long term parking

[DMan]

Just wanted to share my experience with a 2024 Model 3 SR that I left at a park and fly for about a week with sentry mode on.
I had about 220-230 miles of range when I parked it and I didn't check it until the day before we came back from vacation which is about 6 days.
To my surprise, I only had 80 miles of range left. I turned off sentry mode and checked it the next day and it was down to 78 miles.
I feel like sentry mode used up an excessive amount of range, more than what my Model Y drained while sitting parked for a week at a park and fly.
I don't know if it's the LFP battery or if it's something else but just wanted to share with everyone.

 

[jjrandorin]

A week isnt what I would consider to be "long term" and sentry mode has been known to use up to 1 mile PER HOUR of charge, so nothing you are reporting is out of line with expectations.

The thread title should say something like " 1 week parking at airport with Sentry on" or something similar, so that people understand that the experience being shared is with sentry mode on, and is why almost everyone says "dont park long term with sentry mode on".

 

[KenC]

Just wanted to share my experience with a 2024 Model 3 SR that I left at a park and fly for about a week with sentry mode on.
I had about 220-230 miles of range when I parked it and I didn't check it until the day before we came back from vacation which is about 6 days.
To my surprise, I only had 80 miles of range left. I turned off sentry mode and checked it the next day and it was down to 78 miles.
I feel like sentry mode used up an excessive amount of range, more than what my Model Y drained while sitting parked for a week at a park and fly.
I don't know if it's the LFP battery or if it's something else but just wanted to share with everyone.

Sounds like it was busy! Was it raining a lot? That can trigger the cameras to do lots of unnecessary recording, which can easily eat up more than 1 mi/hr of range.

 

[GtiMart]

Sentry uses energy (not miles of range) by keeping the whole computer system and the coolant pumps running so that the cameras work and the computer can analyze video and record. It's been estimated that this consumes 200-250w. That means 1kWh in 4-5h. Your battery contains energy, not miles of range. If you have a ~60kWh battery (as in an SR+ / RWD model 3) that will be 1/60 of your battery (1.7%) whereas on a bigger ~80kWh battery like on a dual motor it would be 1/80 (1.25%). For a whole day that is at least 8.5% vs 6.25%...

 

[golferguy]

Sounds like it was busy! Was it raining a lot? That can trigger the cameras to do lots of unnecessary recording, which can easily eat up more than 1 mi/hr of range.

The cameras are always recording. The triggers do nothing more than save the event. Think of this way, when an event is triggered, there are x minutes of video before the event occurred. Just like home WiFi cameras. They always record, but the "save" event is what is triggered.

Therefore the power drain is because the cameras are recording constantly and the video processing circuits are running continuously. Just the "save" of an event is a miniscule amount of power, I suspect not even measurable.

 

[bluenycom]

This is why I always turn off sentry mode when parking at airport or cruise terminal. People don't realize how much energy/power is needed to run 4 cameras continuously while keep the computer running to interpret if the videos have something important to flag it as sentry event.

 

[jjrandorin]

This is why I always turn off sentry mode when parking at airport or cruise terminal. People don't realize how much energy/power is needed to run 4 cameras continuously while keep the computer running to interpret if the videos have something important to flag it as sentry event.

If it was just that, I dont think it would be as much power as it is. The car simply was not designed with sentry mode as an option. Sentry mode prevents the car from going to sleep, so the entire car is awake.

 

[bluenycom]

If it was just that, I dont think it would be as much power as it is. The car simply was not designed with sentry mode as an option. Sentry mode prevents the car from going to sleep, so the entire car is awake.

If the computer is on continuously, it means the car is NOT asleep. The computer is brain of the car.

 

[jjrandorin]

If the computer is on continuously, it means the car is NOT asleep. The computer is brain of the car.

The car definitely could have been designed so the recording could happen, without the car being awake, and the computers on. It wasnt.

 

[MJB-CO]

When I park my 3 I turn off Recording, so the car is not continually saving camera footage. With Sentry Mode on it only saves clips if Se;ntry is activated. That saves a bit of energy.
Tesla is addressing the issue in an upcoming update: Tesla works to slash Sentry Mode power usage by ~40%, and why that's bigger than you think

 

[bluenycom]

When I park my 3 I turn off Recording, so the car is not continually saving camera footage. With Sentry Mode on it only saves clips if Se;ntry is activated. That saves a bit of energy.
Tesla is addressing the issue in an upcoming update: Tesla works to slash Sentry Mode power usage by ~40%, and why that's bigger than you think

It's good that they are working on it. It's not true that sentry mode only activated when there is an event, at least not now. There is no "motion" sensors like regular home security cameras. There are only cameras as they were originally designed for FSD, not security. Remember that sentry mode was added as a feature after. The only way for computer to know if there is an event is to actually review/process the video to determine what's important and flag it as an event and save the clip so you don't have to look for it. If you pull the thumb drive out and look, you'd see continuous video loops.

 

[ewoodrick]

I left at a park and fly for about a week with sentry mode on.

That's all I needed to know the issue and response.
Sentry takes a lot of power and will automatically turn off at 20%.

Expected behavior.

 

[Rocket_man]

For what its worth, I parked my 2022 M3 RWD/LFP at the airport for 16 days and lost less than 2%. Sentry off, cabin heat protection off, I didn't check on the car while I was gone. I was surprised, I expected to lose 1% per day.

Tesla would have to implement Sentry Mode into some sort of low power ASIC that can run on its own without using the AMD/Ryzen processor if they wanted to drastically reduce the load on the battery.

 

[Technokrat]

This is why I always turn off sentry mode when parking at airport or cruise terminal. People don't realize how much energy/power is needed to run 4 cameras continuously while keep the computer running to interpret if the videos have something important to flag it as sentry event.

Small correction 6 cameras

 

[ewoodrick]

Small correction 6 cameras

I'm pretty sure it's 9.

• Total cameras: Your Tesla is typically equipped with nine cameras—eight external and one internal.
• External cameras: The arrangement comprises:
  • Three front-facing cameras (one main, one wide-angle, and one telephoto)
  • Two side cameras on each front fender for blind spot detection
  • Two rearward side cameras
  • One rear view camera
• Internal camera: This is located above the rearview mirror and is focused on the cabin, playing a role in driver attentiveness checks and possibly for future robo-taxi services.

How Many Cameras Does A Tesla Have? Understanding Autopilot’s Vision System - SpeedTwitch

When discussing the advanced features of a Tesla, one can't overlook the vehicle's sophisticated camera system. Your Tesla is equipped with multiple cameras

speedtwitch.com

 

[bluenycom]

I'm pretty sure it's 9.

• Total cameras: Your Tesla is typically equipped with nine cameras—eight external and one internal.
• External cameras: The arrangement comprises:
  • Three front-facing cameras (one main, one wide-angle, and one telephoto)
  • Two side cameras on each front fender for blind spot detection
  • Two rearward side cameras
  • One rear view camera
• Internal camera: This is located above the rearview mirror and is focused on the cabin, playing a role in driver attentiveness checks and possibly for future robo-taxi services.

How Many Cameras Does A Tesla Have? Understanding Autopilot’s Vision System - SpeedTwitch

When discussing the advanced features of a Tesla, one can't overlook the vehicle's sophisticated camera system. Your Tesla is equipped with multiple cameras

speedtwitch.com

There are 9 cameras but I doubt that all 9 are used for sentry mode. I would think they reduce to the minimal number needed to save power.

 

[ewoodrick]

There are 9 cameras but I doubt that all 9 are used for sentry mode. I would think they reduce to the minimal number needed to save power.

While they may not be used, they are still probably powered up. The cameras don't use a lot of power, it's the computer.
The problem is that it's basically the main power hungry computer that has to stay awake. The car has to do similar computations to detect movement as it does to drive FSD.

The only time that Sentry tends to become an issue is then you park for multiple days. Most people easily have 10% extra for Sentry when charging daily.

 

[brkaus]

This is why I always turn off sentry mode when parking at airport or cruise terminal. People don't realize how much energy/power is needed to run 4 cameras continuously while keep the computer running to interpret if the videos have something important to flag it as sentry event.

This is why I never use sentry mode. It’s a lot of power and I haven’t needed it (luckily). Depending on electric rates, that’s over $1 per day. 2 teslas 5 & 6 years old. That’s a chunk of change.

 

[jjrandorin]

This is why I never use sentry mode. It’s a lot of power and I haven’t needed it (luckily). Depending on electric rates, that’s over $1 per day. 2 teslas 5 & 6 years old. That’s a chunk of change.

At home I park in my garage, and at work we have a gated access workplace so I dont use sentry in either place. I use it when I go to the grocery store, out to eat, Doctors offices, etc. Usually between 30 minutes and 2 hours tops, at any given time.