Photo: Tesla Inc.
As you probably know, the new Tesla Model 3 has no fewer than eight cameras monitoring the vehicle's surroundings at all times and all angles - and even a more controversial one facing the driver, but that's not relevant to this discussion.
The video sensors are used by the Autopilot 2 (it's actually 2.something now, but we lost count) system, together with the ultrasonic sensors and the front-facing radar - as well as the notoriously missing LIDAR - to offer Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities (jerky ones, at the moment). One day, Musk promises, this hardware setup (which is available on all Tesla Models since late last year) will be enough to make the jump to Level 4.
Having already paid for this cinematic arsenal, you can understand people's (we can't yet call them "owners" since Tesla delivered fewer than a hundred of the new EV) frustration at having to fork out some money on an extra dashcam if they wanted to record their journeys and protect themselves against frauds.
All Tesla needs to do is spare some of the storage space to create room for a few minutes of the looped video feed, as well as set up the software needed for it. We're pretty sure it's a few days' work for one or two interns who want to go up the ladder in the company quicker.
One Tesla owner from the UK - not a Model 3 owner, then - called Nick G took to Twitter to express his frustration directly to Elon Musk. "That many cameras on board and we still have to buy a separate dashcam?! I hope @elonmusk adds a feature to export last x mins of video," he wrote, and you can read his passive-aggressiveness through that punctuation on the first phrase.
As he so often does with the tweets that suit his needs, Musk replied saying that the feature was "coming soon." With Teslas - and electric vehicles in general - having a dashcam makes even more sense since it could easily be switched on at all times, having that large battery to draw power from. With 360-degrees coverage, it would also provide excellent protection even against vandalism, something you kind of want on a $100k+ vehicle.
Despite the prompt answer, Musk didn't provide any estimation on when the update will air, so if you're a new Tesla owner and were thinking about buying a dashcam, you're stuck in limbo. Splash out on a third-party make or wait for Tesla to deliver? Your call.
Having already paid for this cinematic arsenal, you can understand people's (we can't yet call them "owners" since Tesla delivered fewer than a hundred of the new EV) frustration at having to fork out some money on an extra dashcam if they wanted to record their journeys and protect themselves against frauds.
All Tesla needs to do is spare some of the storage space to create room for a few minutes of the looped video feed, as well as set up the software needed for it. We're pretty sure it's a few days' work for one or two interns who want to go up the ladder in the company quicker.
One Tesla owner from the UK - not a Model 3 owner, then - called Nick G took to Twitter to express his frustration directly to Elon Musk. "That many cameras on board and we still have to buy a separate dashcam?! I hope @elonmusk adds a feature to export last x mins of video," he wrote, and you can read his passive-aggressiveness through that punctuation on the first phrase.
As he so often does with the tweets that suit his needs, Musk replied saying that the feature was "coming soon." With Teslas - and electric vehicles in general - having a dashcam makes even more sense since it could easily be switched on at all times, having that large battery to draw power from. With 360-degrees coverage, it would also provide excellent protection even against vandalism, something you kind of want on a $100k+ vehicle.
Despite the prompt answer, Musk didn't provide any estimation on when the update will air, so if you're a new Tesla owner and were thinking about buying a dashcam, you're stuck in limbo. Splash out on a third-party make or wait for Tesla to deliver? Your call.
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