Will we ever get sentry mode equivalent? Does anyone have a good reason why not?

[Kabish]

Sentry mode, meh it is a little bit of a toy. But having a dash cam is incredibly handy. Not having the dash cam was actually a pretty big negative for me, but an after market camera can work.

When I had my F150 the $140 camera paid for its self. Had a truck lose its load and hit my truck, $1,200 and there was zero discussion about fault. As long as you don’t drive like an ass clown, there is no reason not to have a cam, it’s for your protection and removes the he said she said.

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[CharleyCarlos]

Sentry mode, meh it is a little bit of a toy. But having a dash cam is incredibly handy. Not having the dash cam was actually a pretty big negative for me, but an after market camera can work.

When I had my F150 the $140 camera paid for its self. Had a truck lose its load and hit my truck, $1,200 and there was zero discussion about fault. As long as you don’t drive like an ass clown, there is no reason not to have a cam, it’s for your protection and removes the he said she said.

Also easy to find a paired front and back cam to keep an almost complete record of your driving. You can wire to battery for motion detection while car is parked if you really want.

 

[JoelOclock]

Would it be worth Ford's effort and would customers be happy overall if it turns out that this "sentry" view can only capture items within a few feet of the car's perimeter and only items up to 4' tall, excluding straight out views to the vehicle's sides but including a fisheye distorted view through the front windshield?

I’m not a Ford technician so I won’t speak to the capabilities but plenty of dash cams offer a lot less than we’d get from the cameras on the MME (yes, and some more). The 360 cam shows a pretty good view imo. I was hoping someone with insider knowledge would give a hint vs ppl telling me why they don’t want it but you raise a good point of why they may not be investing in it

 

[JoelOclock]

If someone bumped in to my car or broke in to it, I'd have evidence in the form of damage to the car. A picture of whomever did it is not going to make any difference at all to the insurance company or the police.

But, if the car could give a good jolt of electricity to whomever opens their car door in to mine or runs a shopping cart in to it, I'd be all for that.

If someone reversed into the front of your car, you’d have a license plate number and a way to charge their insurance vs pay the deductible for a hit and run scenario with no evidence. Think about it

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Hardware already exists. Once software is written @Ford Motor Company could charge subscription to enable just like Blue Cruise.

If they're interested in adding that revenue stream, why not this one? Arguable that it could apply to way more people since lots live away from the motorways that are added thus far to blue cruise.

And yes, dashcam can do same thing but for good quality one you're looking at what $350+? and having to hardwire it to get parked alerts. Not to mention maybe harder for people who lease?? Either way, big upfront cost and effort that I'm sure many would relish removing with a ...$8 per month sub?

While I like the idea of sentry mode and would pay for it, I do have to ask one question. Are you kidding? We haven’t even had an OTA that has fixed a bug yet. Sentry mode will be a long time coming.

 

[JoelOclock]

While I like the idea of sentry mode and would pay for it, I do have to ask one question. Are you kidding? We haven’t even had an OTA that has fixed a bug yet. Sentry mode will be a long time coming.

I’m a glass half-full kinda guy. Man can dream haha!

 

[macchiaz-o]

I’m not a Ford technician so I won’t speak to the capabilities but plenty of dash cams offer a lot less than we’d get from the cameras on the MME (yes, and some more). The 360 cam shows a pretty good view imo. I was hoping someone with insider knowledge would give a hint vs ppl telling me why they don’t want it but you raise a good point of why they may not be investing in it

To be super clear, I am not a Ford insider and I do not have insider knowledge about the cameras or what Ford might be planning for them.

I was only pointing out that four of the existing cameras point sharply downwards and the cameras themselves are not high off the ground. While the side mirrors are folded, the side cameras are mostly aimed at the vehicle's bodywork.

Besides those four, I'm only aware of one infrared camera pointed towards the driver's face, and one wide angle optical camera pointed straight ahead through the windshield.

I don't think we've seen imagery examples from the driver monitor or traffic sign reading cameras, but I'd guess that the engineers would choose sensors that match their intended purposes (attention monitoring and traffic sign recognition) and they may be less than ideal for purposes of vandalism imagery.

 

[bp99]

If someone reversed into the front of your car, you’d have a license plate number and a way to charge their insurance vs pay the deductible for a hit and run scenario with no evidence. Think about it

How often are you people having things like this happen? I've never personally had an experience where one would add value. I don't see freakish things happening regularly out and about to justify one either. I already pay for insurance which I've never filed a claim on.

If you like having a safety blanket, I'm not going to tell you not to buy one. I just personally fail to see a use to justify paying for it. The original poster was trying to get attention of the powers that be to possibly see this as a self-paying feature to implement. I simply stated I don't think it's worth paying anything for. To each their own.

 

[alexgorod]

We haven’t even had an OTA that has fixed a bug yet. Sentry mode will be a long time coming.

You never know - they added tic-tac-toe before fixing bugs...

 

[Brussam]

With the size of USB sticks getting so big, adding storage space would be pretty easy and lower power consumption. I would like the feature if available.

 

[EELinneman]

My wife would pay for it. That was really the only reason she considered a Tesla. Then again, she would install 4 or 5 locks on the front door if I would let her. Her favorite place in the hardware store is the lock section. I can hear the angels singing in her head when she goes down that aisle.

Show her the Lock Picking Lawyer channel on You Tube, then run for cover!

 

[EELinneman]

Would it be worth Ford's effort and would customers be happy overall if it turns out that this "sentry" view can only capture items within a few feet of the car's perimeter and only items up to 4' tall, excluding straight out views to the vehicle's sides but including a fisheye distorted view through the front windshield?

The fisheye distortion is easy to resolve now with computational photography. My question based on your statement is how is the car reading road signs if it has these limitations? Many people have reported that the car is seeing speed limit signs and reacting. Not always reacting well, but reacting.

 

[HuntingPudel]

My dad would have gone for this. He was a hyper-paranoid master locksmith who grew up in Oakland. He used to lock me out of the house all the time, eve if the radio in the garage was blaring and I was cussing under a car in the driveway. I was never without my keys or a set of lock picks. I prefer the keys because my house’s locks are hard to pick.

 

[Jimrpa]

The fisheye distortion is easy to resolve now with computational photography. My question based on your statement is how is the car reading road signs if it has these limitations? Many people have reported that the car is seeing speed limit signs and reacting. Not always reacting well, but reacting.

Again, you’d only be able to “see” in one direction. I believe Tesla’s “Sentry Mode” is practical because it has cameras around the vehicle giving it a 360 degree field of view. Perhaps such a system could be included on future vehicles.

 

[Echostorm]

How often are you people having things like this happen? I've never personally had an experience where one would add value. I don't see freakish things happening regularly out and about to justify one either. I already pay for insurance which I've never filed a claim on.

If you like having a safety blanket, I'm not going to tell you not to buy one. I just personally fail to see a use to justify paying for it. The original poster was trying to get attention of the powers that be to possibly see this as a self-paying feature to implement. I simply stated I don't think it's worth paying anything for. To each their own.

I've never seen a tornado or a hurricane, I don't know what all these people are complaining about.

Hit and runs alone happen quite a lot:
Link 1

Link 2

Vandalism also happens more than you might think and having something to show the cops and insurance may not help them catch the monster who hurt your car but it can remove any doubts both of them might have had that you might be covering your own mistake and get the ball rolling faster

https://www.progressive.com/answers/does-car-insurance-cover-vandalism/

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