i wish sentry mode would tag videos that also set off the vibration sensor. Its too easy to miss something if most events are just people walking past or cars leaving/entering the car park spots next to you
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Make sure you have sentry mode on!
- Thread starter Sootica
- Start date
I had a similar story. No CCTV but two witnesses. Police prosecuted the owner/driver. Have faith.
AndrewGR
Member
I think the police often pursue this sort of case. It’s an easy win for them and a successfully solved crime. Good for the statistics. Although it doesn’t always work like that. Some years ago my car was hit. The other driver stopped and then drove off after pretty much admitting he was uninsured. I had photographed the number plate and driver by then. I was impressed by the efforts the police went to to try and trace the driver although I think he rapidly returned to West Africa when a warrant was issued for his arrest. The car was insured but the owner said the driver had taken it without his permission - so it ended up as a hit on my insurance which affected my premiums for at least 5 years.
Sorry to the OP for hearing this, I would be so angry if it was a couple year old car but I think it magnifies when the car is just a couple weeks old. I hope the police do something and the 3rd party insurance pays out if they had it.
Just curious why nobody would have sentry mode on at home? I mean for most people, home charging is available so having the car plugged in overnight would not cause any battery drain to affect you the next day (I understand for those who don't have home charging installed).
My view is that, if it doesn't cost you anything on the battery or range for the next day, why not have it turned on? At least you get a closer or better view of what is going on if such an incident happens. I have 3 cameras covering the front of my property but I will be sure to have sentry on at home too. Maybe I am missing the reasoning why it would be off at home.
The car needs to be fully awake to operate sentry, which is quite inefficient and in my mind, a waste of energy even if it's plugged in. It would be cheaper in the long run to install a security camera tbh (and more reliable).
And as I found at the weekend, sentry mode can inexplicably fail when most needed (attempted break in to our car in a hotel car park - app listed sentry mode event and the car alarm triggered but when we came to review footage, nothing recorded yet earlier & later events were - luckily only a few hundred pounds worth of damage).
For sure, CCTV is better to have installed but my view is that it doesn't harm to have the extra cameras there ready to record. I'm not sure what the efficiency impact is having it switch on through the night at home but surely it wouldn't be more than a home system would it?
Might have to do a comparison test when I get mine delivered next week. I'm intrigued to understand the impact.
I know sentry can fail and I know home security is more preferable but in my view, if someone is coming on to my drive to look around the car, the cameras on the car are in a much better position to catch facial details of a person than my camera mounted to the walls at home. This is just my view anyway
I do have cctv at home covering the drive but still think it will be left on. The reason I now have two cameras at the front when before I had one is because somebody put a nail under my tyre ready for me to reverse over last year and although I could see them do it the coverage just wasn't good enough so now I have a second camera covering the other side of the drive.
In my experience you can't have too much coverage when something does happen.
Oddest thing to watch, the guy crouched down and crawled across next doors lawn to balance the nail in the right place. Luck would have it that tpms kicked in and I stopped and turned back but it was all a major pita and cost me a new tyre.
In my experience you can't have too much coverage when something does happen.
Oddest thing to watch, the guy crouched down and crawled across next doors lawn to balance the nail in the right place. Luck would have it that tpms kicked in and I stopped and turned back but it was all a major pita and cost me a new tyre.
I agree with the car cams possibly catching a better angle / details, but I have two decent 1080p cams covering the front and I'd rather not have the car stay awake all the time. I plan to upgrade them to 4k, but they do a good job as is.
Though, if I had to park on the street, I'd probably leave sentry mode on. Luckily, I don't.
It's massively more impact that a home system. Leaving Sentry on consumes about 250-300W/h, so say you arrive home at 6pm and leave at 8am the next morning that's 3.5Kwh, 5% of a charge on a LR. A camera like a Ring has 6Ah battery that lasts 6 months.
The same goes if you are leaving your car at the airport, you will lose about 10% a day with sentry mode on, until you get to 20% when it's turned off.
DigbyChicken
Member
Good to know, thanks for the insights, sounds like you have researched it thoroughly which I have not, I just assumed it would not be that inefficient but you know what they say about making assumptions
Yes, the reason appears to be that the whole computer system that is required for many other of the car's systems has to be running for dash cam/Sentry Mode functions. Apparently the dash cam and sentry features were added as an extra when they realised that with all these camera on the car it was something that could be done with a software update. A dedicated camera system only runs the resources that it needs for its own particular functions so is much more energy efficient.
One reason might be bright flashing headlights "lasers" that go off when it detects something, There are other threads about these flashes.
I was staying in an AirBnB recently and their parking space was at the front of the house but narrow so you had to park parallel to the road. The first morning I noticed a few sentry mode events and they were all cars driving towards the Tesla. The second morning I looked and saw the police looking around my car, when I fully reviewed the footage I could see the car approaching then the bright sentry mode flashes, I still haven't check how bright these are, The police car stopped, reversed back and a police officer walked around the car looking in. Luckily he found nothing wrong so didn't hear anymore but I did then park the other direction the next night so the nose of the car was pointing away from the road. Checking all the other footage over the previous nights I can see every sentry mode event was a car approaching and then the bright flashes My concern after this is how distracting this might be for a driver if he is suddenly flashed innocently driving down the road at night.
I left sentry mode off before this but I am not wary of trying it because I don't want to cause a reason for someone walking innocently down the street and then feeling they should do something to the car for flashing. I do use sentry mode away from home, for some other completely contradictory reason!
Local police phoned me not once but on two separate occasions when I reported cars going through red lights with footage. In the first incident, they thanked me and told me that they had visited the lady concerned and issued her with a warning. The second incident was actually a police car that was not on blue lights. They didn't seem as enthusiastic to give me feedback on that one for some reason ...
Cardo
Active Member
Your local constabulary are far more responsive than mine! When I suffered a hit and run, the police couldn’t have cared less. They just passed the details of the alleged driver onto me (which was the opposite gender to the person who had been driving, clearly with no insurance).
Quick update: Direct Line claims assessor watched the video and has waived the excess and I can get the car repaired at no cost to me. The other party still hasn't responded to his /her insurance company - but I think when they get a bill from DL they'll soon chase them!
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