Rear ended - how to get dashcam video from Model 3?

[PeterK]

This morning I was hit from behind on I-93 North in southern NH when traffic slowed and then stopped. It scraped paint off and maybe dented my pristine bumper, and smashed the right hand reflector. Minimal if any damage to his car - the license plate hit my bumper. We pulled over to the shoulder, took photos and exchanged info but I forgot to hit the dashcam save button. I don’t think it’s necessary but the video would show I had completely stopped when I was hit.

I drove another two hours afterwards. The USB flash drive is big - 64 or 128 GB - but I don’t have a usb to usb-c adapter on me to plug into my laptop and have a 3 hour drive home tomorrow.

Questions:
1) Do I have enough space to keep using the dashcam for the drive home, or should I pull the drive now?

2) I know how to view the saved files, but how do I find the right clip among the general recording? What file(s) should I be looking at?

Thanks.
Peter

 

[bluetinc]

Sorry about your accident! Pull the drive now, it's not worth the risk of having it overwritten, it's a relatively small loop they use. I'm curious about your note about a USB C adapter, isn't the USB stick just your standard USB Type A that would just plug into the laptop directly?

The files should all be in the TeslaCam directory, and while the timestamps may be the wrong timezone, you should be able to use the delta of their times to align yourself to the accident quickly once you check one or two. (You will need to watch them in vlc or the like and may need to rename the .rec to mp4). Hopefully it's still there. -- Peter

 

[Need]

1) There is no rear dashcam video, only the one in front, so there is no video. EDIT: Just re-read that you want the front video to show that you are stopped. I guess you could get that but read #2 below.

2) You only have 1 hour of video buffer (if you do not hit to save) no matter the size of your USB drive. And that buffer kept ticking even if you are parked. So if you take 30 min to drive home, and the car been sitting the garage for 30 min, you will have no video clips in the your buffer left. I would pull the drive out now without turning on the car to see if you have anything left.

3) You are the one being rear ended, so you should be fine so don't worry too much!

 

[PeterK]

1) There is no rear dashcam video, only the one in front, so there is no video

2) You only have 1 hour of video buffer if you do not hit to save no matter the size of your USB drive.

3) You are the one being rear ended, so you should be fine so don't worry too much!

I know there’s no rear video, but from the front you could see I came to a full stop before the car then jerks forward from the impact. If it’s only an hour max, oh well. Next time I’ll remember- though hope there isn’t one.

I have a new MacBook Pro that only has USB-C so need an adapter to read the USB.

Thanks!

 

[3TRAY]

2) You only have 1 hour of video buffer (if you do not hit to save) no matter the size of your USB drive. And that buffer kept ticking even if you are parked. So if you take 30 min to drive home, and the car been sitting the garage for 30 min, you will have no video clips in the your buffer left. I would pull the drive out now without turning on the car to see if you have anything left.

What is the source of this info? Why would the feature only retain 1 hour of video buffer if the storage medium had more space available?

 

[Need]

What is the source of this info? Why would the feature only retain 1 hour of video buffer if the storage medium had more space available?

Unless they changed it from around Nov last year, that was how it was when I tested it. The buffer has 60 files of 1 min each of the last hour. Each file is about 30MB in size, so you only need a 2GB USB drive to hold the buffer. The rest of the drive is for your SAVED 10 min (10 files). A bigger drive will let you hit save more times without off loading them.

Now the next dashcam update will add the left and right camera.. so it will probably need a 6GB USB to hold the buffer.. but I don't have it yet to test!

 

[animorph]

I can confirm the 1 hour buffer, at least for the initial implementation. There are probably no files on the drive.

However, you should be able to use a file recovery app/service to recover the deleted files. They have file names that say "recent" and date and time. Each file is one minute of video. Good luck!

 

[Need]

However, you should be able to use a file recovery app/service to recover the deleted files. They have file names that say "recent" and date and time. Each file is one minute of video. Good luck!

Interesting. I didn't even think about that. The time stamps for the file names are all different, so theoretically all the deleted buffers are still there until something new is written to it...

 

[3TRAY]

Unless they changed it from around Nov last year, that was how it was when I tested it. The buffer has 60 files of 1 min each of the last hour. Each file is about 30MB in size, so you only need a 2GB USB drive to hold the buffer. The rest of the drive is for your SAVED 10 min (10 files). A bigger drive will let you hit save more times without off loading them.

Now the next dashcam update will add the left and right camera.. so it will probably need a 6GB USB to hold the buffer.. but I don't have it yet to test!

Gotcha. I understand what you mean now. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[PeterK]

I can confirm the 1 hour buffer, at least for the initial implementation. There are probably no files on the drive.

However, you should be able to use a file recovery app/service to recover the deleted files. They have file names that say "recent" and date and time. Each file is one minute of video. Good luck!

Good idea - I’ll give it a try when I’m back home. Thanks.

 

[brkaus]

Also note that, at least at one point, pressing save would result in a minute getting lost. The one that was most recently recorded.

Also, press and hold to stop writing before pulling the USB.

 

[Dana1]

I know there’s no rear video, but from the front you could see I came to a full stop before the car then jerks forward from the impact. If it’s only an hour max, oh well. Next time I’ll remember- though hope there isn’t one.

I have a new MacBook Pro that only has USB-C so need an adapter to read the USB.

Thanks!

I checked video folder a couple of days after watching a deer jump a fence and it was there (I’d hit save). Maybe you’ll be lucky, too.

 

[hugh_jassol]

What is the source of this info? Why would the feature only retain 1 hour of video buffer if the storage medium had more space available?

The V9 release notes: Discover Software Version 9.0

 

[woof]

Gah! Hopefully easily (if not quickly?) fixed. I can do some forensics on your drive if you need help.

 

[PeterK]

Thanks for the info. I got home but haven't had time or energy to do a scan of the USB for deleted files - I think I need to download an app for my Mac. But as someone pointed out it's not necessary as the insurance company has already determined I'm not liable so no deductible. And an appraiser already looked at the car yesterday and determined that the bumper is cracked where the right reflector was smashed, so needs to be replaced. Parts of $350-400, and paint and labor bring it to $800 or so, per their appraisal. I need to contact a body shop.

 

[EVDRVN]

Thanks for the info. I got home but haven't had time or energy to do a scan of the USB for deleted files - I think I need to download an app for my Mac. But as someone pointed out it's not necessary as the insurance company has already determined I'm not liable so no deductible. And an appraiser already looked at the car yesterday and determined that the bumper is cracked where the right reflector was smashed, so needs to be replaced. Parts of $350-400, and paint and labor bring it to $800 or so, per their appraisal. I need to contact a body shop.

As expected, in a situation like that you would not be at fault and since it was not hit and run footage is moot. Had there had been significant damage it is possible the car would have recored files on it's system which you can't access. I have seen many files from the internal Tesla cams from totaled cars and they are accessible if you have the skills.

 

[PeterK]

As expected, in a situation like that you would not be at fault and since it was not hit and run footage is moot. Had there had been significant damage it is possible the car would have recored files on it's system which you can't access. I have seen many files from the internal Tesla cams from totaled cars and they are accessible if you have the skills.

Yes, but it would have been cool ... kicking myself (lightly) for not remembering to hit save afterwards.

 

[Glamisduner]

You can usually recover files that were removed from your thumb drive. Just pull it and if the file isn't there, you can try a free recovery software. As long as the drive has not actually written over those blocks of memory you should be able to recover it. And drives are pretty good about distributing re-writes