Sentry massively let me down.

[Msjulie]

I'm still waiting for a way to view these videos on the big high-res screen sitting right there in the car.

 

[Trevor B]

There's no exaggeration. If my car had been clipped by the vehicle leaving, which was more than possible given how close he was to me, then it wouldn't have been saved.

It's fine - we can agree to disagree, but if you have nothing useful to contribute to the actual discussion, maybe don't bother saying anything at all?

Could, woulda, shoulda ...

If ... then ...

 

[Supermanwoot]

TeslaCam in general, including Sentry, is unfortunately not reliable enough at this point to actually replace a dashcam. I was in a minor accident last week (no airbags, no pack disconnect, no MCU reboot or any other indication of power being cut - full story and a picture of the damage here). Unfortunately, I did not get the accident on dashcam - TeslaCam failed to write the footage for the critical ~27 seconds. Here're the timestamps from the video files that I was able to scrape off the thumb drive; that jump between the one minute segment that ended at :23 and next one that ended at :50 is when I got hit.

I've read about this happening before - Green recently published a series of tweets on missing footage after accidents here - and planned to buy a real dashcam but, well, didn’t. So I guess this is a PSA: learn from my mistakes, not from insurance liability investigations.

I've noticed when reviewing the dash cam that every single video has a gap after it before the next video starts. I almost got rear ended and wanted to see how close the guy got to me and it missed the entire event so it couldnt have even been used as evidence if he did hit me.

This seems like a really easy "fix" for tesla would be to just increase the video size to 5 minutes or 10 per video (assuming the gap wouldnt widen for processing larger videos) or have each camera record on a different timeline so at least one camera catches the incidence OR the real fix of actually try to optimize tesla cam better.

 

[Knightshade]

I've noticed when reviewing the dash cam that every single video has a gap after it before the next video starts. I almost got rear ended and wanted to see how close the guy got to me and it missed the entire event so it couldnt have even been used as evidence if he did hit me.

This seems like a really easy "fix" for tesla would be to just increase the video size to 5 minutes or 10 per video (assuming the gap wouldnt widen for processing larger videos) or have each camera record on a different timeline so at least one camera catches the incidence OR the real fix of actually try to optimize tesla cam better.

If I had to guess why it's so small it's that Tesla has a relatively small amount of buffer dedicated to this task... and it couldn't hold four videos 5-10 minutes in length before writing them to the USB device

Also the longer it spends writing a single video set the longer it is before the buffer is cleared to hold the next set.

 

[sjohnsun]

I'm trying to use Sentry Cam too before an accident happens. So in the "Sentry Clips" folder there are 328 files. I've been looking thru them and most of them contain nothing! No person walking by, no car pulling in. In fact in all those files I could find only one incident of a person walking in front of the car and another of a truck pulling out of parking space and driving off. How would I ever find an incident? I have a 256 GB Samsung USB drive.

Also I have heard there is some software that letts you view three video's at once. Anyone know the name of it?

 

[Knightshade]

I'm trying to use Sentry Cam too before an accident happens. So in the "Sentry Clips" folder there are 328 files. I've been looking thru them and most of them contain nothing! No person walking by, no car pulling in. In fact in all those files I could find only one incident of a person walking in front of the car and another of a truck pulling out of parking space and driving off. How would I ever find an incident? I have a 256 GB Samsung USB drive.

Also I have heard there is some software that letts you view three video's at once. Anyone know the name of it?

Remember- sentry doesn't record anything.

When it goes to alert mode it just moves the last 10 minutes of dashcam recordings to the sentry folder.

So typically the first 9 minutes won't have anything worth looking at for each 10 minute bunch of stuff copied over.

 

[malcolm]

There's no exaggeration. If my car had been clipped by the vehicle leaving, which was more than possible given how close he was to me, then it wouldn't have been saved.

Clearly this has concerned you a great deal, and collective forum advice can only go so far.

So would you be able to park up, set Sentry running and then do a series of walk-bys, rock the car with your hands, drive a second car around your Tesla, etc to see what does and doesn't trigger the system and does and doesn't get recorded?

Would this help your peace of mind?

 

[WilliamG]

Clearly this has concerned you a great deal, and collective forum advice can only go so far.

So would you be able to park up, set Sentry running and then do a series of walk-bys, rock the car with your hands, drive a second car around your Tesla, etc to see what does and doesn't trigger the system and does and doesn't get recorded?

Would this help your peace of mind?

No. But I’ll post the video later today if I get a second, showing exactly where it cut off.

 

[Skione65]

Thank you for your contribution. Really inciteful.

inciteful. Adjective. (comparative more inciteful, superlative most inciteful) That incites (rouses, stirs up or excites), or provides incitement.
https://www.yourdictionary.com/inciteful
Inciteful dictionary definition | inciteful defined - YourDictionary

in·sight·ful
/inˈsītfəl,ˈinsītfəl/
Learn to pronounce
adjective

1. having or showing an accurate and deep understanding; perceptive.
   "thank you for all the insightful comments"

Ski

 

[WilliamG]

inciteful. Adjective. (comparative more inciteful, superlative most inciteful) That incites (rouses, stirs up or excites), or provides incitement.
Inciteful dictionary definition | inciteful defined - YourDictionary

in·sight·ful
/inˈsītfəl,ˈinsītfəl/
Learn to pronounce
adjective

1. 
   
   
   • having or showing an accurate and deep understanding; perceptive.
     "thank you for all the insightful comments"

Ski

Thank you for correcting my typo. Good to see you looking out for me.

 

[chuckd29]

Also I have heard there is some software that letts you view three video's at once. Anyone know the name of it?

I have a USB-C plug in the car and connect it directly to my phone and use the TeslaCam / Sentry Reviewer Android App. It works great and shows all the cameras at once.

 

[sjohnsun]

Remember- sentry doesn't record anything.

When it goes to alert mode it just moves the last 10 minutes of dashcam recordings to the sentry folder.

So typically the first 9 minutes won't have anything worth looking at for each 10 minute bunch of stuff copied over.

Ok, well that's a good tip! - I owe you 9 minutes if you're ever short on time. Thanks!

 

[WilliamG]

Figured I'd post here, too, since it's another case of Sentry failing to do its job.

Once again, today, Sentry was triggered. I got back into the car to see there was an event, which happened in the last few seconds of the last file in the 10 minute saved clip. And guess what? There's no more footage after she starts walking toward/past my car. What's the point? Why did the last clip of the 10 minutes cut off at 23 seconds?

If I sound annoyed, it's because I am. Someone please explain this to me because I'm at a loss.

 

[ilyak]

Figured I'd post here, too, since it's another case of Sentry failing to do its job.

Once again, today, Sentry was triggered. I got back into the car to see there was an event, which happened in the last few seconds of the last file in the 10 minute saved clip. And guess what? There's no more footage after she starts walking toward/past my car. What's the point? Why did the last clip of the 10 minutes cut off at 23 seconds?

If I sound annoyed, it's because I am. Someone please explain this to me because I'm at a loss.

Are you sure that’s the triggering event? In the folder with the clips, there should be an event.json file that contains the time stamp of when sentry was triggered.

 

[WilliamG]

Are you sure that’s the triggering event? In the folder with the clips, there should be an event.json file that contains the time stamp of when sentry was triggered.

I believe so. I mean in my experience it’s always one of the last things that happens in that Sentry list of files. I’ve never had it trigger something earlier than the last clip. Unfortunately I just wiped the drive to set it up fresh in the hope maybe it would fix things (wishful) so I don’t have the files anymore. I’ll trigger it myself and see what happens - this weekend. Thanks.

 

[ilyak]

I believe so. I mean in my experience it’s always one of the last things that happens in that Sentry list of files. I’ve never had it trigger something earlier than the last clip. Unfortunately I just wiped the drive to set it up fresh in the hope maybe it would fix things (wishful) so I don’t have the files anymore. I’ll trigger it myself and see what happens - this weekend. Thanks.

The triggering event is typically in the second to last clip, and the actual point depends on when the event happens relatively to when the 1-minute cut off is. So you should be getting at least a full minute and up to two minutes of recordings after the triggering event. Of course, this can be insufficient if the triggering event is not the actual event you want to see and the actual event did not re-trigger sentry (if it does, the car starts a new event folder at that point).

The time stamp should give you a good idea of the specific point in time to look for.

 

[Need]

The triggering event is typically in the second to last clip, and the actual point depends on when the event happens relatively to when the 1-minute cut off is. So you should be getting at least a full minute and up to two minutes of recordings after the triggering event. Of course, this can be insufficient if the triggering event is not the actual event you want to see and the actual event did not re-trigger sentry (if it does, the car starts a new event folder at that point).

The time stamp should give you a good idea of the specific point in time to look for.

I agree that the triggering event is usually in the "second to last" file. The last file is usually a partial minute. If you go back to the full minute file, the event should be there.

But I am more interested in this event.json file. Is this something new? I haven't really following the development of the sentry mode. I always thought that since the car knows which minute has the event, it should "tell" you so you don't have to go search for it.

 

[ilyak]

But I am more interested in this event.json file. Is this something new? I haven't really following the development of the sentry mode. I always thought that since the car knows which minute has the event, it should "tell" you so you don't have to go search for it.

Yeah, I think they started including metadata for each event in 2020.12.5. Looks like this (redacting the coordinates is me, the file includes them):

{
    "timestamp":"2020-04-29T17:03:58",
    "city":"Rochester",
    "est_lat":"(redacted)",
    "est_lon":"(redacted)",
    "reason":"sentry_aware_object_detection"
}

I can't see why they'd do it other than to prepare for some kind of "jump to event" functionality, so it is probably coming. Green also noted that there're stubs of code related to streaming camera video to the phone app, although it sounds like it's been there for a while.

 

[Knightshade]

Yeah, I think they started including metadata for each event in 2020.12.5. Looks like this (redacting the coordinates is me, the file includes them):

{
    "timestamp":"2020-04-29T17:03:58",
    "city":"Rochester",
    "est_lat":"(redacted)",
    "est_lon":"(redacted)",
    "reason":"sentry_aware_object_detection"
}

I can't see why they'd do it other than to prepare for some kind of "jump to event" functionality, so it is probably coming. Green also noted that there're stubs of code related to streaming camera video to the phone app, although it sounds like it's been there for a while.

When asked about the streaming thing Elon said likely it could send still pics to your phone, but video would eat too much bandwidth