First look at Tesla’s new Dashcam/Sentry mode viewer

Tesla is releasing a new Dashcam/Sentry mode viewer, which was a highly requested feature, and hacker green is bringing us a first look at it.

TeslaCam and Sentry Mode

Sentry Mode, which is an integrated surveillance system inside Tesla’s vehicles using the Autopilot cameras around the car, has been changing the game when it comes to vandalizing parked cars.

On several occasions, Sentry Mode videos went viral, and the vandals turned themselves in after online pressure.

In other cases, video evidence helped police identify and find the vandals.

The feature was built on top of “TeslaCam,” a previously released integrated dashcam system with similar capability as Sentry mode, but used when someone is inside the car.

TeslaCam helped several Tesla owners with insurance claims by proving that they weren’t at fault in some accidents captured by the integrated dashcam system.

In order to activate the TeslaCam and Sentry Mode features, owners have to plug a storage device, thumb drive, or SSD inside their Tesla and activate the features in the settings.

Dashcam Viewer

As we reported last week, Tesla is releasing a new feature that enables you to view your TeslaCam and Sentry Mode vides directly from inside the vehicle.

Tesla wrote in the release notes in an upcoming update (2020.12.5):

Watch Saved Dashcam clips or Sentry Mode events directly from the touchscreen with the Dashcam Viewer. To launch, tap the Dashcam icon in the status bar and select ‘Launch Viewer’ while the car is in PARK. If the car is in DRIVE, you will continue to save a clip by tapping the icon.

To view saved clips and events stored on your USB drive, tap the Menu icon in the upper left corner of the viewer. Each video is organized by location, date, and thumbnail for easy access. For additional filtering options, tap the ‘Dashcam” or ‘Sentry’ tabs.

Select a clip or event to play the corresponding video. To select video from a particular camera, tap the associated thumbnail marked Front, Rear, Left, or Right. Play pause or scroll by using the video controls at the bottom of the player. To delete a video, tap the trash icon in the bottom right corner of the video player.

Now Tesla hacker green, who has access to Tesla’s early access program, obtained the update and gave us a first-look video at the new feature:

Tesla did a great job on the video browser for the sentry/dashcam clips. Really like the UI. You get to see all 4 recorded cams in real time and select which one is maximized. pic.twitter.com/sdzDThaodV

— green (@greentheonly) April 4, 2020

As you can see, you can now access all the different camera angles simply by clicking on the different options as they are displayed.

The feature is only accessible when the vehicle is in “park” gear.

In order for TeslaCam and Sentry Mode to work on a Tesla, you need a few accessories. We recommend Jeda’s Model 3 USB hub (now also available for Model Y) to be able to still use the other plugs and hide your Sentry Mode drive. For the drive, I’m now using a Samsung portable SSD, which you need to format, but it gives you a ton of capacity, and it can be easily hidden in the Jeda hub.