Sentry Mode in the Rain

[Birdman325]

My car was outside in the driveway overnight with Sentry mode on. Started raining pretty heavily at about 2 am.

Woke up and got in the car to 134 sentry events! (Not sure how this can be addressed, but it’s kind of funny)

 

[NachoCar]

Might be worth sending in a Bug Report from your car. I've had my car out in the rain before with Sentry mode and never had that happen before.

 

[KenC]

Did your driveway have a light on? Just wondering if the cameras could see the raindrops better triggering the sentry alerts.

 

[ScanitMan]

I live in the woods. My car is under a carport. Nobody around but me and my dog. I feel like there's an issue with my Sentry mode since I cleared out my flash drive the other day and the next day I had 897 'events'. I noticed that when I walked toward my car from about 50' the lights flashed. When I'm parked in town with people walking around I get lots of event recordings. I've also found that the dash cam is recording and saving clips although I've never saved a clip. I have a service ticket in with mobile, but last time they were here the tech didn't have an answer for this.

 

[Big Earl]

I live in the woods. My car is under a carport. Nobody around but me and my dog. I feel like there's an issue with my Sentry mode since I cleared out my flash drive the other day and the next day I had 897 'events'. I noticed that when I walked toward my car from about 50' the lights flashed. When I'm parked in town with people walking around I get lots of event recordings. I've also found that the dash cam is recording and saving clips although I've never saved a clip. I have a service ticket in with mobile, but last time they were here the tech didn't have an answer for this.

Is Sentry Mode really necessary if you live in the woods with nobody around? It uses quite a bit of energy.

 

[ScanitMan]

Is Sentry Mode really necessary if you live in the woods with nobody around? It uses quite a bit of energy.

I have it turned off for home, but it is still recording. That's part of my issue.

 

[KenC]

When you look at your recordings, do they seem to show the proper views? Seems like they are triggering at a greater distance than normal.

Saving clips can happen if you hit a bump, so if you drive extremely bumpy rural roads, you might get alot of events recorded.

 

[SMAlset]

I live in the woods. My car is under a carport. Nobody around but me and my dog. I feel like there's an issue with my Sentry mode since I cleared out my flash drive the other day and the next day I had 897 'events'. I noticed that when I walked toward my car from about 50' the lights flashed. When I'm parked in town with people walking around I get lots of event recordings. I've also found that the dash cam is recording and saving clips although I've never saved a clip. I have a service ticket in with mobile, but last time they were here the tech didn't have an answer for this.

Yes, that is how Sentry mode works. Have you read the manual on it? Sentry Mode detects someone approaching your car and it will save the footage from that point and about 9 minutes before into the SavedClips folder. The car doesn't have the ability to evaluate what the approaching person/s might do near your car so records the video incase they keyed your car, etc and you need footage to help identify the person. Sometimes people up to no good will linger a bit while contemplating if they want to key or are casing it before breaking the car's glass to flip the rear seat down looking for stealables. Also sometimes it will capture a license plate on a car that can prove helpful. These files don't get automatically recorded over, like the TeslaCam RecentClips video which are the 3 cameras capturing everything. The RecentClips folder comprises of an hour of live footage in one-minute segments from each camera and if Sentry mode gets triggered or if you manually save off a video (accident or something else you want to preserve) it will take those files from the RecentClips buffer and add it to the SavedClips folder.

Yes, I've noticed the car will flash it's headlights one time when Sentry is triggered. Saw a clip just recently when parked at a restaurant in front of glass windows that recorded the flash. I'm guessing here but if the car senses your phone as a key as you approach it may do so as well. As you probably know, it doesn't set off the alarm when you open the door even though it knew someone was approaching the car.

I don't think there is anything wrong with your car and it is operating as intended. BTW you need to prune the SavedClips folder of unwanted footage or the accumulation of video footage will fill up your drive and it will stop working. Happens really quickly with flashdrives at the low capacity end.

 

[SMAlset]

My car was outside in the driveway overnight with Sentry mode on. Started raining pretty heavily at about 2 am.

Woke up and got in the car to 134 sentry events! (Not sure how this can be addressed, but it’s kind of funny)

That must have been some heavy rainfall you had. Haven't had that happen to me so far but then we don't usually get really strong downpours.

 

[cdubois]

This just happened to my Model 3 on a weekend trip to my brother-in-law's place. I'm doing my usual early morning work on my laptop in the living room during some moderate rain. I kept seeing headlights flash about every minute or two without a car driving by, So I stared off into the driveway, and it was my Model 3 flashing the headlights every few minutes. I shut off sentry mode from my phone and it stopped. With the additional sentry activity and only a 10 degree temperature drop, range is reporting down over 15 miles since parking last night.

It'll be interesting to see how many events occurred once I get out there. Thanks Google for finding this thread immediately when looking up this problem.

 

[outdoors]

Is Sentry Mode really necessary if you live in the woods with nobody around? It uses quite a bit of energy.

I know we have seen bears on clips while use on autopilot. I would love to see a bear sniffing around a Tesla with Sentry mode on. Might be the next fun clip that we all get to see rather than idiots keying cars. Just hope no claws on the precious paint.

 

[NuttyM3]

I’m at my in-laws in Tennessee and my 2019 Model 3 is parked outside and last night it rained pretty heavy. I charged to 90% and then unplugged for the night. I left Sentry Mode on and this morning only lost 4%. I didn’t think that was too bad for overnight for 10-11 hours.

 

[cdubois]

This just happened to my Model 3 on a weekend trip to my brother-in-law's place. I'm doing my usual early morning work on my laptop in the living room during some moderate rain. I kept seeing headlights flash about every minute or two without a car driving by, So I stared off into the driveway, and it was my Model 3 flashing the headlights every few minutes. I shut off sentry mode from my phone and it stopped. With the additional sentry activity and only a 10 degree temperature drop, range is reporting down over 15 miles since parking last night.

It'll be interesting to see how many events occurred once I get out there. Thanks Google for finding this thread immediately when looking up this problem.

I figured this out when setting off for the morning. There were acorns dropping on the car. They won't hurt anything, but the sound of them hitting must have been setting off sentry mode.

 

[nvx1977]

I've had false positives parked in front of rock walls. Must be like some optical illusion for the car cameras or something, but the car thinks it sees motion in the rocks when there is none. I've scoured the sentry saved clips for visible signs of a trigger and have never found any.

Typical rock wall that confuses Sentry:

 

[jroydog]

I had 42 sentry events the other day from rain. Wondering if maybe this is a side effect from improving the autowipers?

 

[KokW]

I’m at my in-laws in Tennessee and my 2019 Model 3 is parked outside and last night it rained pretty heavy. I charged to 90% and then unplugged for the night. I left Sentry Mode on and this morning only lost 4%. I didn’t think that was too bad for overnight for 10-11 hours.

I have Sentry mode always on, and its also about 4% a night. Though i find it useful, i think 4% is really high. 4% is probably about 14km of driving range?
I mean, 4 camera's on vs the energy it uses to move your pretty heavy Tesla 14km...

 

[KenC]

I figured this out when setting off for the morning. There were acorns dropping on the car. They won't hurt anything, but the sound of them hitting must have been setting off sentry mode.

Acorns don't leave a mark? Good to know, cause there are lots of oak trees around here, and we've had a bumper crop this year. They do make quite the sound when hitting my deck!

 

[astrobill]

Same here...brand new Model Y. Woke up to 55 sentry events, all apparently due to rain along the windshields or in front of the camera lenses.

 

[KenC]

I know we have seen bears on clips while use on autopilot. I would love to see a bear sniffing around a Tesla with Sentry mode on. Might be the next fun clip that we all get to see rather than idiots keying cars. Just hope no claws on the precious paint.

Don't dab any peanut butter on your car!