Always willing to take good ideas from fans and put them into action, Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently took some helpful suggestions and it appears they might make it into a future software update.
The first came from a question from @Teslatunity, who asked if there was a way for owners to easily see the health status of their 12V battery. Each Tesla is equipped with a 12V battery which supplies power for critical systems when the main battery pack is damaged or disabled, including the hazard lights, airbags, and more.
Yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2020
Responding with a simply “Yes”, Musk basically confirms this feature will eventually come in a future software update. When the 12V battery dies, so too does your car, so it’s important to know its current status. With an in-car display to show this, it could greatly reduce those situations where you’re left stranded when your 12V battery suddenly dies.
In another conversation, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley asked Musk something everyone else has already asked him without a response – if it would be possible to view Sentry Mode videos in the car.
Will discuss with team
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2020
Musk response this time wasn’t quite as unequivocal as his response about the 12V battery feature, but still a promising “Will discuss with team”. This topic has been brought up before with Musk, but it was more about watching the events streamed to your mobile device if you received a notification that Sentry Mode went off. That would be more difficult as it would eat up a lot more bandwidth.
Phone notification with ability to view possibly relevant still images is no problem. Live video from several cameras is too much bandwidth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2019
Right now, the only way to view your Sentry Mode videos is to remove your USB storage device and plug it into a computer. There are also 3rd party options out there that allow you to view the videos on your phone.
Neither are as easy and useful as it would be to be able to load them up on your 15-inch display in your car and review the videos before you even leave your parking spot. This could also be helpful in those situations where you need immediate access to the recordings, like an accident or traffic incident for authorities to review.
Hopefully both of these features make it into an upcoming software update soon. The most recent user-requested feature to make it into our vehicles was the recent Bluetooth improvement in 2020.8.1 and 2020.12.
