According to the reports, Tesla’s Sentinel Mode, which uses car cameras as a monitoring system to capture potential thieves and saboteurs, has been upgraded to allow car owners to watch live broadcasts. The Sentinel mode real-time camera access feature was launched with Tesla’s 2021.36.8 software update, but it currently seems to only apply to the manufacturer’s iOS applications. The release of the Android system has yet to be confirmed.
Tesla’s release notes describe this new feature like this: You can now remotely view your car’s surroundings while parking, so that you can confirm the safety of the environment before returning to your car. This is the vehicle’s sentinel mode. A major upgrade of the function, which was initially launched in 2019. Although there are some workarounds, so far, the sentinel mode can only record videos locally, which is very useful for retrospecting events afterward, but there is not much information about the current situation of the car. CEO Elon Musk added in a tweet that after the feature is enabled, car owners can also make remote calls through the car’s speakers.
You can also talk through the car speaker. Great for practical jokes 🙂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2021
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This feature is included in Tesla’s premium connectivity service, and after the initial free trial (currently 30 days for Model 3 and Y purchases, and one year for Model S and X purchases), it costs $10 a month. Other features of advanced connectivity features include access to video and music streaming services through the car’s infotainment center, as well as other features such as real-time traffic visualization.
According to Tesla’s release notes, the video circulated from the car is end-to-end encrypted, which means that only car owners with an account can view these videos. Just be aware of the increase in battery consumption. Tesla owners report that battery consumption will increase when using sentinel mode.