Tesla break-ins are on the rise, with many Tesla forums and Facebook groups, full of unlucky owners who’ve had their rear window smashed in attempt to gain entry to the boot.
In response, Tesla has delivered a Valentine’s day present, Tesla are rolling out another over the air update to enhance the security of their vehicles. There’s been lots of cries from the community for Tesla to address this and now they are.
Customers will have peace of mind, that Sentry Mode is protecting their vehicle against break-ins and theft.
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.
If a car switches to “Alarm” state, owners will also receive an alert from their Tesla mobile app notifying them that an incident has occurred. They’ll be able to download a video recording of an incident (which begins 10 minutes prior to the time a threat was detected) by inserting a formatted USB drive into their car before they enable Sentry Mode.
Enabling Sentry Mode
Sentry Mode must be enabled each time a driver wants to use the feature by going to Controls > Safety & Security > Sentry Mode. The feature will begin rolling out today to U.S. Model 3 vehicles, followed by Model S and Model X vehicles that were built after August 2017.
While no alarm system can prevent against all vehicle thefts, break-ins and threats, it is expect that Sentry Mode combined with other Tesla security features, will make your car more secure.
