Sentry mode as a full dashcam

[J86E9BY2UW]

Hi, after a (light) accident I went to see my sentry mode settings which is on AUTO + ON HONK

However, I noticed it didnt actually record the incident, can someone explain to me why

I assume that only large impacts are recorded but thats no good to me when I want to re-watch the footage

Can someone tell me how to fully record on the sentry like a dashcam, dont mind if it re-records old footage and also dont mind buying a bigger USB

 

[up_north]

The dashcam constantly records all cameras but overwrites after 60 minutes. If you looked in the Recent Clips folder within 60 minutes you might have found the incident had been recorded anyway. No point in buying a bigger USB, it won’t record for any longer period of time.

 

[pgkevet]

You have to hit record (or have to do the honk thing) but wait 10-25 seconds after the incident in case of write delays.

 

[Durzel]

You have to hit record (or have to do the honk thing) but wait 10-25 seconds after the incident in case of write delays.

The best advice. Definitely not a good idea to beep at the time of the event, although beeping at the time is exactly what you’d expect to do. Completely incongruous.

 

[J86E9BY2UW]

Ah so, say if theres a collision, press the honk (or manually touch the button) and it will save (presume the last 10 minutes)

It was soo hot that day, when I returned back into my car in the night to view it was gone. I couldn't even touch the buttons
Furthermore at the time of the incident I was talking to the third party and was focused on driving home

I will remember next time to save the continuous recording but I didn't know it would have been overwritten, kind of defeats the purpose and who beeps for no reason, it does look kind of silly to do so.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

Basically Sentry is what it says on the tin.. it's designed to watch whilst the car is parked and will record if you're hit otherwise it only keeps the last hour.

Tesla could make it a proper dashcam (add speed data, keep recordings until the drive fills, that kind of thing) but thus far they haven't shown any signs of doing so.

 

[J86E9BY2UW]

Basically Sentry is what it says on the tin.. it's designed to watch whilst the car is parked and will record if you're hit otherwise it only keeps the last hour.

Tesla could make it a proper dashcam (add speed data, keep recordings until the drive fills, that kind of thing) but thus far they haven't shown any signs of doing so.

Yes, Sentry is a great feature

However it is good to have a usable dashcam too (then you have to weigh the pros and cons of battery usage etc) however it may be easier to just get an extra dashcam, having protected NCB it has been less on the priority list.

 

[pgkevet]

Ah so, say if theres a collision, press the honk (or manually touch the button) and it will save (presume the last 10 minutes)

It was soo hot that day, when I returned back into my car in the night to view it was gone. I couldn't even touch the buttons
Furthermore at the time of the incident I was talking to the third party and was focused on driving home

I will remember next time to save the continuous recording but I didn't know it would have been overwritten, kind of defeats the purpose and who beeps for no reason, it does look kind of silly to do so.

It overwrites when you start a new journey so just getting back in after the incident would have done so. You can save the recoding manually by pressing the camera icon (in my S). Just another example of a Tesla bodge-patch that doesn't quite do what you'd expect.

 

[Artiste]

Basically Sentry is what it says on the tin.. it's designed to watch whilst the car is parked and will record if you're hit otherwise it only keeps the last hour.

Tesla could make it a proper dashcam (add speed data, keep recordings until the drive fills, that kind of thing) but thus far they haven't shown any signs of doing so.

Even if they did the Tesla dashcam would still be very poor. The cameras used are only believed to be 1.2 megapixels, which is barely half the resolution of full HD. Images from a dedicated 4k dashcam are incomparably better.

 

[init6]

Hi, after a (light) accident I went to see my sentry mode settings which is on AUTO + ON HONK

However, I noticed it didnt actually record the incident, can someone explain to me why

I assume that only large impacts are recorded but thats no good to me when I want to re-watch the footage

No need to assume - its in the manual:

Note
Several factors determine whether or not Dashcam automatically saves a recording of a safety event (for example, amount of force, whether or not airbags deployed, etc.). Do not rely on Dashcam to automatically record video of all safety events

Ah so, say if theres a collision, press the honk (or manually touch the button) and it will save (presume the last 10 minutes)

It was soo hot that day, when I returned back into my car in the night to view it was gone. I couldn't even touch the buttons
Furthermore at the time of the incident I was talking to the third party and was focused on driving home

I will remember next time to save the continuous recording but I didn't know it would have been overwritten, kind of defeats the purpose and who beeps for no reason, it does look kind of silly to do so.

You said in the same post that you can save the recording by pressing the button - no need to 'look silly'
Also you can cool the car down from the app, so no need to get into a car that has hot buttons.

 

[spooksman]

I had a guy pull out in front of me today and I hit the horn right there and then (frustration!).

Checking the 'footage' when I got home, it caught the guy pulling out in front of me and about 3 seconds after the event. There was then a gap before it continued the recording - I assume that was when it was saving the clip.

if I had tagged him (it was close) there would have been enough to show fault on his part.

 

[Adopado]

The Sentry Mode and Dashcam features operate separately ... so the thread title is actually a bit muddled. The Sentry Mode recordings and the Daschcam recordings are listed under their own headings when you go to view them. Sentry Mode for when you are parked and Dashcam for when driving. Sentry Mode only operates when you have switched the feature on. Dashcam records all the time you are driving. So long as you press the horn or press the record button Dashcam keeps a permanent recording and pretty much does what it says on the tin. Not fabulous video quality because that's not what the cameras were originally designed for... it's an extra feature of the car that was added via a nifty software update. It may feel a bit cobbled together because that's what it is! As @init6 says, features and useage are all in the manual.