Best USB Flash Drive for Tesla Sentry Mode

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The Tesla Sentry Mode is considered one of the most helpful features introduced by the premium car manufacturer. When you use the best USB drive for Tesla Sentry Mode, you cannot only monitor everything going around your car whenever it’s parked, but you can also save the footage for later use. This gives you the peace of mind that if anyone messes with your car, they won’t be able to get away easily. 

If you own a Tesla, then you may already know how Sentry Mode works. But if you have recently treated yourself to a new Tesla model, thinking about what the feature really is and how to use it with a USB flash drive might be on your mind. To help you get the most out of this security feature and find the best USB flash drive for Tesla Sentry Mode, here’s an overview of the technology and the ideal USB drive to use with it. 

What is Tesla Sentry Mode and How Does It Work?

At its core, Tesla Sentry mode is a security feature that is activated when your car is parked. It uses the Tesla Dashcam equipment and technology to work. Through the dashcam camera, Sentry Mode monitors what’s going around your car. If the motion sensors detect a large threat, the system notifies you about it via the Tesla app. Sentry Mode also records everything that is going around your car and saves the footage to a USB storage device. 

The feature is extremely helpful in cases such as collision, vandalism, and attempted theft. Sometimes, people may slam their vehicle into your car by accident. But instead of leaving any information, they just decide to drive away. At other instances, someone may actively vandalize your car and decide to make a run afterwards. There are also times where carjackers might try to steal your vehicle and leave when they are unsuccessful in their attempts. 

By using Sentry Mode, you cannot only identify all of these instances and how they took place, but you can also help law enforcement authorities find the culprit in serious cases. While owning a car as high-end as Tesla, the feature provides a much needed sense of security to you.

But since the feature needs an external storage device to record its footage, it is important for you to identify the best USB drive for Tesla Sentry Mode. This helps you pick an option that works the best with Sentry Mode, and lets you enjoy this innovative feature without any issues. 

What Are the Ideal Features in a USB Drive for Tesla Sentry Mode?

It is important to remember that when you use a USB flash drive with Tesla Sentry Mode, the system will only save the one hour’s worth of parking footage on the storage drive. 

In other words, this means that your USB flash drive will only keep 1 hour of the most recent footage and remove everything else on a consistent basis. But this doesn’t mean that you have a race against time in case you want to use specific recordings later. You can move select videos to the “Saved Clips” folder in order to watch them later. Any clips that you manually save to this folder are never deleted. 

This combination of automatic deletion and selected save option for certain files works wonders from a storage point of view. Instead of having to keep investing in a multitude of USB drives, you can even use a standard 32 GB drive to keep using Sentry Mode.

But here’s the deal: this perpetual deleting and saving of data means that you need the best USB flash drive for Tesla Sentry Mode that can be rewritten constantly without failure. 

If you go for a USB drive that doesn’t use robust hardware and top of the line features, then it might just give way under a few months. If you can’t find a suitable replacement USB drive right away, you will be left vulnerable to a number of risks where you are unable to identify or report an incident with video evidence. 

This is why, finding the best USB drive for Tesla Sentry Mode is absolutely crucial if you want to ensure maximum safety with your Tesla. But given that you can now find a plethora of USB flash drives at very affordable prices, it can be difficult to choose a USB drive that stands out in terms of specific usage with Tesla Sentry Mode.

While it seems like an impossible feat, it is not unachievable. With a little knowledge and a focus on specific usage, you can easily find a USB drive that fulfills all your needs without any issues. 

Given that you now understand what to look for in the ideal USB flash drive for Tesla Sentry Mode, let’s take a look at the best option that’s currently available on the market.

The Best USB Flash Drive for Tesla Sentry Mode

With rave reviews, stellar performance, and reliable hardware, the Samsung BAR Plus is considered one of the best USB flash drives currently available in the market. Keeping these factors in mind, it’s not a shock to see that it is also the best USB drive for Tesla Sentry Mode.

Originally released in late 2018, the Samsung BAR Plus is an upgrade to the tech giant’s previous line of Samsung BAR flash drives. The Samsung BAR Plus is based on a newer technology than its predecessor, which makes it boast of faster speeds and better performance. If you have ever used the Samsung BAR line of USB flash drives, then you will immediately appreciate the weight that this comparison holds within itself. 

To give you an overview of what exactly does the Samsung BAR Plus offer to users in general and to Tesla owners specifically, here are key specifications of the flash drive. 

With plenty of storage options, impressive speed, compatible hardware and sturdy design, the Samsung BAR Plus is truly a dream device for Tesla owners on the lookout for a USB flash drive. 

The Good

Now that you have a bird’s eye view of Samsung BAR Plus, let’s dive into the details and see why exactly it is the best USB flash drive for Tesla Sentry Mode. 

Storage

The Samsung BAR Plus comes in various storage capacities that make it easier for you to select a model that fits within your budget. 

As mentioned above, even a 32 GB storage device will work well with Tesla Sentry Mode. But since you never know how much footage you are going to end up moving to Saved Clips, it is essential that you upgrade to a storage capacity that’s not the bare minimum. 

With this in mind, Samsung BAR Plus fulfills these needs quite impressively. The 128 GB storage fits this future proofing approach. But if you have more or less room in your budget, then you can easily go with the lower 64 GB or the higher 256 GB capacity instead. 

Speed

The Samsung BAR Plus is one of the fastest USB flash drives in the market, which also makes it the best USB drive for Tesla Sentry Mode. With that being said, there are nuances to the maximum speed that you should know about for the sake of transparency. 

While the Samsung BAR Plus boasts of a read speed of up to 300 MB/s, it is prudent to note that the actual read speed may be less than that. The write speed is even lower at times. 

But this is the part where you need to pay attention. Even with the disclaimer regarding its speed in place, the Samsung BAR Plus remains impressively swift with its data transfer speeds and can sustain constant rewrites with ease. 

This makes the flash drive ideal for rapid writes, such as the rewriting model being used by Tesla Sentry Mode. The speed also comes in handy when you need to move your Saved Clips to your computer or another device and don’t want to wait for a long time to complete the process.

USB Version/Type

Samsung BAR Plus comes with USB version 3.1. This puts it on par with the latest data transfer technology that is being used in all modern devices. It is also why it reports such impressive speeds in the first place. 

Apart from providing top of the line solutions in its USB Version, the Samsung BAR Plus comes with the ability of being backwards compatible. This means that if you plug the flash drive into a device that has USB 3.0 or 2.0, then it will still work flawlessly albeit at slower speeds. 

This feature comes in handy with your older devices. But it is also useful when you have to share the USB with law enforcement or legal professionals for quick video transfer, and they only have access to older computers. 

The USB Type-A is a standard that works perfectly with Tesla Sentry. Whereas, the flash drive also supports the FAT32 file format, which is the only compatible format for Tesla Sentry and Tesla Dashcam. This adds to the drive’s resume for being the best USB flash drive for Tesla Sentry Mode.

Dimensions and Built

At dimensions of 1.6” x 0.6” x 0.5”, Samsung BAR Plus follows the standard of most flash drives. But that’s the thing: the size is actually not the most striking feature about it. That distinction goes to its built. 

Encased in a fully-metal body that comes in either black or silver, Samsung BAR Plus can easily be labeled as a piece of futuristic jewelry. It has a key ring build at its end to help you make sure that you don’t misplace it. But what if we told you that even that’s not the most impressive feature of the drive?

It’s because the Samsung BAR Plus is water proof, temperature proof, shock proof, X-ray proof, and magnet proof. This makes sure that whether you accidentally expose the flash drive to liquid or drop it on the floor, it’s going to keep your data safe and sound. This doesn’t only make it the best USB drive for Tesla Sentry Mode, but it also makes it an ideal choice for everyday use.

Price

Despite boasting high-end features and carving its niche in the top-tier USB flash drives, Samsung BAR Plus isn’t heavy on your pocket. 

At retail price, the 32 GB model starts at $13.99. But with massive discounts at various retailers, that price comes down significantly. On the other hand, the largest capacity version at 256 GB goes for the list price of $74.99, but it also gets enormous discounts that slash its price down by a large margin. 

This makes Samsung BAR Plus a very affordable flash drive. It also gives you the option to keep more than one of these drives at hand, so that you can quickly change between them on your Tesla if you need the other drive in a hurry. 

Since Tesla Sentry Mode can sometimes cause storage issues with recording, keeping multiple flash drives handy also gives you a backup plan in case of any unforeseen problems.

The Bad

Nothing in this world is perfect. Keeping this pragmatic view, it’s not a shock to see that even the best USB flash drive for Tesla Sentry Mode has its flaws. Dramatics aside, the Samsung BAR Plus does fall short in select areas. While they remain limited, it is still advisable to know about this information.

Size

Even with its impressive dimensions, the Samsung BAR Plus is not the smallest flash drive on the market. You can easily find various other devices that are smaller and lighter in weight. 

Here, the sturdy design of Samsung BAR Plus becomes its saving grace. Since its premium safety features are not available in many other devices, it makes the flash drive’s comparatively larger size pretty easy to bear. 

Write Speed

No matter where you look, the specific write speed for Samsung BAR Plus varies on usage. While it is a very standard practice for flash drives, a few users report that they have noticed the speed boosting in very sporadic ways. 

The complaints remain minimal and only with users who are paying attention to writing speeds on a computer, but they still exist. With that being said, given that most users don’t have any problems with the device, it is pretty safe to say that you may not even face this issue. This is especially true for when you use the device with your Tesla, where virtually no users have had any problems with write speeds.

Where Can You Buy It?

Now that you have the lowdown on the best USB drive for Tesla Sentry Mode, you may be ready to bring it home, or rather, bring to your Tesla. 

The good news is that you can easily purchase Samsung BAR Plus from a variety of places. Online stores do not only have these flash drives in stock, but they also have them available at discounted prices. This means that all you need to get your hands on your own Samsung BAR Plus for your Tesla is to do a few clicks. It’s as easy as it sounds. Click here to check the current price on Amazon, and click here to go straight to the manufacturer (Samsung).

Once again, while Samsung BAR Plus remains the best USB flash drive for Tesla Sentry Mode in all sizes, it is best if you go past the minimum capacity of 32 GB. It will go a long way in helping you steer clear of any issues, while also providing you with plenty of extra storage space to backup your saved clips in a quick and painless way, and If you’re on a budget, check out this pre-formatted alternative starting at $49.

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