view option on my phone app either, and no notification on the app or the car when I return that a Sentry event occurred, which is odd. I saw it say it was recording on the screen after I bumped it intentionally to get it recording.
 
A quick update: I re-formatted the drive to MS-DOS (FAT) through Disk Utility and added back a folder named "TESLACAM", and still get nothing recorded to the drive after an event.

Update 2: I called Tesla customer service (actually got a human!) and the guy told me that he's seeing an error on his end that the drive is too big to write to, and I should go buy a thumb drive from Amazon and try that. I purchased the 1TB T7 expressly at the recommendation of many here that an SSD is a better way to go. Maybe not for my version of hardware?

I wonder if I could partition it somehow to create a smaller drive on the SSD for the car to see and put music or something on another partition. Does anyone have experience with this?
 
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From what I recall, Tesla gave you and others with the same hardware, a version of Sentry mode that does not record videos. Others could correct me, but I think your hardware is not capable of full Sentry mode functionality. Why Tesla did this? I don't know. One guess is it is to fool people that you have Sentry mode to deter break in attempts.
 
The non-recording Sentry mode on Autopilot 2.0 vehicles was born from a tweet that was sent to Elon.

At the time, there was a rising number of smash and grab incidents in San Francisco in early 2019, and Sentry was Tesla's attempt to reduce these incidents.

Now back to the tweet... Someone wrote to Elon mentioning that since AP2.0 vehicles don't record but are physically the same as AP2.5 vehicles (they all have 8 cameras to the outside passerby), it would be great if AP2.0 cars could also have a sort of Fake Sentry mode (same flashing headlights and big red dot on MCU screen) just as a deterrent, Elon agreed.

The actual ability to record to a USB drive is determined by the Autopilot computer hardware version. The binary that records video on the AP2.5 computer is not present in 2.0 hardware. It simply cannot record video because the lines of code that handle video recording aren't there, but the camera activation, motion detection and the rest of the Sentry lines of code are actually the same on both.

Fast forward to today... All AP2.0 vehicles that have Full Self Driving/AP3 computers installed, now have Dashcam and Sentry modes that record to USB drives, ("officially" supported for MCU1's but only actually usable on MCU2's). Granted, they must also have their cameras upgraded to RCCB cameras, but that's another story.

Sentry Mode: Guarding Your Tesla
 
Interesting history, and unusually responsive to a customer request the way I have heard Tesla used to be. During implementation, however, they should have a message come up when the dashcam is "activated" warning that it is just a deterrent because of hardware limitations, and doesn't actually record any events. I am surprised their lawyers didn't require that. Some new purchaser of a used Tesla might assume it is working, rely on Sentry, and then bring a lawsuit against Tesla for failing to warn them that it was never intended to work and was just for show and a possible deterrent.
 
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What I find most frustrating and confusing is that this feature was removed from my HW 2.0 MCU 1 Tesla Model S.

I used to have Sentry recordings and 360 recordings while driving. I have the recordings to prove it and can upload them somewhere if someone wants me to. The files look like this and they are all 0:59 long:

Screen Shot 2022-07-30 at 1.50.29 PM.png


It's not like Tesla did not ever give HW 2.0 vehicles this feature or that it did not work on the hardware. These clips prove that they did and that it worked. They deprecated the feature from the cars after releasing it, and from the looks of this discussion thread that was done quietly or has been forgotten.

I do not remember when it was first available or when it went away, but my last recordings on my thumb drive (when I removed it from my car, not when the car stopped recording) are dated 2020-01-16.

My only guess is that they intended HW 2.0 to have this feature and likely all features available in HW 2.5 (given how quickly they moved from 2.0 to 2.5), but discovered that it was inadequate to support those features, and rather than issuing a recall to upgrade everyone for the immediately obsolete hardware, they simply came out with a new 2.5 and silently removed the features from HW 2.0 cars so they could charge for the "upgrade" to MCU 2 rather than have to pay for the recall.

How that is not a class action lawsuit is a little beyond me, but I am not an attorney.
 
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I guess I am prepared for Tesla to remove, disable, or retire new features they have added to my car over time beyond my initial purchase features -- although that is certainly frustrating. I would be happier if Tesla would just get the features I paid for working correctly. I do like some of the new, added features very much, though.
 
What I find most frustrating and confusing is that this feature was removed from my HW 2.0 MCU 1 Tesla Model S.
I’d sure like to see them, because if it’s true you have the only HW2/MCU1 car that ever recorded sentry events.
How that is not a class action lawsuit is a little beyond me, but I am not an attorney.
What exactly are the damages you suffered you would intend to recover in this hypothetical lawsuit?
 
I’d sure like to see them, because if it’s true you have the only HW2/MCU1 car that ever recorded sentry events.

What exactly are the damages you suffered you would intend to recover in this hypothetical lawsuit?
I'm happy to provide them. Let me know how you would like to see them. The feature was alive and well on my car. I only recently realized it was no longer there when I purchased an SSD and plugged it into my car to use the feature again. Until recently I didn't even know there were HW 2.0 cars without this feature. The car showed the new feature when it was released, I used the feature, and the feature continued to show that it was working in the interface. Only when I decided to download clips did I discover it was not there and it was only pretending to record this whole time.

Regarding a potential class action lawsuit, I'm not an attorney. It would be up to someone with those qualifications to assess whether a company can sell a product with specific hardware designed to operate specific features, and then remove the feature when it proved to not work on the hardware. Tesla represented that 2.0 MCU 1 vehicles had the hardware necessary to operate full self-driving, and sold the package at $8,000 (at the time). One could elect to pay for everything but FSD for $5,000 when purchasing the car (or $6,000 later), and they called that Enhanced Autopilot. That is the package I purchased.

The car does not operate everything except FSD, and it requires a $2,250 hardware upgrade to get the Sentry mode it pretends to have (and used to have) to be operational.

I do not know all the communication that has come out from the company or every term of service or waiver I ever clicked on to get my new updated firmware or software to download, so it is possible they made me sign my rights away in one of those updates.
 
I’d sure like to see them, because if it’s true you have the only HW2/MCU1 car that ever recorded sentry events.
Just following back up on this to make sure you saw that I am happy to provide the videos recorded on my HW 2.0 MCU 1.0 MS built in 2017. I'm just not sure how to share the files in a manner that they can be verified. It would seem uploading them to Youtube or a similar site does not allow one to inspect the details of where they came from.
 
Just following back up on this to make sure you saw that I am happy to provide the videos recorded on my HW 2.0 MCU 1.0 MS built in 2017. I'm just not sure how to share the files in a manner that they can be verified. It would seem uploading them to Youtube or a similar site does not allow one to inspect the details of where they came from.
Dropbox or something? I dunno.

It’s not so much viewing the videos… more that it’s been discussed ad nauseam on here that sentry/dashcam recording never worked with your hardware combo. I had the same HW2/MCU1 car - it was never functional for me and basically everyone else that has ever commented on this topic in the past several years.

What month in 2017 was your car produced?
 
I came to check out this thread because just a few weeks ago I brought my USB in to view recorded clips from sentry mode. The USB didn't hold very much, so last week I bought a 2 TB USB and put that in the Model S instead. Tonight I brought that one in, and there is nothing on the USB, although each morning the dash says that x number of sentry events were recorded. Much like GrayGuy mentions in his post, I previously was able to see files from each camera.

So, is someone going to tell me that my 2018 never had this ability too? Or is there a problem with the 2TB USB? Or?