# Dash cam to be enabled with Autopilot V9



## Gavyne (Jul 7, 2018)

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1041826260115120128


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

Just came to post that


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

just remember, this does not say it will be included in the first version of V9


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> just remember, this does not say it will be included in the first version of V9


He followed up saying v9 will be beta and it will be better in v9.1


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## webdriverguy (May 25, 2017)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> He followed up saying v9 will be beta and it will be better in v9.1


Did he say auto pilot is needed for dashcam feature? I hope not


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## kort677 (Sep 17, 2018)

while this sounds nice, you need to not take what is promised as coming as really coming.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

webdriverguy00 said:


> Did he say auto pilot is needed for dashcam feature? I hope not


No mention



kort677 said:


> while this sounds nice, you need to not take what is promised as coming as really coming.


Why? This is definitely coming...


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## Brokedoc (May 28, 2017)

We will have to see the details of the dashcam feature when it gets released.

I don't think it will replace a high-res dashcam. I an unsure that we can download clips to post on youtube. I doubt it will record when parked and someone bumps your car. I'm not sure how many of the cams will be enabled for dashcam functionality. I'm not sure the resolution of the cams/recordings will be good enough to read license plates at reasonable distances. IIRC, the only cam that is color is one of the 3 forward cams.

FWIW, Some low-res screenshots of the AP vision AI suggest that license plates might only be readable if directly in front at close range. That being said, this feature would have been VERY helpful in my situation where it was my word against the other driver's. https://teslaownersonline.com/threa...-a-dashcam-to-avoid-what-happened-to-me.5865/


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## webdriverguy (May 25, 2017)

Brokedoc said:


> We will have to see the details of the dashcam feature when it gets released.
> 
> I don't think it will replace a high-res dashcam. I an unsure that we can download clips to post on youtube. I doubt it will record when parked and someone bumps your car. I'm not sure how many of the cams will be enabled for dashcam functionality. I'm not sure the resolution of the cams/recordings will be good enough to read license plates at reasonable distances. IIRC, the only cam that is color is one of the 3 forward cams.
> 
> ...


Being optimistic what if they surprise us?


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## Reliev (Jun 3, 2017)

oh, man, i came here to post it was playing spiderman it's so addictive. anyway, I'm very excited about this ever since I saw his tweet about this a year ago I passed on the blackvue group buy on here hopefully it's up to the hype. I still wonder how it will be stored.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

When this first came up last year, Elon was responding to someone asking for dashcam photos preceding a wreck. It is very possible photos/videos will only be triggered by damage detected. 
Until we know, it would be advisable to set expectations low.


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## Bry (Aug 19, 2018)

Would be awesome if the Dashcam feature works like Ring/Nest Cam, when you can monitor your car remotely from the Tesla App - Watch Live View and Recorded video.


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## kort677 (Sep 17, 2018)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> No mention
> 
> Why? This is definitely coming...


definitely? maybe, the devil is in the details, the question is when. elon has a long history of making promises that aren't ready for prime time.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

kort677 said:


> definitely? maybe, the devil is in the details, the question is when. elon has a long history of making promises that aren't ready for prime time.


He made it clear this was squeezed into v9 when asked about it being v9...v9.1... etc.


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## Reliev (Jun 3, 2017)

Played hooky this morning can't wait for this feature. Was the 2nd time the panic alarm hit in.
the reason for this is a guy that's cut across Crossroads across 5 Lanes where the two lanes go left. I had to slam on my brakes not to hit them and before I knew it there was a cop behind us lit him up and said over his speaker "what are you doing pull over".
The best part is when the panic alarm went off my kid said UH OH .
I wonder how this will work/export I think it could have been a decent youtube video.
For reference here is what the guy was doing. btw medium traffic too I'm not sure what he was thinking.
Also, this isn't a turn lane he was doing his own thing.


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## webdriverguy (May 25, 2017)

Bry said:


> Would be awesome if the Dashcam feature works like Ring/Nest Cam, when you can monitor your car remotely from the Tesla App - Watch Live View and Recorded video.


Yes for sure. Plus if they offered a cloud service for accessing dashcam footage for a small fee like 100-200 per year many ppl would pay for it.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Here's how Tesla's new dashcam feature using Autopilot cameras works

_A source familiar with Tesla's version 9 software update told Electrek that there are two versions of the new update currently rolling out.

One pushed to the Model 3 has already leaked, and the second one is similar - though it includes the new dashcam feature._​


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## zosoisnotaword (Aug 28, 2017)

garsh said:


> Here's how Tesla's new dashcam feature using Autopilot cameras works
> 
> _A source familiar with Tesla's version 9 software update told Electrek that there are two versions of the new update currently rolling out.
> 
> One pushed to the Model 3 has already leaked, and the second one is similar - though it includes the new dashcam feature._​


Thanks for the link; lots of good info in there. It's unfortunate that it requires a dedicated flash drive. So on the remaining USB port you have to prioritize charging your phone or listening to music from another flash drive. Probably not a problem for >99% of people since you can use the rear ports to charge if needed, but I keep a dedicated phone plugged in as a display for my radar detector, so I'll have to figure something out if I want to listen to my stored music.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

zosoisnotaword said:


> So on the remaining USB port you have to prioritize charging your phone or listening to music from another flash drive.


Or add a small USB hub.


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## zosoisnotaword (Aug 28, 2017)

garsh said:


> Or add a small USB hub.


I assumed things like that only worked for power flow, not data.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

zosoisnotaword said:


> I assumed things like that only worked for power flow, not data.


Actually, unpowered USB Hubs generally work for data, and NOT power.


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## ymilord (Mar 31, 2017)




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## woodisgood (Jul 26, 2018)

Looks way better than I would have guessed. Definitely useful at this point and will get better over time.


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## Jay79 (Aug 18, 2018)

Good video quality, i'm impressed! We all know this will get better and with more options down the road. It's only a matter of time before other cameras are included and options to keep the cameras recording when the car is powered off etc.... They will maximize its capabilities based on the limitations of the what the stock hardware is capable of on the current fleet of Tesla's. Very exciting!


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## 96s46p (Jul 5, 2018)

They should also enable it for the rear camera, could be lower framerate if necessary.


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## Brokedoc (May 28, 2017)

Bummer that it uses a USB port and doesn’t allow you to use the same usb drive as your music stick. So if you have a music drive and a dash cam drive you now have no front USB ports to charge.


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## 96s46p (Jul 5, 2018)

Brokedoc said:


> Bummer that it uses a USB port and doesn't allow you to use the same usb drive as your music stick. So if you have a music drive and a dash cam drive you now have no front USB ports to charge.


You could use a USB hub for the 2 sticks


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## Brokedoc (May 28, 2017)

96s46p said:


> You could use a USB hub for the 2 sticks


It's an inelegant solution. Plus not sure if splitting the ports will allow the necessary bandwidth to record HD video. I'd rather avoid having the front of my car look like this:


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## Reliev (Jun 3, 2017)

tbh I'm waiting for Tesla to have an adapter I imagine its soon, I'll just use the USB ports in the back until there is an elegant solution ill give them 3 months to figure out something else,


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## PNWmisty (Aug 19, 2017)

zosoisnotaword said:


> So on the remaining USB port you have to prioritize charging your phone or listening to music from another flash drive.


Haha, We've had our Model 3 for 4 1/2 months and have only used the phone charging feature to make sure it worked, because our phones go well over a day on a full charge. I only charge mine to 80% to extend the battery life. Maybe it would be handy on a long, multi-day road trip in which you didn't want to bring a charger. But we have wireless phone chargers at home so the charge your phone in your car feature is more of an emergency only thing.


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## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

I'm pretty sure that night time video is a fake. Camera moves side to side when the car isn't. The guy who posted it wasn't willing to post the original files anywhere.


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## PNWmisty (Aug 19, 2017)

sduck said:


> I'm pretty sure that night time video is a fake. Camera moves side to side when the car isn't. The guy who posted it wasn't willing to post the original files anywhere.


I tend to agree. I think it also looks like the camera images pitch fore/aft more than the body of the Model 3 would (unless he has some sort of crappy suspension mod that isn't balanced front/rear).


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

sduck said:


> I'm pretty sure that night time video is a fake. Camera moves side to side when the car isn't. The guy who posted it wasn't willing to post the original files anywhere.


Marc Benton? He's the guy who posted all of the various screenshots of the V9 software. I see no reason to doubt that this is real. I just watched the video, and I don't see any of the side-to-side motion that you mention.


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## webdriverguy (May 25, 2017)

garsh said:


> Marc Benton? He's the guy who posted all of the various screenshots of the V9 software. I see no reason to doubt that this is real. I just watched the video, and I don't see any of the side-to-side motion that you mention.


I tend to agree too


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## Gavyne (Jul 7, 2018)

Daytime footage posted by Marc Benton:


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## Doug Joubert (Jul 14, 2018)

Gavyne said:


> Daytime footage posted by Marc Benton:


@Gavyne Is that your dashcam?


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## Gavyne (Jul 7, 2018)

No sir, Marc Benton is the guy with early access and he's showing off all the features. You can follow him here if you want to see more of V9.

https://twitter.com/marc_benton


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## PNWmisty (Aug 19, 2017)

Gavyne said:


> No sir, Marc Benton is the guy with early access and he's showing off all the features.


Did he modify his suspension? Because the video from that somewhat bumpy road looks more "shaken" than I would expect for the appearance of the road.


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## Rich M (Jul 28, 2017)

I agree, in the night video, it looks like a camera that's loose in the mount. Like the camera is swinging up and down, not left-right.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Brokedoc said:


> Bummer that it uses a USB port and doesn't allow you to use the same usb drive as your music stick. So if you have a music drive and a dash cam drive you now have no front USB ports to charge.


I've not followed every little bit of information on this, but wasn't the requirement that it have a folder at the root level with a specific name? Unless someone has confirmed, I don't recall reading that the drive couldn't be used for anything else. It also seems to make sense that one of the reasons to have the specific name on it is so that the car will put the videos in the right place and not cause problems with other data/music on the stick. if it was or until it was proven you can't have anything else on the drive, that maybe there can still be must on the drive too. Hell, it's just an opinion, but don't see why it can't be done. And realistically in the bus and throughput of this car, there should be more than enough bandwidth for the video to be saved there as well. It may not be written directly there, but maybe moved after the recording happens.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

PNWmisty said:


> Did he modify his suspension? Because the video from that somewhat bumpy road looks more "shaken" than I would expect for the appearance of the road.


I *think* that's because this camera doesn't have the wide angle of view that most of your aftermarket dashcams possess.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Brokedoc said:


> Bummer that it uses a USB port and doesn't allow you to use the same usb drive as your music stick. So if you have a music drive and a dash cam drive you now have no front USB ports to charge.


Does FAT32 allow partitions? if so, could one be used for music and another for the dashcam data? 
until we have the V9, would be interesting to see if a partitioned USB drive with music on each would be recognized as 2 devices on the screen.


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## JML (Jul 26, 2018)

MelindaV said:


> Does FAT32 allow partitions? if so, could one be used for music and another for the dashcam data?
> until we have the V9, would be interesting to see if a partitioned USB drive with music on each would be recognized as 2 devices on the screen.


This got me curious, so I decided to do some experiments. This is all on 36.2.

I put two albums on a USB stick, and could play them fine in the car. This was to be expected.

Then I partitioned the USB stick into two partitions, put one album on each partition, and then the car could also play them both.







As can be seen in the image, the car is treating this as two different USB devices, but I could play either album easily enough.

Some have said the dashcam feature will require a separate device from the music drive. The only real reason I can think of to do this is because it appears that music drives are mounted read only, but the dashcam drive will obviously have to be read/write. I don't think speed is a problem, because the dashcam is writing about 30MB a *minute*, but even a terrible USB 2.0 drive (like I was using) will be able to write at 2-3MB a second. One minute of an MP3 file is about 1MB, and 1 minute of a flac file is still only about 5MB. So reading and writing as fast as needed to stream music and video is not going to push the limit of any USB drive that's big enough to be useful.

So, the technical bits on why I think the drive is mounted read only. Linux by default sets a "dirty bit" on FAT filesystems when it mounts them read/write. The "dirty bit" is then cleared when the drive is safely unmounted. The "dirty bit" is not set when a FAT filesystem is mounted read only. I plugged my music drive into the car, started playing music off it, and then pulled the drive out. If the drive had been read/write the dirty bit would have been set. I plugged the drive into my computer, but the dirty bit was not set, so the drive was either mounted read only, or Tesla is overriding default behavior.

Anyway, I don't think the read/write thing is an issue. If you pull the drive while it is writing videos, any incomplete videos will be corrupt, but the music is just static files on the drive, and will be fine, unless you are really unlucky and the whole filesystem is corrupted.

If the dashcam does require a separate drive, then partitioning a single drive might work, because the car is treating the multiple partitions as separate devices. I'm actually quite impressed by this. A quick diversion for some background. Linux (and most other operating systems are a variation of this) will see a drive as /dev/sda (for example), and then the first partition is /dev/sda1, the second /dev/sda2, etc. Most embedded devices I find only try to mount /dev/sda1. They don't bother to check for other partitions, or do anything if they're there. The really bad ones are worse in that they don't work if there is more than one partition, even though to the OS there is no difference between /dev/sda1 if it is the only partition or if it shares the drive with other partitions. The fact that the car gracefully handles multiple partitions says to me that the engineers and programmers actually bothered to think about it.

One final thing. I set the "dirty bit" by mounting the drive read/write on my computer, then pulling it out. The car didn't care, and could still play music off the drive. By default Linux will mount a FAT filesystem with the dirty bit set, it just complains.


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