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

[android04]

It's possible that during the impact of a crash the USB device gets jarred enough to lose connection and thus doesn't save the recording. Maybe Tesla's newest firmware updates that enable recording to the internal memory will make a copy there in case of accident.

 

[Kamban]

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

In my case, it did not trigger the recording or save it.

 

[SoCal Cal]

I had the same issue in Aug 2019, but my Blackvue recorded the accident. Car was totaled, so promptly bought another and still have a secondary dash cam for redundancy (Blackvue died after 13 months).

 

[drtimhill]

In my case, it did not trigger the recording or save it.

Nods, yes I'm not surprised. Tesla really need to fix this. Of course, airbags won't always deploy, but I agree that in the sudden shock an accident, it's hard to think logically and tap a button on the screen .. the car should have as many ways as possible of automating that.

 

[mluu510]

Tesla should save record automatically if abs kicks in

 

[beachsideev]

they have a bug in their dashcam because you shouldn't have to save anything. it should be constantly recording and if you have sufficient space, the last 30+ minutes should be there whether you save it or not. saving it should only prevent it from being overwritten. that's the way all other dashcams work.

I've looked for clips in the past and couldn't find them either which was frustrating. it should be better than this.

obviously if an accident causes loss of power or the mcu dies then all bets are off. my guess is this could have happened to the op.

 

[Robotpedlr]

I had the same issue in Aug 2019, but my Blackvue recorded the accident. Car was totaled, so promptly bought another and still have a secondary dash cam for redundancy (Blackvue died after 13 months).

Always good to have the redundant (higher quality video) of a blackvue or similar dash cam for this reason.

 

[drtimhill]

they have a bug in their dashcam because you shouldn't have to save anything. it should be constantly recording and if you have sufficient space, the last 30+ minutes should be there whether you save it or not. saving it should only prevent it from being overwritten. that's the way all other dashcams work.

I've looked for clips in the past and couldn't find them either which was frustrating. it should be better than this.

obviously if an accident causes loss of power or the mcu dies then all bets are off. my guess is this could have happened to the op.

And that is the way the Tesla DashCam works too (has to work, really). The OP was saying that he could not find the footage of the accident, just before/after footage, which is odd.

Pressing the DashCam button (or honking the horn) doesnt record anything .. it just moves the last 10 minutes of recording that was already saved from the "recording loop" into a different storage folder so that it isnt over-written no matter how long it takes before it is reviewed.

And yes, if the MCU is damaged this can be a problem though the video has already been written to at least the temporary storage (there is a delay of course but its small). The puzzle is that the OP says they found footage from after the accident, so it wasn't the MCU going bad per se.

 

[Kamban]

obviously if an accident causes loss of power or the mcu dies then all bets are off. my guess is this could have happened to the op.

I am not clear how long the video stays in the Tesla RAM before being transferred to the SSD or flash drive one attaches to the usb port. I am fairly sure there is a lag of 2 minutes or so.

Even if the MCU loses power it should have sent all the video up to the time of impact to the SSD. And even with a loss of power the video should have been in the SSD that can be viewed in a different computer. SSD taken out 10 minutes after an accident should have had that video since there was no chance of it being overwritten. Maybe the last second pre-impact might be gone but it should have everything before that.

In my case the last stored memory in my SSD was me turning from a side road on to a main 2 lane road and a couple of seconds after that. The accident impact occurred in the same main road but a mile further and at my speed of 40 mph it would have been 1.5-2 minutes from that recording. That video is completely missing in the SSD. I searched for every file including hidden files but no luck. Something does not compute the way Tesla Dashcam works.

 

[Mojito]

I had the same thing happen yesterday driving and someone side swiped me cliped me in the left front hit the save button after the car came to a stop. when i view it it had recorded before and after but nothing during my guess is that the usb jard out from the impacted i must have made sure it was secured before i hit the save button it happen so fast good thing there where many witnesses and the driver admitted he was at fault . But Kamban is using a ssd drive

 

[drtimhill]

I am not clear how long the video stays in the Tesla RAM before being transferred to the SSD or flash drive one attaches to the usb port. I am fairly sure there is a lag of 2 minutes or so.

Even if the MCU loses power it should have sent all the video up to the time of impact to the SSD. And even with a loss of power the video should have been in the SSD that can be viewed in a different computer. SSD taken out 10 minutes after an accident should have had that video since there was no chance of it being overwritten. Maybe the last second pre-impact might be gone but it should have everything before that.

In my case the last stored memory in my SSD was me turning from a side road on to a main 2 lane road and a couple of seconds after that. The accident impact occurred in the same main road but a mile further and at my speed of 40 mph it would have been 1.5-2 minutes from that recording. That video is completely missing in the SSD. I searched for every file including hidden files but no luck. Something does not compute the way Tesla Dashcam works.

My opinion is this should be raised with Tesla .. people rely on DashCam in accidents .. if its not working it needs to get fixed.

 

[Kamban]

My opinion is this should be raised with Tesla .. people rely on DashCam in accidents .. if its not working it needs to get fixed.

Any idea how I go about it. Unfortunately I have only one 500GB Samsung ssd on me and when my new Y arrived on 11/27 I had to use it in that car..

 

[Gasaraki]

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

You answered your own question. You need to honk the horn or press the save footage button.

 

[SMAlset]

I have no idea how the dashcam Save function works now a days but previously if you hit Save immediately after some event you wanted captured, the TeslaCam event recording could not be in the same 1-minute camera Record segment. It would be lost because it was still writing to the buffer at that point. I have a 9/2018 Model 3 and started first getting TeslaCam software features I think at the end of 2018. People back then and in 2019 were reporting lost accident footage but seeing before and after. The forum was telling users 1) before pressing Save to wait at least a minute to make sure the moment could be captured to the Save folder (goes in a folder containing the last 10 minutes from all the footage from all the car’s cameras) and then 2) to stop the recording by pressing the Camera to turn it off before removing the USB from the car. Otherwise people were running into errors “ejecting” the drive while the camera was still in record mode.

As I said I haven’t tested Save on my usb drive in some time so not sure what improvements/changes Tesla has made to the TeslaCam features recently.

 

[phil4791eng]

Anyone have new information on this? Someone ran a red light today, I T-boned them, and somehow they were able to drive away before the police got there. I’m sure the cameras would have got the license plate but it recorded My entire drive up until a few seconds before the accident. The Tesla is now at the tow yard but I can still pull up all my cameras on the app so they are still working. Again, missing the few critical seconds during the crash but the serene drive up until then is all recorded.

 

[Kamban]

I thought Tesla made a change that if the air bags deployed the recording prior to the impact would be saved. This was after I had my accident in 2020.

If the airbags did not deploy, then unless you had pressed the horn, there is a good chance that it might not have saved.

 

[phil4791eng]

I thought Tesla made a change that if the air bags deployed the recording prior to the impact would be saved. This was after I had my accident in 2020.

If the airbags did not deploy, then unless you had pressed the horn, there is a good chance that it might not have saved.

Yes, full deployment of the air bags did occur.

 

[Randy-12]

From the user manual

o customize how you want Dashcam to operate, touch Controls > Safety & Security and choose:

• Auto: Dashcam automatically saves a recording to the USB flash drive (if available and installed) in situations where Model 3detects a safety event, such as a collision or airbag deployment.
  Note
  When Auto is selected, detection can vary and is subject to your vehicle's power, sleep, and Autopilot state.
• Manual: You must touch the Dashcam icon to save a recording of the most recent 10 minutes of driving to the USB flash drive.
• Off: Dashcam is disabled until you select Auto or Manual.
• On Honk: When you press the horn, Dashcam saves a recording of the most recent 10 minutes of driving to the USB flash drive.

 

[Randy-12]

To my reading of this if it is on Honk....it will not auto save.
If it is on Auto it will not save on Honk.

Am I reading this right?

 

[drtimhill]

To my reading of this if it is on Honk....it will not auto save.
If it is on Auto it will not save on Honk.

Am I reading this right?

Yeah, that's how I read it too, which I dont think is what people want/expect. I would want both Auto AND Honk on at the same time.