Tesla to bring Sentry Mode for 360° dashcam surveillance to cars with Enhanced Autopilot

Elon Musk today revealed in a series of tweets about an upcoming Sentry Mode for 360 dashcam surveillance. However, the new feature would only be available to Tesla vehicles with Enhanced Autopilot package. With “Sentry Mode”, Tesla owners would be able to see the damage if happens in their absence. For instance, dents or damages taking place when the vehicle is unattended or during parking.

What does Tesla Sentry Mode brings to the table?

The new Tesla’s Sentry Mode keeps the dashcam turned on even when the vehicle is idle and hence offers a layer of surveillance when idle. As we have seen in recent times, there are many instances of vehicle damages in the case of owners absence. The damages/dents leave owners to bear the brunt and they have to shell out huge amounts for repairs. In such cases, the culprits go unscathed; the new feature would definitely help owners to catch the culprits behind vehicle damage. Musk did not offer any additional details about the Sentry Mode’s availability and mode of operation.

The dashcam feature is only available to Tesla vehicles that are manufactured after August 2017. Tesla released a new software update in October with a host of new features. The released version 9.0 brought in a new UI on the central display and the added ability to use the dashcams as the front-facing camera. The dashcams record the videos and store it in the USB flash drive storage. The USB should be windows or MS-dos configured and needs a manually created folder by name “Tesla Cam”.

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The USB can be inserted in any of the available USB ports in the front portion of the vehicle. When it is recognised, a dashcam icon appears in the status bar on top of the touch screen. Then the icon turns red and automatically starts recording; you can control the dashcam by pressing the icon. The dashcam records for an hour deleting the old videos. The owner can save a 10-minute video by just clicking the icon. Elon Musk further clarified that the new feature would only be available to the vehicles with AP 2 +hardware.

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