Record from Built-In Cameras

[randall_s]

I have a BlackVue camera that's not installed yet. There's nobody with experience installing these close to where I live (in MS) and I really hate to get into a new car and potentially break something, so I've put off the install. The Model S has two cameras built in already; The rear backup camera and the front camera used to see lines on the road, read speed limit signs, and who knows what else. I think it would be REALLY, REALLY NICE to install a program (Tesla or 3rd party) that used these built-in cameras for surveillance like the BlackVue cameras. I'd be happy with the picture from the backup camera. Who knows what the front camera sees, but it must be pretty good to read road signs and lines on the road.

So ... is this feasible? And if a Tesla employee is reading this, please please this would be so nice and give Tesla some more bragging rights! (Do any other cars ship with built-in dash cams?)

 

[David99]

It would be an obvious choice to do, but I have never seen or heard of anyone who has successfully done that. Doing that would require more than just connect two wires. Installing the Dashcam you have is far less intrusive.

Honestly, I think auto makers should make dahcams standard in every car. The amount of insurance fraud and wasted court time would be greatly reduced if everyone had video evidence from traffic accidents.

 

[randall_s]

Honestly, I think auto makers should make dahcams standard in every car. The amount of insurance fraud and wasted court time would be greatly reduced if everyone had video evidence from traffic accidents.

Agreed.

It would be an obvious choice to do, but I have never seen or heard of anyone who has successfully done that. Doing that would require more than just connect two wires. Installing the Dashcam you have is far less intrusive.

What I have in mind isn't a hardware mod. Tesla built the car with "apps" in mind like TuneIn. Surprised they haven't yet, but they should offer an app platform that provides an API to network/audio/video, etc. If the API included feeds from the cameras, one could create a dash cam program from those feeds. Tesla could offer a dash cam app as standard, possibly being the first in the industry. I believe this would be very popular.

 

[David99]

If the API included feeds from the cameras, one could create a dash cam program from those feeds. Tesla could offer a dash cam app as standard, possibly being the first in the industry. I believe this would be very popular.

That would be great. I believe the reason Tesla has not allowed any apps is their hardware isn't up to run additional tasks. The UI is laggy as it is. They might also be extra careful about security and don't want to take any risks about apps.

 

[TAE2601]

I have a BlackVue camera that's not installed yet. There's nobody with experience installing these close to where I live (in MS) and I really hate to get into a new car and potentially break something, so I've put off the install. The Model S has two cameras built in already; The rear backup camera and the front camera used to see lines on the road, read speed limit signs, and who knows what else. I think it would be REALLY, REALLY NICE to install a program (Tesla or 3rd party) that used these built-in cameras for surveillance like the BlackVue cameras. I'd be happy with the picture from the backup camera. Who knows what the front camera sees, but it must be pretty good to read road signs and lines on the road.

So ... is this feasible? And if a Tesla employee is reading this, please please this would be so nice and give Tesla some more bragging rights! (Do any other cars ship with built-in dash cams?)

Great idea. But I believe privacy issue could make it very difficult for manufacture to add this feature.

 

[randall_s]

Great idea. But I believe privacy issue could make it very difficult for manufacture to add this feature.

OK. So what if you (the user) had to install the app first. How is that different (privacy wise) from the user installing cameras?

 

[gsxdsm]

The rear camera is never processed by the CPU. It feeds video directly to the screen. It is not possible to add support for recording it anywhere (its literally not wired to support that).

The front camera is not your average camera - it is tuned specifically for image recognition. Again, the images never reach the main CPU for processing. All of the processing is done in the AP unit (there is a separate MobileEYE CPU in the AP unit). All the car receives are outlines and object metadata. There is no image from the camera passed to the main CPU.

Besides, the CPU is so old, doing any sort of video processing or recording is out of the question. It can barely render a webpage!

 

[randall_s]

The rear camera is never processed by the CPU. It feeds video directly to the screen. It is not possible to add support for recording it anywhere (its literally not wired to support that).

The front camera is not your average camera - it is tuned specifically for image recognition. Again, the images never reach the main CPU for processing. All of the processing is done in the AP unit (there is a separate MobileEYE CPU in the AP unit). All the car receives are outlines and object metadata. There is no image from the camera passed to the main CPU.

Besides, the CPU is so old, doing any sort of video processing or recording is out of the question. It can barely render a webpage!

Thanks. I can lay that idea to rest now. Curious how you know details about the image processing (or lack thereof).

 

[simonog]

Curious how you know details about the image processing (or lack thereof).

The addition of the front camera was widely researched and discussed in this forum, down to the processing chip level in the camera.

That allowed people to deduce from public data what the output of the camera would consist of.