Tesla's Sentry Mode Is Always Watching, But Where Does The Footage Go?

You may have heard a few years ago that some Teslas were sending recording made by onboard cameras — both from dashcams and footage picked up from Sentry Mode – back to home base. This led to Tesla employees sharing videos recorded inside customers' cars. The practice of sending footage to Tesla was something owners agreed to in order to assist with Tesla's self-driving ambitions, though it's highly suspect those owners knew private moments would turn into inside jokes at Tesla. 

The footage sharing process ended a few years ago, or at least, that's what Tesla claims, but where does it live now? If you are still comfortable buying a car from a company that might lock you inside to swelter to death and is known to have taken video in its customer's private spaces and passing it around to other employees for a laugh, the answer is simple; the footage lives in a USB drive you have to plug into your Tesla. Here's how to access it. 

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First off, not every Tesla comes with Sentry Mode, which is a security system that will shout at shady characters and notify owners if anything untoward is happing to or around the vehicle. Your Tesla would need to be built post 2018 to come with Sentry Mode, and some recording options are disabled depending on the country you're in. Sentry Mode is disabled by default, so you'll need to turn it on for it to work. To enable Sentry Mode, you must also have dashcam enabled. 

You can use voice commands such as "keep my Tesla safe" or simply "enable Sentry Mode" to engage it or go through the touchscreen menus Controls > Sentry Mode > On. You can also engage Sentry Mode on your Tesla mobile app, and use the app to look around your Tesla even if no threat is detected. Your Tesla must be parked and locked for Sentry Mode to engage, and your car has to have at least 20% charge, as Sentry Mode will drain your battery. 

Once you hit that bottom 20% Sentry Mode will automatically disengage and send an alert to your Tesla app. Sentry Mode works by using cameras and sensors to identify jerky, quick motions outside the vehicle or small movements of the vehicle itself. Once engaged, Sentry Mode will flash the vehicles lights, sounds the car alarm, notifies people nearby via the touchscreen that the vehicle may be recording, notifies the owner via mobile app and, most importantly, saves recordings in 10-minute bites to a USB drive, if installed, if it detects a threat.

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The USB drive is key, as the vehicle doesn't have its own video storage space. Of course, you also have to properly format your USB drive, which you can do by jamming the drive into your Tesla's glovebox USB port. On some models, putting a USB drive in any other port will not work with Sentry Mode recordings, so it's best to use the one in the glovebox as a blanket rule. The USB drive should come with at least 64GB capacity and have the ability to interact with USB 2.0.

Formatting onboard is done by selecting Controls > Format USB Drive from the vehicle menu. This process will create a folder on the USB drive named TeslaCam. You can access video files in that folder via your computer by removing the USB port and plugging it into your PC or Mac, or by viewing the video on your Tesla's touchscreen by touching the Dashcam icon located in the app launcher while in park. According to Tesla, the tabs will then display a list of all video clips, organized by location and timestamp. Pause, rewind, fast-forward, and delete clips as needed. Swipe to the right or press and hold to quickly delete certain clips. If you want to delete all of the clips, Navigate to Controls > Safety > Delete Dashcam Clips.

The USB drive will eventually fill up, so if you want to continue to store recordings, you'll need to periodically delete or transfer older recordings. Without the USB, your Tesla can stream the video to your phone live for up to an hour at a time, depending on local laws however, it may only stream for 15 minutes. The video won't be stored anywhere, as your Tesla doesn't have onboard storage space for video files. Sentry Mode can come in handy, but there have been reports of cops towing Teslas for evidence.