Our Best Guide To Setting Up Your Dashcam On Your Tesla Model 3

If you've got the new Tesla Model 3, then you are probably excited to see their new front-facing dashcam to keep you safe on the road, but their dashcam does work slightly different to other models so requires a different set-up.

To set your dashcam up on your Tesla Model 3 you need to ensure you have a USB drive and that it's formatted properly inside of the dashcam.

So as we can go into further detail about setting up your dashcam on your Tesla Model 3 and other models, we've composed a short guide below which will discuss how to set up your dashcam on a Tesla, how to use your Tesla dashcam and a few important tips.

Let's get into it!

How Does The Tesla 3 Dashcam Work?

Unlike other dashcams where you set them manually and can access all your footage, the Tesla 3 works by allowing you to plug in a USB flash drive which saves the last 10 minutes of the footage picked up by the Tesla dashcam by tapping a button, giving you the most important moments of an incident.

A Step By Step To Setting Up Your Tesla 3 Dashcam

The front-facing dashcam on the Tesla 3 is fitted on other models such as the Y, S and X model too, setting it up can be a little overwhelming, however, so we've put together our best step by step for helping you through the process below.

1. Begin by choosing the right USB flash drive, this will be plugged into the USB port on the dashcam, you should choose a 64GB USB drive at the least so as you can have as much space as possible.
2. Next, plug your drive into your computer and format it, some might already be formatted however if so you can skip this step, make sure the format is in FAT32.
3. Then within the driver add a new folder that says TeslaCam.
4. Now insert your thumb drive into the USB port on the Tesla 3.
5. You should then see an icon on your Tesla 3 car which you can select the record, for reviewing the footage you can take the USB out and review footage.

How To Use Your Tesla 3 Dashcam

There are a few different functions of your Tesla 3 dashcam which are worth getting to know so as you can the most out of the cam, we've listed some ways to use the device below.

Using The Cam

• To record - simply press the camera icon to start recording with your dashcam, a red dot will show.
• To pause - To pause your recording simply press and hold the camera icon until it appears greyed out.
• To save - When the Tesla 3 dashcam saves footage a green checkmark will appear by the camera icon.

Checking The Footage

• To check your cam footage ensure your model is in the park then select the cam icon from the status bar and press launch viewer, you will then find corresponding files organised in a variety of folders.
• You can also check your footage by plugging the USB into a computer.
• Folders are organised into recent clips which are any clips taken in within the last hour, sentry clips are where the Tesla alarm was activated and saved clips are in the folder that was manually saved by you.

Understanding Sentry Mode

• Sentry mode can be manually activated on the car by going into settings, security then toggling it on.
• This mode helps to protect the car when parked by automatically switching on when motion is detected and recorded.
• Lots of force will also trigger a sound alarm which can be transferred to your phone.

Last Words

Overall, setting up your dashcam on your Tesla Model 3 is simple once you have the right USB and format it, we would also suggest using one separately for music. You can always switch to a regular dashcam if you want more control over your footage in terms of it being overwritten or recording for longer as the Tesla overwrites its footage after one hour.