This is where Tesla’s Sentry Mode comes in to improve the overall security features of your Tesla. But how do you set up Tesla’s Sentry Mode?
After parking the car, go to your Tesla’s security settings and then toggle Sentry Mode to turn on. In the alternative, you can turn your Tesla’s Sentry Mode on using the Tesla app on your phone. You also need to format a USB drive so that you can review the footage on your Tesla’s Sentry Mode.
Because of the security risks involved with expensive cars such as Tesla, you need to make sure that you are doing what you can to protect your vehicle. As such, knowing how to set up Sentry Mode and use it can be one of the biggest things that you can do on your part when it comes to protecting your Tesla.
When it comes to cars today, one of the many different factors that people tend to consider is the security system that comes with the vehicle.
That’s because many different vehicle manufacturers are now quite concerned about vehicle security especially when the number of carnappers and thieves has been rising. And when you have a pretty expensive car, the issue becomes even bigger.
In that case, having a Tesla vehicle can be a problem for those who want to keep their cars secured because of how expensive a Tesla can be.
But the good news is that Tesla cars actually have a good security feature that will allow you to make sure that the vehicle will basically protect itself from any undesirable incident when you leave it alone in your home or in a parking lot. This feature comes in the form of Sentry Mode.
So, basically, Sentry Mode is just using whatever the Tesla already has to protect the vehicle.
What happens during Sentry Mode is that, when you turn this feature on, the infotainment system will light up and show that the Sentry Mode is active as soon as someone is standing too close to the vehicle. From there, the vehicle will use all of the cameras at its disposal to record its surroundings.
Of course, when someone is trying to tamper with the vehicle such as when that person is already trying to break into your car or do something drastic just to access the vehicle, Sentry Mode will activate the car alarm and increase the brightness of the infotainment display while playing loud music so that the vehicle would be able to alert people nearby or scare away the possible thief.
On top of that, the vehicle will also send a notification to the owner through the Tesla mobile app.
So, the reason why Tesla’s Sentry Mode is important is that it is basically the next step in-car security.
Car alarms and dash cameras have been useful for a very long time but Sentry Mode takes the technology even further thanks to how it makes use of the vehicle’s many different cameras and sensors to give the car a more well-rounded coverage in terms of its security features.
On top of all that, Sentry Mode is a fully automated feature that works on its own the moment you turn it on.
There is no doubt that Teslas are quite expensive, and that fact alone makes it a big target for thieves. As such, having a great security feature for your Tesla should be a good idea.
Now that you know how Sentry Mode works, let’s now look at what you need to do for this mode to work. Basically, there is nothing that you need here except for a Tesla vehicle manufactured in 2017 onwards and a USB drive. This is because earlier Tesla vehicles didn’t have Sentry Mode.
Of course, the purpose of the USB drive is for you to have a storage device for the video footage collected by the vehicle when you activate Sentry Mode.
When you are using a USB, you can basically use any USB device that has been formatted to what the Tesla is compatible with. However, the best USB drive is the one that Tesla itself sells because this has already been formatted.
If you’d like to read more about Tesla Dashcam, Sentry Mode and Storage you can see it here. We’ve compiled a helpful article.
So, before you use your USB storage drive, it is important that you format it first because Tesla vehicles will only accept certain storage device formats for your USB device.
However, if you don’t want to use the USB device that Tesla sells, the best you can use is a USB drive that is under 32 GB because that is the only device that’s quite easy to format.
If you have a USB driver that’s under 32 GB, plug the device into your computer. On the device’s name in your Devices and Drivers or in This PC, what you need to do is to right-click on the USB devices’ name, click format, and choose the fat32 format style.
After that, open the drive and then create a folder called TeslaCam and then eject the drive.
You can also easily format any kind of USB drive in your Tesla vehicle. All you need to do is to plug it in the Tesla’s USB port, go to Safety and Security, and then Format the USB Device.
This is by far the easiest way for you to do it. You can do this if you have a USB device that’s over 32 GB.
You can also talk through the car speaker. Great for practical jokes 🙂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2021
Now that you already have everything settled, let’s look at how you can set up Sentry Mode on Tesla.
Here’s a rundown of how you can make full use of your Tesla’s Sentry Mode:
