-This car doesn't
just have an alarm.
It has an all-seeing eye
with a scary soundtrack.
[Johann Bach's "Toccata D
Minor" plays]
I'm Washington Post
tech columnist Geoff Fowler,
and I'm gonna show you
how new cars
use built-in cameras to catch
potential crimes in the act.
How's that work?
I'm gonna pretend to be
a bad guy and show you how.
This is a Tesla Model 3,
the most popular
American electric car.
Most new cars have cameras,
but the Model 3
has eight cameras,
which is uses for backing up,
cruise control,
and its budding
self-driving capabilities.
But a year ago, it added
one more trick,
which is calls Sentry Mode.
It's turns all those cameras
into a rolling security system.
More and more cars
offer something like this.
It's been on some Cadillacs
since 2016.
When Sentry Mode is turned on,
the camera is looking
for disturbances
out of a set of front cameras,
two side cameras,
and a back camera.
When someone or something
gets close,
a warning appears on the screen
in the center console.
"You are being recorded."
Most of the time, that just
takes video of people
scooching by
in tight parking spots.
But there's another level
when things go awry.
When the car senses
a major disturbance,
like a loud noise or jostle,
it will set off an alarm,
complete with music,
chosen by Tesla
to leave an impression.
When that happens,
Sentry Mode also sends
a notification to your phone.
The car saves all of that camera
footage to a memory stick.
You can watch it later
in high definition,
but only if you have
physical access to the car.
Unlike connected Ring doorbells
and other webcams,
you can't stream video
from a Tesla,
and it doesn't record audio.
Police also can't
directly access the footage.
And for privacy's sake,
that's probably a good thing.
Now a few caveats.
Leaving Sentry Mode on does
sip a Tesla's precious battery.
You lose 1 mile of range
for every hour it runs.
And Sentry Mode won't stop
a crime in progress.
If someone keys your car,
all you get is
a video of it happening.
And if someone gets
into your car,
you won't have a record
of what they took.
There's an inward-facing camera,
but Tesla, for some reason,
hasn't turned it on.
But Sentry Mode has caught
real bad guys.
For me, it helped track down
a hit and run
while my car was parked.
The suspect?
A city bus
that gashed the bumper.
Soon, all cars will be mobile
surveillance machines.
Are we ready for that?
