Recent Accident- Sentry/Dashcam did not record the Accident!!

[dskillz]

Was in a recent accident where a 18 Wheeler changed lanes and didn't see me (according to the driver!) In the shop now but the part that perplexes me is the Sentry/Dashcam recorded everything except the actual accident!! Took the Samsung T5 out of the Model 3 to review all the footage on my computer and definitely not there. It literally recorded footage right up to the point the accident occurred and began recording again after we had already pulled over to the side of the freeway.
It happened so quickly and I was in a bit of shock so I forgot to honk the horn or choose "save footage".

The accident occurred on November 24th, anyone know if Tesla might have the accident footage on their servers? if they do anyone know the best way to contact Tesla and get it?

 

[JulienW]

Did you hit SAVE? You must SAVE Dashcam footage (Sentry Cam saves events) or it will write over randomly as unused space.

EDIT: I see you didn't save so it is likely gone.

Also as far as going to Tesla servers don't know but in all likelihood it will be related to the G-Forces involved in a crash.

 

[Mattopotamus]

unfortunate, and I know the last thing most of us are thinking of is hitting that save button. Equally as important is making sure you hold the dash cam icon down until it turns grey when removing the SSD. Otherwise you run the risk of damaging the drive.

 

[The_Observer]

Sorry, if you didn't hit save, it's probably gone. Tesla should definitely make it a feature to automatically save during an accident (I suppose there's sensors that can do it reliably?), even to the internal storage as well.

 

[drtimhill]

You may have hit SAVE, but, are looking in the wrong place. When it saves video, it moves it from the one hour rolling save location to a permanent folder for the footage. This might explain why you can see everything except the accident.

If you didn't hit SAVE, but unplugged the drive with 45 mins or so, the video should still be there somewhere. I don't see how you could have video before/after, but not during. A very bad accident may cripple dash cam of course, but then you would not see "after" video.

 

[beachsideev]

did you hit the horn? honking the horn can be configured to also save the footage.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

did you hit the horn? honking the horn can be configured to also save the footage.

"It happened so quickly and I was in a bit of shock so I forgot to honk the horn or choose "save footage"."

 

[beachsideev]

did you look in the recent clips directory (or something like that) on a pc? I wanted to look at something yesterday and the clip was in there. I think hitting save just moves that clip to the saved folder and prevents it from being overwritten. But it should still be in the recent dir.

 

[dskillz]

did you look in the recent clips directory (or something like that) on a pc? I wanted to look at something yesterday and the clip was in there. I think hitting save just moves that clip to the saved folder and prevents it from being overwritten. But it should still be in the recent dir.

I checked that folder too. Not there.

 

[beachsideev]

Bummer

 

[SlimJim]

when you honk or say "record" doesn't it record the last 8-10 minutes?
I will have to remember that when I get into an accident.

 

[rdeca]

If your hard drive is big enough which I'm assuming it is since it's a T5, try using a data recovery software to check your hard drive. It will most likely not have overwritten it yet and still recoverable. Also, I suggest not plugging it back in your car so it doesn't write anymore data to the hard drive. Good luck

 

[JulienW]

when you honk or say "record" doesn't it record the last 8-10 minutes?
I will have to remember that when I get into an accident.

You must have Save on Honk turned on and it will save 10 minutes with some of that time AFTER the honk. Since normally you honk before or during an event and NOT after it is over.

 

[dskillz]

I did have "save on honk" enabled but as I stated I failed to honk the horn.

 

[drtimhill]

I second using data recovery software .. its quite probably the clips can be salvaged, and wont be hard to identify since the filenames are pretty self-explanatory. Not guaranteed of course, but def worth a try.

 

[Kamban]

I had a similar problem, I hit my brakes hard at 45 mph and yet could not stop hitting a driver who illegally made a dash across 2 lanes to go to the center lane. My front end was all smashed, all air bags deployed and yet the dash cam recording was not there. I was in a bit of a daze and had to slowly extract myself from under the side curtain bag outside a minute later. . The car display unit was frozen. Less than 10 minutes later I went inside to remove my Samsung SSD. Yet it had not caught the footage. Later reviewing it on my home computer I saw video from 3-4 minutes earlier on the same road as the last saved clip. How could that have been saved and not the last clip before the accident when the car did not move after that and it was just 10 mins when I took out and hence could not be overwritten. Perplexing.

I looked at all folders under Tesla cam and also correlated with the time shown on the file details.

 

[drtimhill]

I had a similar problem, I hit my brakes hard at 45 mph and yet could not stop hitting a driver who illegally made a dash across 2 lanes to go to the center lane. My front end was all smashed, all air bags deployed and yet the dash cam recording was not there. I was in a bit of a daze and had to slowly extract myself from under the side curtain bag outside a minute later. . The car display unit was frozen. Less than 10 minutes later I went inside to remove my Samsung SSD. Yet it had not caught the footage. Later reviewing it on my home computer I saw video from 3-4 minutes earlier on the same road as the last saved clip. How could that have been saved and not the last clip before the accident when the car did not move after that and it was just 10 mins when I took out and hence could not be overwritten. Perplexing.

I looked at all folders under Tesla cam and also correlated with the time shown on the file details.

You should probably report this to Tesla .. if this has happened twice it might be that we are looking at a DashCam bug (and a serious one at that). Since DashCam is only active when driving I'm wondering if it incorrectly interprets the accident as the car being stopped and so its ok to stop recording incidents, which is not good at all.

Not sure how to test that (no, I'm NOT going to crash me car in the interests of testing) .. perhaps stop and host horn, then see if the video is recorded?

 

[Kamban]

View attachment 614561

You should probably report this to Tesla .. if this has happened twice it might be that we are looking at a DashCam bug (and a serious one at that). Since DashCam is only active when driving I'm wondering if it incorrectly interprets the accident as the car being stopped and so its ok to stop recording incidents, which is not good at all.

Not sure how to test that (no, I'm NOT going to crash me car in the interests of testing) .. perhaps stop and host horn, then see if the video is recorded?

The funny thing was as soon as I got out from the car in a dazed state the first call I received was from Tesla. They stated that the car had sent them the info that it was involved in an accident and whether I was OK and if I needed any roadside assistance or tow. The tow would cost me whereas if my insurance towed it it can be charged to the other at-fault party. So I declined.

The car was a total. Its front and sides were all smashed up if you look at the picture. Yet amazingly this accident did not trigger automatic recording of the minutes leading up to the actual crash. You cant expect a driver in this sudden impact crash to try and blow his horn or try and find a button on the display to hit record. It should have automatically recorded and saved it. Major bug or incompetence on Tesla's side View attachment 614561

 

[drtimhill]

Airbag deployment should also trigger a DashCam event imho .. I don’t think it does though, does anyone know if it does?

 

[TLLMRRJ]

There isn’t one piece of the Tesla’s code that isn’t buggy and doesn’t need an overhaul. They just really aren’t very good at producing production software. Look at auto wipers, auto high beam, Spotify, dash cam, sentry, AP, 12v battery management, etc. They are very good at coming up software prototypes though.