Stopped by the Cops

[Morhydro]

So I was driving south down the A82. I drive this road very regularly for work, have done for the past 15 years. Saw a cop car behind me at Cairndow. He followed me all the way to Loch Lomond (Luss) about 20 miles. I drove at 60, well perhaps the occasional 62. I know that this road very often has speed traps. Also I was a bit low on charge and wanted to get to the SuperCharger at EuroCentral so was being very careful.

Anyway at Luss the cops pulled me over. Young officer said "you were doing nearly 80 mph at some points". I expressed surprise. "We have a calibrated speedometer" I was told.

I said "This is a Tesla with four cameras that are recording all the time and every bit of speed and driving information is logged. I am pretty sure I was not doing anything near 80mph and can prove it"

"OK - I will just give you a warning this time" said the officer and headed off!

So question: If I ask Tesla for the data for the journey will they give it to me? The Cameras after all don't show the speed although you can work out averages from things like distances between road junctions.

PS. Kept the video when was actually pulled over.

 

[Medved_77]

Think the copper just wanted a peak inside the cabin

TeslaMate or TeslaFi will log all your drives, and the speed you were driving at. Here's an example from TeslaMate of a recent trip:

 

[Morhydro]

OK - I need to learn how that works.......

 

[init6]

I wouldn't show the cops that drive

 

[Medved_77]

OK - I need to learn how that works.......

TeslaMate is self hosted, so you either install the application on a server in the cloud (which you'll pay around $5 a month for, or you host it locally, most use a Raspberry Pi for this but it can run on other devices too.

Video guide here for cloud hosting setup:

Or @DaveW 's excellent written guides here (actually for cloud or local hosting):

How to install TeslaMate on a Raspberry Pi without using a monitor - TeslaEV.co.uk

How to setup the TeslaMate data logger on a Raspberry Pi without using a screen / monitor. Get great data from your car without keeping it awake!

www.teslaev.co.uk

How to monitor TeslaMate running in Google Cloud (or any other cloud hosting) - TeslaEV.co.uk

How to use free monitoring to check and alert on the status of your TeslaMate cloud instance. Ensure that TeslaMate is running with UptimeRobot.

www.teslaev.co.uk

TeslaMate may take you a few hours to setup, depending on the route you choose, if you're not overly familiar with the technologies used. Plenty on this forum that can help you if you get stuck.

Alternatively, have a look at TeslaFi which is much simpler to setup, costs $5 per month and really just requires your Tesla username and pw (or api key) to get started.

TeslaFi.com Tesla Model S 3 X Y Data Logger

I've tried both extensively but prefer the additional customisation that TeslaMate allows for, plus the user interface is easier on the eye. If you do want to try TeslaFi, someone will be able to share a referral code with you, which gives you a month to try it for free, rather than the standard two weeks.

 

[Medved_77]

I wouldn't show the cops that drive

I picked one that was within the 10%+1 rule, that section was on a dual carriageway

 

[init6]

I wouldn't show the cops that drive

I picked one that was within the 10%+1 rule, that section was on a dual carriageway

That's the best drive you've got!

 

[pdk42]

So I was driving south down the A82. I drive this road very regularly for work, have done for the past 15 years. Saw a cop car behind me at Cairndow. He followed me all the way to Loch Lomond (Luss) about 20 miles. I drove at 60, well perhaps the occasional 62. I know that this road very often has speed traps. Also I was a bit low on charge and wanted to get to the SuperCharger at EuroCentral so was being very careful.

Anyway at Luss the cops pulled me over. Young officer said "you were doing nearly 80 mph at some points". I expressed surprise. "We have a calibrated speedometer" I was told.

I said "This is a Tesla with four cameras that are recording all the time and every bit of speed and driving information is logged. I am pretty sure I was not doing anything near 80mph and can prove it"

"OK - I will just give you a warning this time" said the officer and headed off!

So question: If I ask Tesla for the data for the journey will they give it to me? The Cameras after all don't show the speed although you can work out averages from things like distances between road junctions.

PS. Kept the video when was actually pulled over.

What’s the glider on the back of the car? I’ve got an LS8t on the back of mine at times!

 

[Mm2021]

This is going to sound like a stupid question but I’ll ask it as a soon to be Tesla model 3 owner. Is use of the screen whilst driving (e.g. to switch on headlights or adjust wiper speed etc) deemed to be the same thing as using a mobile phone screen whilst driving I.e. can you get a ticket from the police for touching your screen for essential driving tasks whilst driving?

 

[init6]

This is going to sound like a stupid question but I’ll ask it as a soon to be Tesla model 3 owner. Is use of the screen whilst driving (e.g. to switch on headlights or adjust wiper speed etc) deemed to be the same thing as using a mobile phone screen whilst driving I.e. can you get a ticket from the police for touching your screen for essential driving tasks whilst driving?

No. It's no different to the touch screens on other cars e.g.

Well, obviously a lot bigger.

 

[pgkevet]

So I was driving south down the A82. I drive this road very regularly for work, have done for the past 15 years. Saw a cop car behind me at Cairndow. He followed me all the way to Loch Lomond (Luss) about 20 miles. I drove at 60, well perhaps the occasional 62. I know that this road very often has speed traps. Also I was a bit low on charge and wanted to get to the SuperCharger at EuroCentral so was being very careful.

Anyway at Luss the cops pulled me over. Young officer said "you were doing nearly 80 mph at some points". I expressed surprise. "We have a calibrated speedometer" I was told.

I said "This is a Tesla with four cameras that are recording all the time and every bit of speed and driving information is logged. I am pretty sure I was not doing anything near 80mph and can prove it"

"OK - I will just give you a warning this time" said the officer and headed off!

So question: If I ask Tesla for the data for the journey will they give it to me? The Cameras after all don't show the speed although you can work out averages from things like distances between road junctions.

PS. Kept the video when was actually pulled over.

If I was sure i hadn't been speeding then i wouldn't have let that go. Firstly I'd politely ask to see their recording - just in case my car's calibration was off. If they can't provide one then time for an apology or letter to their complaints procedure. There are good and bad coppers out there as in every trade/profession.

Incidentally the 10%+1 (or 2) 'rule' isn't a rule. The limit is the limit. Just because some automated systems allow slack for calibration wander isnlt soemthing oen can rely on. Some folk have fought speeding tickets when systems haven't had recent calibrations run.

pgk

 

[Cardo]

Could it be that you were accelerating out of corners faster than them, leading to them having to speed up to 80mph to catch up with you? A lot of cops aren’t geniuses, so it could be them seeing 80 on their dash made them think that’s what you were doing.

As always, being polite will more often than not result in a “warning” and nothing more.

ps save the recording for two weeks anyway, just in case!

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I've had almost similar. Late at night, there was a car behind me and all I could see were the headlights, followed me in a 60 limit doing 60 for 5 miles of wide open straight country roads, entered a dual carriage way/70 limit, and sped up to 70, these are roads where people typically drive much faster on, not actually sure why I took it easy that night. Anyway, next thing I knew blue lights. Quick conversation and asked to take it easy. I decided to pass the attitude test and said "ok officer", I half expected a "we heard your engine rev" or something to justify their stance which would have been funny, but I think its just the effortless way these cars pick up pace that makes them think you're on it when you're not.

The 10%+2 was an ACPO guidelines for prosecution and not all chief police officers sign up to them. Wales especially seem to be a law unto themselves. Scotland also don't or didn't have the speed awareness course either which was often linked to the guidelines.

 

[Morhydro]

What’s the glider on the back of the car? I’ve got an LS8t on the back of mine at times!

Off topic - but an LS8-18 (non Turbo).....and no it was not on the back at the time.

And thanks for all the other replies. I did look at the video to see how close behind me the police car was. Unfortunetly whilst I can see a car behind me the rear camera was a bit dirty (as often in Winter) and you can't identify the car. But I have got the whole discussion with the cops from the fender camera, but of course no sound.

 

[MrBadger]

So question: If I ask Tesla for the data for the journey will they give it to me?

No. Simply because Tesla don't have recorded data for the journey.

As above, the likes of TeslaFi and TeslaMate do allow snapshot recording of point in time data and then aggregating that data into points in time. But it will only be at the resolution of the snapshot recording interval which may only be every 30 or 60 seconds so will miss aspects of the journey between each snapshot. It does allow higher resolution calculations of average speed within that interval - I don't know whether TeslaFi or TeslaMate show this or the snapshot.

 

[Morhydro]

But it will only be at the resolution of the snapshot recording interval which may only be every 30 or 60 seconds so will miss aspects of the journey between each snapshot. It does allow higher resolution calculations of average speed within that interval - I don't know whether TeslaFi or TeslaMate show this or the snapshot.

OK that is useful. Many of the places I go have very poor mobile data signals so it might be that neither system will record. My other cars all have a dashcam, for £100 which at least records GPS speed. It might be simpler and easier to add that to the Tes.

 

[MrBadger]

I go have very poor mobile data signals so it might be that neither system will record.

Yep. If you lose connectivity, you will get lots of gaps in the recording. Easy to spot as the track will have long straight lines between points.

TeslaFi is completely blind the the section of route here in red that is within a tunnel. Certainly no way of proving to anyone what your driving style was in that area. You may also be able to pick out the slightly staggered route as at 60-70mph, you will only have been taking snapshots every mile or so.

 

[Morhydro]

Thanks - so what is needed is some clever programmer that can log stuff with a physical link off the CANBus on the car and match it to the dashcam footage - then we get something like a real dashcam function. Does not need much - perhaps just MPH, GPS position and something that identifies the car?

 

[Adopado]

This is going to sound like a stupid question but I’ll ask it as a soon to be Tesla model 3 owner. Is use of the screen whilst driving (e.g. to switch on headlights or adjust wiper speed etc) deemed to be the same thing as using a mobile phone screen whilst driving I.e. can you get a ticket from the police for touching your screen for essential driving tasks whilst driving?

Yep ... definitely sounds like a stupid question! (It's reasonable to question the safety implications of managing a car's controls whilst driving but given there are several thousand Teslas in the UK I think you might have heard of this happening by now!)

 

[MrBadger]

This is going to sound like a stupid question but I’ll ask it as a soon to be Tesla model 3 owner. Is use of the screen whilst driving (e.g. to switch on headlights or adjust wiper speed etc) deemed to be the same thing as using a mobile phone screen whilst driving I.e. can you get a ticket from the police for touching your screen for essential driving tasks whilst driving?

I think that actual use of the screen for driving use is legal, but, some functions* are not. Also, if you had an incident whilst distracted by the screen, other legislation will likely get you. This poor sole found out the hard way. Jail time for adjusting wipers? (software dreams inside) and Driver fined for using Tesla touchscreen wiper controls

* for instance playing TV whilst driving, browsing internet, playing a game etc etc would be illegal.