- A vandal in Vancouver decided to throw a sizable rock onto the windshield of a Tesla Model 3, and its cameras caught the whole thing.
- All Teslas built after August 2017 come equipped with a Sentry mode that uses the car's numerous cameras to monitor the car and its surroundings.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously tossed metal balls at the Cybertruck at its unveiling, causing similar-looking window damage, but this was clearly the work of a vandal.
It's surprising, although perhaps evidence of cultural stereotyping, that we're surprised to see the words "Canadian" and "vandal" in the same sentence, but as this video shows, a vandal in Vancouver, British Columbia, committed a crime by shattering the windshield of a Tesla Model 3. The EV's owner had activated Sentry mode, and the car's multiple cameras captured the incident. The owner then posted the footage on YouTube in an effort to find the vandal and make sure he sees justice.
In the wee hours of February 23, a passerby on West Pender Street thought that it would be a great idea to smash the windshield of a blue Model 3 by picking up a big rock and throwing it on the EV’s windshield. The damage activated the Model 3’s Alarm state, which is standard procedure for when the car detects a break-in; Alarm turns on the center display to 100 percent brightness, and the Tesla begins playing music at full volume. The car then saves video from 10 minutes before the incident. Sentry mode's Alert state also activates if the car is bumped, and in that state, it starts recording video and displays a message on the center screen that it's recording video. This can be an issue of privacy for some, in the case that they inadvertently bump a Tesla while getting out their car.
Unfortunately, camera angles prevent a view of the perp's face, although he can be seen picking up a rock that’s conveniently placed next to the left of the car from the driver's-side camera, and we see the rock being thrown onto the windshield from the front-view camera. Immediately after the windshield is hit, the car’s lights go off, in line with the Alarm state's protocol. The vandal then makes his escape, filmed by the driver's-side camera.
This isn’t the first incident of vandals getting caught in the act by a Tesla's Sentry mode. Earlier this year, two hooligans in a Las Vegas parking garage were caught kicking a Model 3, and a woman in a parking garage in Australia was filmed keying the side of a Tesla. Another Australian incident, shown in the Twitter post above, involved a skateboard damaging the windshield of yet another Tesla EV.