Teslarati 
Tesla has officially launched Live Camera Access for the Sentry Mode security feature with Software Update 2021.36.8.
Sentry Mode is a security feature available to Tesla owners which helps record events that happen near a vehicle. It has been used in the past to catch vandals, solve robberies, and find liability in accidents, in some cases. The feature uses Tesla’s eight external cameras to capture occurrences in the vicinity of the vehicle. It is highly effective due to its stealthiness and ability to record without any indication that the feature is active.
Last week, Teslarati reported on CEO Elon Musk confirming that the ability to watch Sentry Mode live from the Tesla Smartphone application would be coming soon. It has already rolled out, just five days after Musk confirmed the feature would be available. Tesla has added it to the Premium Connectivity package, which costs $9.99 a month and includes Navigation, Live Traffic Visualization, Satellite-View Maps, Video Streaming, Caraoke, Music Streaming, and an Internet Browser.
Tesla has launched the live viewer of Sentry Mode with Software Update 2021.36.8 and describes the feature in its release notes:
“You can now remotely view your car’s surroundings when parked to confirm the safety of your environment before returning to your car. Live Camera is end-to-end encrypted and cannot be accessed by Tesla. To enable or disable, tap Controls > Safety & Security.
Note: This feature requires iOS mobile app version 4.2.1 or higher, and Premium Connectivity.”
The feature is currently not available on Android devices, and iPhone users are the only ones who will be able to access the Sentry Mode Live Camera Access.
We speculated on Tesla’s reasoning for adding live camera access to Sentry Mode, guessing it would be for ease-of-access, as Sentry Mode alerts can happen quite frequently, even if someone is just looking at the vehicle from up-close. Additionally, a safety point of view was also taken into consideration, as alerts could mean someone who is armed is burglarizing or vandalizing the vehicle, and the ability to watch the event occur in real-time through a Smartphone screen is much safer than confronting the perpetrator in person.
