How to test alarm? And am I missing a Sentry feature?

[VoltWagon]

I took delivery on my MY three weeks ago, and have started to get comfortable with all the features. Great car. And it's nice to have an alarm system (unlike my recently abandoned VW ID.4). But I have a silly question: Is it possible to test to see if the alarm is actually working without damaging the car? I had hoped that the alarm would sound off if someone (without a key) came by and tugged on a door handle. But it appears that in order to set off the alarm, you actually need to do some damage to the car (e.g., forcing a locked door open). Maybe I'm missing something?

Related question: I've tested the Sentry video recording, and it seems to work well. But from what I can tell, there's no way to have it send a notification to the app if someone is snooping around the car enough to trigger the Sentry video, correct? If that's the case, then it would be a nice feature to add.

Just trying to increase my chances of knowing if someone is intruding on my new car while I'm off shopping. I'd appreciate any insights from more experienced Tesla owners.

 

[schen72]

Sentry does not send notifications, unless something drastic happens like a door opening when locked. Then it's the alarm that sends the notification.

 

[MY1stEV]

This guy did some experiments trying to see what would set off the alarm without actually damaging the car. It was rather hit-or-miss what worked.
(fair warning, this guy is far more amused by himself than you will be)

 

[Yelobird]

The operator manual is a great resource for learning how your car works.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I took delivery on my MY three weeks ago, and have started to get comfortable with all the features. Great car. And it's nice to have an alarm system (unlike my recently abandoned VW ID.4). But I have a silly question: Is it possible to test to see if the alarm is actually working without damaging the car? I had hoped that the alarm would sound off if someone (without a key) came by and tugged on a door handle. But it appears that in order to set off the alarm, you actually need to do some damage to the car (e.g., forcing a locked door open). Maybe I'm missing something?

Related question: I've tested the Sentry video recording, and it seems to work well. But from what I can tell, there's no way to have it send a notification to the app if someone is snooping around the car enough to trigger the Sentry video, correct? If that's the case, then it would be a nice feature to add.

Just trying to increase my chances of knowing if someone is intruding on my new car while I'm off shopping. I'd appreciate any insights from more experienced Tesla owners.

As per manual alarm only sounds:
"If Model Y does not detect an authenticated phone or key and a locked door or trunk is opened, an alarm sounds."
US market cars do not have tilt/intrusion sensors, so those don't apply.

Model Y Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about your vehicle’s security features, such as alarms, PIN to drive, and glovebox PIN.

www.tesla.com

A way to test it is to lock the car, turn off Bluetooth to your phone (this presumes you don't have a fob or other key active nearby), and use the manual door pull to open one door. To access the door pull, you can stay in a passenger seat (which doesn't have or use the seat sensor to keep car wake) or perhaps roll down a window (not sure however if this will make the alarm not arm).

For Sentry it doesn't send notifications. If you have premium connectivity however, you can view a live view of the cameras.

Model Y Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about the features you can use to monitor the security of your vehicle when parked.

www.tesla.com

 

[VoltWagon]

As per manual alarm only sounds:
"If Model Y does not detect an authenticated phone or key and a locked door or trunk is opened, an alarm sounds."
US market cars do not have tilt/intrusion sensors, so those don't apply.

Model Y Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about your vehicle’s security features, such as alarms, PIN to drive, and glovebox PIN.

www.tesla.com

A way to test it is to lock the car, turn off Bluetooth to your phone (this presumes you don't have a fob or other key active nearby), and use the manual door pull to open one door. To access the door pull, you can stay in a passenger seat (which doesn't have or use the seat sensor to keep car wake) or perhaps roll down a window (not sure however if this will make the alarm not arm).

For Sentry it doesn't send notifications. If you have premium connectivity however, you can view a live view of the cameras.

Model Y Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about the features you can use to monitor the security of your vehicle when parked.

www.tesla.com

Thank you for the clever suggestion for testing the alarm - I'll try it! And yes everybody, I did read the manual many, many times until my eyes blurred. That's why I posted the question. And I'm glad I did, so you could share the undocumented info that the tilt/intrusion feature does not exist in U.S. market. The manual is generally well written, except it's way too full of frustrating vague statements like "this feature may or may not exist depending on your model year or market". If you know of a source that reveals which features exists in specific years and markets, please let me know! With Tesla's profit margins, they could afford to update the pdf every year and offer different versions for different markets.

And yes, I did read about the live view of the cameras, and tested that earlier. Great feature. Just mentioning that a notification would make this feature many times more useful, allowing me to see the crooks/vandals while the events are occurring, and maybe letting me talk to them and ask them to smile for the cameras. And I'm always hoping that someone has found a clever undocumented solution that's not covered in the manual.