One of Tesla’s most useful safety features upgrade soon, preparing to roll out remote Sentry Mode video previews that beam encrypted clips straight to your smartphone whenever the stereoscopic surveillance system detects a potential incident.
Tesla’s terse description of the upcoming update says it all: “When Sentry Mode records and sends you a preview of an event, those preview videos will appear here.” The dedicated tab for remote Sentry Mode previews suggests the clips will live ephemerally in the Tesla mobile app itself rather than littering your phone’s media galleries.
But the key detail? Tesla specifies that the videos are “end-to-end encrypted and can’t be accessed by Tesla.” That’s a clear nod to the privacy concerns that have dogged Sentry Mode and its CCTV-like capability from the start.
While it’s always been possible to transfer and view Sentry Mode recordings from your Tesla’s onboard storage yourself, this is the first time such footage will be beamed off the car wirelessly. And encrypting those remote previews is a welcome layer of reassurance given hackers’ past success exploiting Sentry Mode vulnerabilities.
Related: Tesla Sentry Mode will use 40% Less Power Soon, via a Software Update