# Tesla model 3 Dashcam for Mapillary **URL:** \ **Category:** Contributing and equipment\ **Created:** [February 27, 2024, 10:09am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840 "2024-02-27T10:09:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![seb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@seb](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/seb)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 10:09am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/1 "2024-02-27T10:09:32Z")
Hello fellow mappers, I am very excited because of three things. I like OSM and Mapillary, I drive a Tesla model 3 and I have learned that there are ways I can use the in build cameras of my Tesla to record and upload to Mapillary. There is a Mapillary blog post from [2020](https://blog.mapillary.com/update/2020/12/09/map-with-your-tesla.html) and a few post in this forum. Before I dive head first into this adventure I wanted to ask around again if there are any follow ups to the blog post (anywhere on the net) or if there are other users that can share some of their experience with this undertaking? I am curious to read what body of knowledge is out there! From my side I have started this project. My first steps are to figure out mobile phone GPS recording and ‘Tesla Dashcam operation’ so that they don’t get in the way while driving. I have opted to try [https://gpslogger.app/](https://gpslogger.app/) on my phone. Any other suggestions are welcome. My first impressions are: - Lots of options, maybe too many - saving of files needs to be changed so that it is not stored by day but per recording session - accuracy reported by the app seems bad (around 4-5 m most of the time) On the Tesla Dashcam side I have formatted by USB stick and are now trying to figure out if I need to press the recording button every 10 minutes or just to turn it on or off. The [manual](https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/2017_2023_model3/en_au/GUID-3BCC07CE-5EA2-4F40-99D1-27690898FF3C.html) seems to indicate that I need to save every \<10 minutes. > Once saved, Dashcam saves the last 10 minutes of footage. ---
**Author:** ![seb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@seb](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/seb)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 4:19am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/2 "2024-03-02T04:19:33Z")
**Status update 1.** - recorded GPS tracks and videos. - [https://gpslogger.app/](https://gpslogger.app/) has the option to record to gpx v1.0 or gpx v1.1 - should I use 1.1? following some light reading on [Differences in GPX 1.0, 1.01, and 1.1 - GPS technology and devices - Geocaching Forums](https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/240499-differences-in-gpx-10-101-and-11/) and [GPX 1.0 or 1.1? | MRA Community Forum](https://forum.myrouteapp.com/topic/229/gpx-1-0-or-1-1/4) I will go and use **GPX v1.1** going forward. - search for application that can show me gps tracks on the map. **JOSM can!** - tried to install mapillary\_tools. not sure if I am stupid or what but the instructions don´t work for me on Ubuntu 22.04.03 - following quite a few instructions or trials I ended up wit hit working. I ran through these commands. [Problem with installing Mapillary tools on Ubuntu - #3 by momut1](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/problem-with-installing-mapillary-tools-on-ubuntu/1791/3) ```auto ~$ mapillary_tools --version mapillary_tools version 0.11.1 ``` time for some coffee and watching some recorded clips from my Tesla3 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![4004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/bbce88/32.png) [@4004](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/4004)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/3 "2024-03-04T20:58:17Z")
Great use of those cameras. I’ve seen a few images from what appeared to be vehicle positioning cameras, but don’t think there was a comprehensive write up. ---
**Author:** ![TumbleCow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/tumblecow/32/72232_2.png) [@TumbleCow](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/TumbleCow)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/4 "2024-03-04T22:20:28Z")
I’ve worked on/with this quite a bit! - I use teslausb on a raspberry pi, to keep a rotating ~100G archive of tesla footage. Very cool project, it emulates a usb stick but prevents the video from being deleted. - I wrote a little program in go that runs on a homeserver, that continuously pulls in the Tesla GPS data through the Tesla API and writes it to a .gpx file per day. ([GitHub - tijszwinkels/tesla-gps: Tesla GPS is a simple command-line tool to stream your Tesla vehicle's GPS coordinates in real-time and save them in GPX format.](https://github.com/tijszwinkels/tesla-gps)) BEWARE; This currently doesn’t work! - I need to fix this since Tesla moved to an official api and restricted access to the reverse-engineered one. - I have some scripting that checks when the raspberry pi becomes visible on wifi, and starts uploading the video-files to mapillary. I customized mapillary\_tools to: - Not upload a sample for a location if there’s still data less than 3 months old - Not upload a sample if it’s less than 5m away from the previous sample. I should _really_ do a proper write-up and release these modifications properly. In the meantime; I’d be happy to help you get setup. Ask me if you get stuck anywhere. BTW; The scripts from the blog-post are incompatible with current versions of mapillary\_tools. This is my script: [teslamapillary.py · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/tijszwinkels/dbc1901274187e71119a0f0d907db743) But make sure to alter the video\_sample\_interval. It’s currently set to 12fps which is fine since I hacked the tooling to wait until there’s 5m between two samples, but for the default tooling it’s better to stick to 3-5fps or so. ---
**Author:** ![boris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/boris/32/71767_2.png) [@boris](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/boris)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2024, 9:26am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/5 "2024-03-06T09:26:59Z")
Very cool projects. BTW @seb - you don’t have to use mapillary\_tools to add gpx files to videos, this is now natively supported in the [Mapillary Desktop uploader](https://www.mapillary.com/desktop-uploader) (overflow menu next to the video file will let you select the associated gpx). ---
**Author:** ![seb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@seb](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/seb)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 3:33am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/6 "2024-03-10T03:33:15Z")
wow, this is really awesome and much more skilled that I am able to for now. I read about the teslapi but don´t have the time at the moment. will put it onto the whish list. ---
**Author:** ![seb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@seb](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/seb)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 4:18am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/7 "2024-03-10T04:18:23Z")
@boris, thanks for pointing this out. I did try to use the desktop uploader but get an “Upload failed” error. I had a few tries but all without success. made separate [forum post](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/desktop-uploader-4-0-is-here-looking-for-feedback/7371/25). ---
**Author:** ![seb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@seb](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/seb)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 4:28am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/8 "2024-03-10T04:28:56Z")
Hey @TumbleCow , would you be able to help me with the python script a bit. - do you point the script to a folder with all cameras in (front, sides, back) or manually move them around? - What format is the time zone in? _UCS+11_, _AEST_ or _AEDT_ (for Australian Eastern Daylight Time) all result in an error - OK **Australia/Sydney** worked! - do I have to point the script to individual video files or to a folder? - do I need to point it to a GPX file or a folder with GPX files in? - the script seems to have issues with my mapillary email. Mine is in the form `name+mapillary@gmail.com` - how can I hand usename and password to the script more permanently? ```auto $ python3 teslamapillary.py --help usage: teslamapillary.py [-h] mapillary_user timezone gpxpath videofiles [videofiles ...] Process Tesla dashcam videos with accompanying GPX file positional arguments: mapillary_user Mapillary username timezone Timezone the Tesla ride was in. Default: Europe/Zurich gpxpath The gpx file videofiles The videofiles to process ``` ---
**Author:** ![TumbleCow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/tumblecow/32/72232_2.png) [@TumbleCow](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/TumbleCow)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 8:50am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/9 "2024-03-10T08:50:17Z")
- The script takes videofiles as a last argument, so you can specify multiple files or a wildcard. For example: ```auto python3 ../teslamapillary.py username "Europe/Amsterdam" track.gpx /path/to/videofiles/*` ``` - but it takes a single .gpx file - The script still uses mapillary\_tools. Login with `mapillary_tools authenticate` Does it work with these pointers? ---
**Author:** ![seb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@seb](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/seb)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 10:51am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/10 "2024-03-10T10:51:34Z")
Yes it did work after I used `mapillary_tools` to authenticate again before. Then the uploads started to work. Thanks for the help. Will the script recognise the different camera directions too if I point it to whole folders with all 4 directions? ---
**Author:** ![TumbleCow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/tumblecow/32/72232_2.png) [@TumbleCow](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/TumbleCow)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 8:13am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/tesla-model-3-dashcam-for-mapillary/7840/11 "2024-03-11T08:13:47Z")
yeah, it will match based on filename. (front, back, etc)