Sentry Mode doesn't use B pillar cameras?

[SheriffMoose]

I searched the forums regarding this and didn't see anyone mention it - do you know why Tesla doesn't use the B pillar cameras with Sentry Mode? It creates a pretty big blind spot on the front fenders since the front camera has a pretty narrow FOV.

I'm confident (and hopeful) that Tesla is going to make improvements to Sentry Mode this year, though wonder why they didn't include the B pillars when releasing it. Maybe the B pillars don't actually show a useful angle? Maybe because some HW versions don't have the B pillar cameras?

In any case, I've played around with Sentry Mode for a month or so now. Based on my experience with how it currently functions, I'm thinking I'm probably going to get a dedicated dash cam. I had a kid pour soda over the roof on a dare just 2 weeks after getting the car, and have heard Teslas are targeted a lot more for vandalism than the average vehicle While Sentry Mode did work for the incident I had, I worry it won't catch something if a person approaches from one of the front corners, and there also isn't any audio, which could be helpful in identifying a culprit.

All in all, I'm very happy to have Sentry Mode, but here's to hoping for improvements this year!

 

[CharleyBC]

Well, your hope for change is not without basis. We initially had three cameras recorded in Sentry Mode. Then they added the rear camera.

All Model 3s have the same set of eight cameras.

 

[Knightshade]

Well, your hope for change is not without basis. We initially had three cameras recorded in Sentry Mode. Then they added the rear camera.

All Model 3s have the same set of eight cameras.

9, technically, but the interior one isn't ever on

 

[SheriffMoose]

Well, your hope for change is not without basis. We initially had three cameras recorded in Sentry Mode. Then they added the rear camera.

All Model 3s have the same set of eight cameras.

Well, my thought was that maybe they were trying to make the software the same across the S, X, and 3. Many of the Ss didn't have the B pillar cameras, but most of them have the front facing, repeater, and rear cameras - that was my hypothesis anyway.

 

[Knightshade]

Well, my thought was that maybe they were trying to make the software the same across the S, X, and 3. Many of the Ss didn't have the B pillar cameras, but most of them have the front facing, repeater, and rear cameras - that was my hypothesis anyway.

huh?

There's 0 Teslas with repeater cams but no door pillar cams.

Prior to Oct 2016 they had 2 total cameras- one front one rear, that's it. AP1. (and prior to 2014 they only had the rear and no AP of course)

All cars after had 8... 3 front, 1 rear, 2 door pillar, 2 side repeater.

 

[SMAlset]

I suspect TeslaCam, which was borne out of a way to hopefully catch and deter the car break-ins that were happening here in the SF Bay area (and still are apparently from the news), is currently limited by MCU capability and storage. As it is Tesla went from 1 camera (front) to 3 (Side repeaters) and then 4 (rear) and each minute recording from each camera takes up something like 30MB.

I think the cameras they’ve used so far are very helpful in a lot of situations. Being able to see the side of your car as we do while not perfect sure has caught a lot of nasty people doing bad things and doing a pretty good job catching them in the act.

We have a traditional dashcam in our MS and it won’t catch the side of the car from the angle we get with TeslaCam. No dashcam is going to be perfect for a multitude of reasons. And cloud storage isn’t always the panacea for storage.

 

[sixela]

"do you know why Tesla doesn't use the B pillar cameras with Sentry Mode"

Better yet: after a break-in that triggered a Sentry Mode alarm on my Model 3, I contacted Tesla and the local Service Centre was able to recover images of the thief from the B-pillar camera feed, sent over LTE to Tesla (they did say they could only do it for the last 48 hours)!

So these are definitely recorded, though not stored onto a USB drive.

 

[jkoya]

Better yet: after a break-in that triggered a Sentry Mode alarm on my Model 3, I contacted Tesla and the local Service Centre was able to recover images of the thief from the B-pillar camera feed, sent over LTE to Tesla (they did say they could only do it for the last 48 hours)!

Thanks for the info - very helpful. Does the SC give you a copy of the video file from the B-Pillar cameras or still images of the thief ?

 

[SheriffMoose]

huh?

There's 0 Teslas with repeater cams but no door pillar cams.

Prior to Oct 2016 they had 2 total cameras- one front one rear, that's it. AP1. (and prior to 2014 they only had the rear and no AP of course)

All cars after had 8... 3 front, 1 rear, 2 door pillar, 2 side repeater.

My bad - I knew the HW1 cars had limited cameras, and thought that the repeater cameras came before the pillar cameras.

"do you know why Tesla doesn't use the B pillar cameras with Sentry Mode"

Better yet: after a break-in that triggered a Sentry Mode alarm on my Model 3, I contacted Tesla and the local Service Centre was able to recover images of the thief from the B-pillar camera feed, sent over LTE to Tesla (they did say they could only do it for the last 48 hours)!

So these are definitely recorded, though not stored onto a USB drive.

So then if that's the case, then I wonder why they don't include it in the Sentry Mode recordings locally. Regardless that is good info to know, and hopefully a sign of them adding the B pillar cameras in the future

 

[CSGeekme]

It would definitely be a welcome addition to see the b-pillar cameras used.