Sentry mode critical flaw

[Burrito]

the cameras are great for door dings, vandalism, etc but if someone breaks into your car and also takes your flash drive/sad then there goes your evidence.

We need a cloud option. I’m sure many would pay to store and remotely watch footage.

 

[hugh_jassol]

Um.... this already happens. Check the Sentry Mode release notes.

Sentry Mode will send recorded footage to Tesla for temporary backup and feature improvement. You can enable or disable this collection any time via the DATA SHARING video clip setting in Controls > Settings > Safety & Security. Please refer to your Owner’s Manual for more information.

 

[rpicklum]

It's a great thing if Tesla is grabbing these, but it's not a transparent process. I agree with Burrito that it would be good to have a full cloud option, certainly with review/download/send to cops capability, and it would get plenty of willing subscribers.

In that connection, I see that nearly all my sentry mode events consist of myself getting into the car. One improvement might be to back off the logging (and any uploading) if the event is immediately followed by an authorized entry. I've found it doesn't take many of the events to fill up the 32GB stick, then Tesla Cam is disabled.

For that matter, sentry shouldn't really be triggering the events given that my phone is well in range before I get close enough to trigger the proximity alarm. Perchance does validation with your phone wait until you touch the door handle?

 

[jsmay311]

Um.... this already happens. Check the Sentry Mode release notes.

Sentry Mode will send recorded footage to Tesla for temporary backup and feature improvement. You can enable or disable this collection any time via the DATA SHARING video clip setting in Controls > Settings > Safety & Security. Please refer to your Owner’s Manual for more information.

This raises way more questions for me than answers...

Most relevantly, this blurb in the manual doesn't explicitly say anything about videos being backed up if the USB drive is removed. Doing so would require all recent videos to be recorded both to the USB drive and also to saved in on-board storage since such large files would take a good while to upload to the cloud via cell networks or wifi. Has there been any indication to-date that such a capability actually exists?

And that would eat up a pretty large amount of cell data usage, which is another reason I'm doubtful that this is happening in the manner assumed.

But even assuming this actually happens as described in the manual, it still leaves some important question marks:

• When are videos backed up / uploaded? (Only when the "Alert state" is triggered?)
• Does it upload the full previous 10 minutes from all 3 cameras?
• How reliably are videos backed up? (I.e., Does it happen/work every time? Most of the time? Some of the time?)
• What counts as "temporary backup"? (I.e., How long will Tesla save the videos?)
• How would owners go about retrieving backed up videos?
• Have there been any actual instances of a owner successfully retrieving backed up videos from Tesla?

 

[Burrito]

All valid questions I’m sure no one at Tesla has an answer to :/

 

[Bill Foster]

While a thief could know to remove the thumb drive, I’d be willing to bet 99% of the scum that breaks into cars wouldn’t know about a USB drive or Sentry mode at all

 

[Chris350]

or spend the time to find it and yank it, all the while that the car is screaming bloody murder with the loud music and horn honking

 

[SMAlset]

It's a great thing if Tesla is grabbing these, but it's not a transparent process. I agree with Burrito that it would be good to have a full cloud option, certainly with review/download/send to cops capability, and it would get plenty of willing subscribers.

In that connection, I see that nearly all my sentry mode events consist of myself getting into the car. One improvement might be to back off the logging (and any uploading) if the event is immediately followed by an authorized entry. I've found it doesn't take many of the events to fill up the 32GB stick, then Tesla Cam is disabled.

For that matter, sentry shouldn't really be triggering the events given that my phone is well in range before I get close enough to trigger the proximity alarm. Perchance does validation with your phone wait until you touch the door handle?

With flashdrive prices so inexpensive it's not really that costly to jump to at least a 128GB drive. I would recommend however people looking into an Endurance rated product like one of the Samsung Endurance Pro microSD cards (SanDisk makes an Endurance one as well but not familiar with theirs) which is actually recommended for dashcam use and you use it with a USB card reader. The microSD cards are slightly more expensive than a USB drive but not by much. Card readers can be purchased off amazon for around $10-15 depending on connectors, so you have a lot of flexibility there depending on which device/s you have.

I've been using my card reader and microSD card for months now and there are pluses to going that route as some card readers come with a USB-C connector in addition to the USB-A one used in our Teslas which makes it very convenient to use with your Android phone. I'm an iPhone user so no help there but I can plug the USB-C end of the card reader into my newer MacBook Pro laptop which uses that connector. (Note btw: Samsung's EVO Select is not dashcam rated).

Something very interesting I noticed on Amazon today is that the Samsung 256GB Endurace Pro microSD card version many of us bought when it was on sale on Amazon just a month ago for $30 or slightly more depending on when you bought, is no longer listed. We bought a few of these cards for our cars and they have worked great so far. Had thought about picking up one or two more for additional backups down the road knowing all flash drive media has a limited lifespan. Don't know if this means they are just sold out on Amazon or what but found it's absence worth noting.

 

[Knightshade]

Most relevantly, this blurb in the manual doesn't explicitly say anything about videos being backed up if the USB drive is removed. Doing so would require all recent videos to be recorded both to the USB drive and also to saved in on-board storage since such large files would take a good while to upload to the cloud via cell networks or wifi.

The previous 10 minutes sentry records only uses 900 mb (10 30mb clips from each of 3 cameras, each clip being 1 minute long)

That's not really especially large files at all....it'd take less time on an average LTE connection to upload them than to actually watch them.


(that said- given Tesla pays for the bandwidth, I'd be shocked if they're actually uploading any sentry video at all.... and if they are it'd only be when the alarm is triggered, not on just alerts)