Last week, Tesla announced a new security feature that they call Sentry Mode. Basically, the new feature uses the car's external cameras to protect your Tesla while it's parked.
The feature is particularly attractive when you consider that a car is stolen every 40.8 seconds -- that is stolen, not including vehicles that are just broken into.
According to the car manufacturer, Sentry Mode continuously monitors the environment around your car when it is unattended. When you enable the feature, the car goes into "Standby" mode.
If the car detects a "minimal threat", like a person leaning on your car, it activates the "Alert" state that uses the touchscreen to warn the leaner that the cameras are recording him/her. If someone breaks a window, it activates "Alarm" mode, which obviously activates the alarm, makes the center screen brighter, and blasts music at maximum volume. Now, the biggest decision you will ever make is choosing what your personal emergency broadcast system would play. Since I'm a new father, I think I'd go with the Raffi classic "Bananaphone". If that doesn't chase off the cagey villain, nothing will.
Once your car is in "Alarm" state, the car will send you an alert over your phone and you'll also have the ability to download the video footage. The camera even captures the ten minutes prior to the incident.
The only thing that looks like a hassle is that you have to turn on Sentry Mode every time you get out of the car. I'm also curious about the cameras. If the cameras are always on, what else are they watching?
