Dashcam / Sentry: How they work and what they do (and dont) do

[dusty22]

You may have had the Auto save setting set, in which it may try to save the clip automatically, which may cause it to hiccup an skip a few seconds.

That must be what happened. I learn something new every day. Thank you for that explanation.

 

[Joesmoe3]

Still learning.

Today, for the first time, I returned to the car from lunch, and there was a green banner box note to the effect “1 incident recorded”.

I don’ think my car has dashcam - at least that is greyed out.

Where do I find any information on what the car thought was enough to post a notice of incident ?

 

[stopcrazypp]

Still learning.

Today, for the first time, I returned to the car from lunch, and there was a green banner box note to the effect “1 incident recorded”.

I don’ think my car has dashcam - at least that is greyed out.

Where do I find any information on what the car thought was enough to post a notice of incident ?

It turns gray when you are reviewing footage because it can't simultaneously do this while recording.

To view events recorded by Sentry mode, you can click the dashcam icon to bring up the viewer and then click the menu to choose the Sentry section as per below video:

 

[Joesmoe3]

Dashcam icon is X’d out. Is there some condition where that becomes enabled ?

By the way, got in the car this morning, and the notice on the display said, “14 events recorded."

 

[beachsideev]

Those events are sentry events, not dashcam events.

Double check there is a flash drive plugged into the usb port and format it.

 

[Joesmoe3]

Those events are sentry events, not dashcam events.

Double check there is a flash drive plugged into the usb port and format it.

I did install the Tesla catalog USB drive. The car recognized it, and formatted it. The alerts only started after doing that.

 

[beachsideev]

ok. sounds like sentry is working normally.

have you read the manual?

 

[Nightcorey]

I didn't want to open a new thread, so I will use this one for my Sentry Mode quesions. I've got quite some

1. How sensitive is Sentry Mode on parking lot: I assume it triggers when a car tries to park next to you?
2. Does it then turn on the headlights? If so, what is your experience with others who are triggering it - to me it might feel a bit 'aggresive' that some car is 'flashing' me at night, while I try to park my car next to it.
3. I think I saw on a video that Sentry has several stages. Is this true? What are these stages? (e.g. Monitor Notice -> Headlights -> Alarm?)
4. How does the notification on Tesla App work? Do you get a notification for every 'stage'? Or only for vehicle intrusion / when the alarm goes off?
5. Can you 'cancel' the alarm from App or do you need to go the vehicle?
6. How sensitive is it for animals? For example, if a cat would would walk on the frunk or something like that?
7. In your experience, does Sentry attract even more (unwanted) attention, just because of its features (lightning up, message on screen, etc.), compared if it is turned off?
8. How does Sentry behave if there is snow covering the car (and probably cameras?)?
9. How does Sentry behave if there is rain/hail hitting the car?

 

[dusty22]

Never had a car that was parking activate it. The exiting occupants can set it off though.

 

[Resist]

Never had a car that was parking activate it. The exiting occupants can set it off though.

That's interesting because Sentry Mode always gets set off by cars parking next to me.

 

[dusty22]

The videos show the cars parking but the little red dot is at the point where the occupant exits. I could have missed a parking car setting it off but it is usually a person exiting a vehicle.