Tesla Model 3 — Built-in Dashcam Saves Hassle and Cost

Tom Harrison
Tom Harrison’s Blog
4 min readSep 22, 2019

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My Tesla Model 3 has a built-in dashcam — plug in any USB drive and the car records video from its cameras as you drive, as well as when parked. Using this feature, I recently was able to save a huge hassle, and maybe a lot of money when someone claimed that I had collided with their car.

I drive for Uber and had just picked up a passenger when, at an intersection waiting for a light, and realized that the car in front of me was very close, maybe touching. I must have taken my eyes off the scene after stopping because it was a surprise, but there was no bump or jolt, and maybe I was just very close. The light changed and the car ahead proceeded along, and I turned and went my way. It didn’t occur to me that there was anything wrong, only that our cars had been close.

Strange circumstances

Circumstances are a little odd at this point. Several minutes later my Uber passenger got a call. He told me that his caller was his cousin who happened to be in front of me, and that the cousin had seen my passenger get in, and was reporting that my car had run into his. (So, yeah, a random Uber passenger gets a call from his cousin, in the car in front of me, that I have crashed into.)

I gave my cell number. I even asked my passenger if he felt impact, and he said no. So yeah, this part is bizarre.

This is when I remembered to touch the Tesla Dashcam icon to save the last 10 minutes of footage.

Damage from an accident?

The other driver and I talked a few minutes later. I still knew only that however it happened, our two cars were very close — proximity sensors were red and beeping at the intersection, and yes, the cars might have touched. If I did bump his car I neither felt nor saw it. He said that I had run into his car, causing damage to his bumper. He requested my registration and license info and said he would call his insurance so he could get his car fixed then send me the estimate. I asked him to send photos and a description of what he saw by email.

Dashcam footage

When I had some decent light I checked my car and saw no indications of impact. I reviewed the dashcam footage on the USB stick and found the incident. My car was indeed approaching his, but at very (very) low speed, and decelerating, almost stopped. There was no “jolt” suggesting collision. Maybe I did actually hit him, but if so, at some fraction of a mile-per-hour.

Then in the video as his car took off I had a reasonable view of his bumper. There was clearly no significant dent or other impact, although there were a lot of minor scrapes and dings all across the rear bumper, so hard to tell if one of these might have been mine.

Story changes

We connected by phone a couple hours later. The driver reiterated that he wanted to get an estimate for repair from his insurance company and needed my registration. Uber does have insurance that covers this kind of situation, but I was still not sure what had actually happened, if anything. I asked him for the photo he said he had of the damage to his car and he said he would send it. He was concerned that there was structural damage, or other internal damage he couldn’t see — this seemed unlikely to me given the video I had just reviewed.

Then I mentioned I had some pictures of my bumper, as well as a video of the incident from my Tesla dashcam that showed little or no damage, asking if there was indeed a need for insurance. He seemed dubious about the video. I sent it along.

Scuff

We connected the next day and he now described the damage as “scuff”. I told him I would be happy to pay for touch-up paint or some buffing — I wasn’t sure there was impact, but that was a minor expense I would cover in order to avoid insurance and points, and all that. I just wanted to see his photo of the damage.

I never heard from him.

Scam?

This might well have been a scam, but I doubt it — it was strange that my passenger got a call from the guy I might have run into. But it crossed my mind that if you wanted a new bumper on your car for free, just get someone to run into you at a light. But if this was a scam of some sort, they need to work out their process if you ask me :-)

I think the other party just assumed that my car was insured by Uber so I would just let them deal with it, and maybe he would get a shiny new bumper for free. Dashcam photos seem to have changed the nature of his story.

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30 Years of Developing Software, 20 Years of Being a Parent, 10 Years of Being Old. (Effective: 2020)