V9 Dash Cam Footage

[Knightshade]

Ok, but you're still at half the pixels. Of course pixels are one thing, and sensors are another.

Right. The quality on the video seemed perfectly fine with the sensors Tesla is using.

Because sometimes they hit you from behind and speed away. The greater detail the greater chance you have of reading the plate. Either way, more is better.

I mean- not really?

If they speed away in front of you they're way nearer than 75 feet when they do it. Why would you need footage of them much further away when you already have it much closer to you as they go by?

In fact the further away they get the faster they'd be going- so your best video will be when they're JUST passing you.

Which this camera handles fine.

And if they turn on the other 7 cameras it'll beat the hell outta anything aftermarket since you'll have footage of the entire thing at every angle.

In which specific instance?

In the instance of the actual tesla dashcam footage.

16x9 720p would have less pixels than the 4:3 video shown from that camera.

16x9 720p is 1280x720... the camera is actually capturing extra info above and below that to record a 1280x960 (4:3) image.

It's recording more data with that aspect ratio, not less.

Though again field of view concerns will vanish entire with more cameras enabled.

I do wonder if more advanced features will be tied into the V3 computer upgrade coming soonish or not... V2 supposedly can "process" 200 frames a second, but does that mean actually understand everything in em (in which case simply recording 8 cameras is fine) or is that all it can handle even just capturing?

The fact it seems to be capturing at 30fps instead of the 60 the camera is capable of seems to suggest the latter.

The new chip can handle over 2000 frames a second, so 8 cameras at 60fps would be a breeze for it.

 

[Matt L]

Just at first glance, here's a quick list of the items I can think of that the Tesla dashcam feature is not giving you compared to a dedicated dashcam like the BlackVue series:

• 4:3 aspect ratio vice 16:9, so events ahead and towards the sides of your car may be out of view on the Tesla dashcam whereas they'd be in-view with a dedicated dashcam.
• 1280x960 resolution vice 1920x1080 or higher on some dedicated dashcams.
• 30 (or 36?) frames per second capture rate, whereas some dedicated dashcams are doing 60.
• No on-screen text overlay of parameters like speed, name/identifier, location, G-forces, etc.
• No storage of those parameters that can be read back later.
• No audio capture.
• Limited loop recording time (1 hour), regardless of USB flash drive size.
• Recording only when vehicle powered on, no recording while parked. (Although to be fair, recording while parked using a dedicated dashcam on the Model 3 requires some extra-cost components like a backup battery pack).
• Currently only recording one camera facing forward, no recording of the rear camrea like many dedicated dashcams.
• No image stabilization, so the footage is bouncy and sometimes jittery from the Tesla camera.
• Image quality from the Tesla camera is good in both night and day, and is better than many expected. However, a dedicated dashcam is superior in contrast and dynamic range.

But, given that the Tesla dashcam is essentially free (only need a USB flash drive) and requires no installation, it's a great deal.

One feature it does provide though...you don’t look like a geek with a dashcam.

The thought of buying a minimalist car and then JC Wintneying up with a dashcam is a bit cringeworthy.

 

[Fuxx123]

this is rather puzzling that they release a front cam but not the rear.

and the camera doesnt have the option to run while car is parked. personally i think they should allow this for vehicles with at least a 35% charge.

 

[Fuxx123]

it would also likely be very cool if they allowed you to pick anywhere between 1-8 cameras to record on the usb drive.

 

[Knightshade]

Elon was pretty clear this was just a "get something out the door" version with major improvements coming in future versions

 

[JCB_Arizona]

So, how does this record? Only one 10 min continuous clip and I need to hit the button to SAVE the 10 min?

Ugh. Am I understanding that correctly?

 

[PoitNarf]

So, how does this record? Only one 10 min continuous clip and I need to hit the button to SAVE the 10 min?

Ugh. Am I understanding that correctly?

Each clip file is one minute in duration and it will have a rolling 60 minutes worth of clips, so only the last hour of video is temporarily saved. If you tell it to save a video clip it will save the last 10 minutes of recorded video to files that will not be overwritten and can be accessed later.

 

[cmyke]

One feature it does provide though...you don’t look like a geek with a dashcam.

The thought of buying a minimalist car and then JC Wintneying up with a dashcam is a bit cringeworthy.

Couldn’t agree more!

 

[ngogas]

Dash cam, only matter of time before an idiot does the drake in my feeling dance in front of the m3.

 

[anhnguyen]

I bought a few low profile 64gb flash drives for $12.99: SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 64GB USB 2.0 Low-Profile Flash Drive- SDCZ33-064G-B35 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FJRS6QY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_taa_YGeSBbYX8CWFV

They should hold several hours of video, and they're tiny.

...i got a 128 samsung from newegg for 23..was worried it was a waste since i couldnt format to fat32 but there are programs out there to do it..crisis averted..but assumed music would work but doesnt..makes sense..hard to write video and read another file at the same time..

 

[swaltner]

128 GB - that's going to cover the 1.8 GB buffer for the current 60 minutes as well as 420 of the 10-minute clips that average 300 MB each. You must plan on saving LOTS of clips of driving around!

Me? I pulled a 4 GB drive out of the drawer that was a give-away item at a computer conference.

 

[PoitNarf]

The plot thickens!

Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[Knightshade]

That's be part of the thing where he previously mentioned this is the beta version and it'd be a ton better in 9.1

I'm a little dubious of how it's going to detect damage as to my knowledge there's no glass break sensor or real vibration sensor, so I suspect he might just mean damaged enough for the pitch/yaw YOU HAVE BEEN IN A MAJOR ACCIDENT type sensors- which isn't idea for most parked dashcam needs.

I'd rather you just be able to turn the recording (all cameras plz) on when parked as long as the battery is above X percent (and you get to set the threshold)

 

[ebmcs03]

128 GB - that's going to cover the 1.8 GB buffer for the current 60 minutes as well as 420 of the 10-minute clips that average 300 MB each. You must plan on saving LOTS of clips of driving around!

Me? I pulled a 4 GB drive out of the drawer that was a give-away item at a computer conference.

So a 32GB will be more than enough.

How fast does the drive need to be? I have a bunch of smaller older drives.

 

[Need]

So a 32GB will be more than enough.

How fast does the drive need to be? I have a bunch of smaller older drives.

I don't think it needs to be too fast. I think the clip is originally saved to the internal memory and being copied to the USB drive one file (1 min) at a time. So as long as the speed of the drive is enough to handle a 30MB transfer in under a minute, I think it would be fine.

 

[beegee]

Anyone have luck with the dashcam feature? I cannot get the icon to show. I've formatted the drive to Fat32 and added TeslaCam to the root of the drive. Anyone else having problems getting it working?

 

[outdoors]

Anyone have luck with the dashcam feature? I cannot get the icon to show. I've formatted the drive to Fat32 and added TeslaCam to the root of the drive. Anyone else having problems getting it working?

Only on AP 2.5

 

[SoCalGuy]

Anyone have luck with the dashcam feature? I cannot get the icon to show. I've formatted the drive to Fat32 and added TeslaCam to the root of the drive. Anyone else having problems getting it working?

Works for me.

Quality is ok - you can make out license plate numbers up to 2 car lengths or so. I have noticed:

- when driving into the sun (eg west in late afternoon), the sun registers as a very grainy orange blob and washes out most of the other picture - no legibility on license plates

- there’s no audio

- FOV is fairly narrow, noticeably so compared to traditional aftermarket dashcams

- the files in TeslaCam folder are 1:01 minute long. When you click “Save” it simply renames the files from the 10 most recent clips from “recent-2018-10-DD-HH-MM” to “saved-2018-10-DD-HH-MM”

It’s certainy better than not having a Dashcam though video fov and quality not as good as best aftermarket products. Can’t wait for V9.1!

 

[Munch]

Is a USB 2.0 drive good enough for write speeds? Would it be better to get a high endurance SD card instead with a USB adapter since there's going to be so much writing done?

 

[Knightshade]

Is a USB 2.0 drive good enough for write speeds? Would it be better to get a high endurance SD card instead with a USB adapter since there's going to be so much writing done?

the ports are only 2.0, so anything faster won't make a difference