Sentry mode: Tesla isn’t just a car, it’s a security device

At the recent AEVA EV Experience event in Cleveland, during a rare moment when we weren’t both being inundated with questions about our Tesla Model 3, my wife Majella was going through the video clips stored on our USB to delete the uninteresting moments that Sentry mode had captured. She was relaxing listening to the radio.

The passenger doors were wide open and a woman stopped and asked: “What are you doing?”

“I’m just deleting some of the clips from Sentry Mode.”  Majella answered.

Her teenage son asked how it worked. So she got out of the passenger seat,  closed the frunk and activated the cameras. “COOL” he said. They thought it was great that you could see what happens near your car while you are shopping.

We have a few “best off” dash cam videos and she showed them through those. The coal rolling (cars deliberately smoking their exhausts), lane hopping, near misses and the motor bike that used the cycle lane to try and undertake just before a left hand turn. In my old car he and his pillion would have been mush!

Perhaps the best one was the video from August when an old codger backed his tradie truck complete with tow bar into the back of the Tesla while it was parked.

Majella was sitting in the car waiting for him to park so she could leave the carpark. She couldn’t believe the slow motion catastrophe which was unfolding on the screen and in real life. No problems claiming the insurance on that one.  His number pate was clear as day.

Perhaps the only downside is if you leave Sentry mode turned on for a periods of time when on low charge. It eats a bit of your range as we discovered on a cold night in Warwick. We woke the next morning to find the battery a bit low – no problems, we were surrounded by power points and had plenty enough charge to get to the high speed charger.

Tess isn’t just a car, it is a security device.

David Waterworth is a researcher and writer, a retired teacher who divides his time between looking after his grandchildren and trying to make sure they have a planet to live on. He owns 50 shares of Tesla.