While the release of the official Tesla video forensics tool is a massive win for power users and data nerds, the average owner will likely spend much more time using the updated in-car or in-app Dashcam Viewer.
With the 2025 Holiday Update, Tesla overhauled the in-vehicle and in-app interfaces, bringing some of that black box data directly to users, while also making it significantly easier to find the clips you’re actually looking for.
My favorite part of the Tesla Holiday update.
— Greggertruck (@greggertruck) December 13, 2025
I’d been wanting this for a while! Watermarked dashcam footage.
Proving weather FSD is engaged or not is useful for so many reasons. And this is nearly impossible to fake without huge effort. pic.twitter.com/4qDhTENLei
Telemetry on Top
The most visible change is the new telemetry module overlay in Dashcam videos. When reviewing footage in your vehicle or in the Tesla app, you can now toggle a data layer that sits on top of the video. This isn’t just a timestamp or watermark; it displays critical real-time vehicle metrics, including:
Autopilot / FSD State
Vehicle Speed
Gear Selection
Steering Wheel Angle
Accelerator and Brake Pressure
Turn Signal Usage
This overlay can be toggled on or off directly in the UI, providing a clean view when you want it and the hard data when you need it. Because this data is directly saved into the video file via SEI metadata, it is perfectly synchronized with the footage.
Note that this is only applicable to Dashcam footage. SEI data is not recorded for Sentry Mode footage, so no overlay is provided there. This new watermarked data is available on both HW3 and HW4, including Intel vehicles that have received the 2025 Holiday Update. The data is only available for new footage.
Tesla’s Dashcam Tool
The data displayed in the overlay is only small segment of the data that is actually captured. By using Tesla’s Dashcam tool, you can view additional data, such as the vehicle's direction of travel and its latitude/longitude.
Instead of displaying the data in a user-friendly way in the overlay, Tesla gives you the raw data; for example, it’ll display the actual percentage the accelerator pedal pressed, the exact steering wheel angle and more.
App Dashcam Viewer
Tesla has made the Dashcam Viewer easier to access in the app, adding it to the top level underneath Roadside. The Dashcam also displays the telemetry data, but it appears at the bottom of the video clip instead.
One feature that hasn’t been discussed yet is that when you download the 30-second clip from the Tesla app, it also includes the telemetry data, making it easy to import it into Tesla’s Dashcam tool to extract the raw data.
The new Dashcam Viewer also displays the stats in the Tesla App - it disappears after you parked your car for a few seconds. pic.twitter.com/pZhAWKZEzQ
— Max (@max_bracco) December 10, 2025
Better Filtering & Organization
Finding a specific event in the Dashcam viewer used to be a scrolling nightmare. Tesla has addressed this with new filter categories. You can now filter footage by categories that are automatically marked, including:
Sentry Aware (people/motion)
Handle Pulls (when someone tries using the vehicle’s handle to open the door)
Sentry Panic (vehicle hit, moved, alarms active)
Manual Saves (manual save button press)
Honk to Save (horn used)
These new filters are available only in your vehicle for the time being, but we expect them to roll out to the Tesla app in the future as well. Right now, the app will continue to show all footage in a long list.
Storage Management
Finally, managing your USB drive storage for Sentry and Dashcam has been improved. You can now view your dashcam storage status under Controls > Safety > Dashcam in your vehicle. This clearly shows the amount of storage that has been used and the total size of the drive.
Pressing the small (i) icon provides a more detailed look at how your drive is being used, separating storage consumption by Dashcam clips, Sentry Mode events, and other items.
