Back in September, Amazon’s Ring launched Car Connect, to allow Tesla owners to watch and record Sentry Mode from their mobile devices. The add-on device is priced at $199 USD and isn’t slated to launch until 2021.
But now it appears Tesla may soon allow owners to perform a similar function, natively—and for free.
According to hacker @greentheonly, known for his reliable digging into Tesla software code, the user has discovered remote camera viewing is coming soon. Rumour of this upcoming feature was also teased by @Teslascope and that’s when @greentheonly was asked to chime in.
When asked by @Teslascope, “Would you say there’s a likelihood of other sentry mode-related features in the upcoming future?” The hacker replied, “Well, the remote camera viewing seems to be in the wings, whenever they’ll drop it in 2020.48 or if they’ll postpone it again – I don’t know.”
Well, the remote camera viewing seems to be in the wings, whenever they'll drop it in 2020.48 or if they'll postpone it again – I don't know.
— green (@greentheonly) November 27, 2020
“it looks like there’s going to be a livestreaming of car videos to the [Tesla] phone app,” clarified @greentheonly.
Last February, Tesla explained, “Sentry Mode adds a unique layer of protection to Tesla vehicles by continuously monitoring the environment around a car when it’s left unattended. When enabled, Sentry Mode enters a “Standby” state, like many home alarm systems, which uses the car’s external cameras to detect potential threats.”
“If a minimal threat is detected, such as someone leaning on a car, Sentry Mode switches to an “Alert” state and displays a message on the touchscreen warning that its cameras are recording. If a more severe threat is detected, such as someone breaking a window, Sentry Mode switches to an “Alarm” state, which activates the car alarm, increases the brightness of the center display, and plays music at maximum volume from the car’s audio system,” added the company, touting Sentry Mode’s security features.
When a Sentry Mode switches to “Alarm” state, it also pings an owner’s Tesla app to let them know an incident has occurred, with videos able to be downloaded from USB drives within vehicles (now available inside the glovebox in newer Model 3 and Model Y).
When someone is throwing down on your Tesla, it’s best to be notified in real-time. The ability to watch a live stream of what’s happening will allow for more specific responses from owners, should something bad be happening to their precious vehicle.
Tesla recently launched sales of its own branded USB thumb drives, for owners to use for Sentry Mode recordings.
