In a spectacular display made visible by Tesla’s recently improved Dashcam feature, a Mercedes E-Class is spotted dangerously swerving several times across three highway lanes in San Francisco. As seen in a video shared on Reddit, the Model 3’s built-in side and front cameras captures the Mercedes’ ultimately recovering from a potentially terrible accident.
In a recent over-the-air software update, Tesla gave vehicles the ability to record and store video from their onboard side cameras. With near 360-degree video surveillance capabilities, users can save 10-second video clips by tapping the Dashcam icon in the upper right-hand corner of the center touchscreen.
Tesla’s rollout of Sentry Mode is partially to thank for the upgraded camera recording abilities. Although the extended Dashcam feature was provided as part of a larger software update at the end of February, the idea of having Tesla’s Autopilot cameras to also double as a dashcam recording device is something that’s been in discussion for over a year since CEO Elon Musk first hinted at the upcoming feature.
Along with playing loud music and recording video after an intrusion detection, Sentry Mode can upload footage directly to Tesla’s servers as a backup, thereby protecting owners against thieves knowledgeable to remove the USB data storage drive before a break-in.
Several videos like the one capturing the Mercedes’ near-miss highway incident have previously popped up on the Internet, including ones that capture attempted robberies and accidents in action. Given the enhanced perspective on events now made possible with Tesla side cameras, the possibility of recording video from the remaining side pillar and rear cameras on appropriately equipped vehicles would likely be a welcome feature down the road.
Yesterday in San Francisco, I caught a near-miss collision with my Model 3’s front and side cameras from r/teslamotors
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