Tesla's sentinel mode has already caught an alleged car thief

Jed Franklin, based in San Francisco, received an alert on his phone informing him that the Sentry mode had been activated. Upon arriving at his vehicle, he found that the window had been broken, but that the attacker had fled with empty hands. Franklin then uploaded the video captured by Sentry Mode, which had recorded a clear picture of the suspect's face and license plate number. He handed the file over to the police, who was able to make an arrest.

Tesla is a sought-after brand, so its vehicles will become a target for criminals. The arrival of Sentry mode means that we will probably hear a lot about intrusion attempts in the coming weeks, but this publicity will eventually have a deterrent effect. That said, thieves have already proved able to find workarounds for this type of technology.

Updated on the 09/04/19 12h42 ET: The title of this post was referring to the incident causing the "car rampage", but this is not the case. We have updated to more accurately reflect the alleged events.