Sentry Driver vs TeslaFi

The Honest Answer

TeslaFi logs everything your Tesla does and stores it forever. Sentry Driver alerts you in real-time when someone else is driving your car.

TeslaFi question: “What was my efficiency last month? How has my battery degraded over 3 years?”

Sentry Driver question: “Is my son speeding right now? Did someone just hit my parked car?”

These are fundamentally different use cases.

What Sentry Driver Actually Does

Sentry Driver solves the “someone else is driving my Tesla” problem:

1. Bluetooth detection: Your phone pairs with your car via VIN hash. At -75 dBm signal strength, the app knows you’re present.

2. Automatic monitoring: When your phone isn’t detected (someone else is driving), monitoring activates. No manual toggle needed.

3. Real-time alerts: Five configurable alert types push to your phone instantly:

   • Speed violations (customizable threshold)
   • Curfew violations (time-based rules)
   • Geofence exits (boundary alerts)
   • Accident detection (2g/4g/8g G-force options)
   • Driving behavior (hard brakes/accelerations)

4. Owner-only design: The driver doesn’t install anything. They don’t even know the app exists unless you tell them. This matters for teen monitoring - they can’t disable or game the system.

The “only when owner absent” feature means you’re not tracking yourself. Monitoring activates only when you hand over the keys.

What TeslaFi Actually Does

TeslaFi is a data logging platform. It excels at:

• Comprehensive logging: Every trip, charge, and data point stored for years
• Battery degradation: Track capacity loss over time with detailed graphs
• Cost calculations: Energy costs per trip, per mile, total ownership costs
• Firmware tracking: Know when updates are available, track version history
• Sleep optimization: Minimize vampire drain with intelligent polling
• Historical analysis: Compare efficiency across seasons, routes, driving styles

TeslaFi’s strength is the depth and longevity of its data. If you want to analyze your Tesla ownership over multiple years, it’s hard to beat.

What TeslaFi doesn’t do: real-time alerts for driver behavior, driver differentiation, accident detection, or curfew monitoring.

The Timing Difference

This is the core distinction:

TeslaFi: Data is available after the trip. You can analyze what happened, but you find out later.

Sentry Driver: Alerts happen during the trip. You know within seconds if something’s wrong.

For efficiency optimization, after-the-fact analysis is fine. For safety monitoring, real-time matters.

Real Scenarios

Scenario 1: Teen driver safety Your 16-year-old just got their license. You want to know if they’re speeding or out past curfew.

• TeslaFi: You could check tomorrow’s logs. By then, whatever happened already happened.
• Sentry Driver: Get a push notification within seconds of a speed violation. Call them immediately if needed.

Scenario 2: Long-term ownership tracking You want to track your Tesla’s battery health, efficiency trends, and total cost of ownership.

• TeslaFi: Ideal. Years of data, detailed graphs, cost calculations.
• Sentry Driver: Not designed for this. Wrong tool.

Scenario 3: Parked car protection You want to know if someone hits your parked Tesla.

• TeslaFi: Logs available later, no real-time alert.
• Sentry Driver: Instant push notification via accident detection.

Scenario 4: Shared family vehicle Multiple people drive the car. You want awareness.

• TeslaFi: Logs all trips identically. Can’t distinguish drivers.
• Sentry Driver: Only monitors when you’re not present. Automatic differentiation.

Interface Comparison

TeslaFi is web-first. The power is in detailed dashboards, graphs, and tables best viewed on desktop. There’s mobile access, but it’s secondary.

Sentry Driver is mobile-first. Native iOS/Android app built for quick glances and push notifications. You’re not sitting at a computer when your teen is speeding - you need a phone alert.

API and Battery Impact

Both use the official Tesla Fleet API. Running multiple apps increases API polling, which can affect:

• Vampire drain (car wakes more often)
• Sleep mode behavior

TeslaFi has extensive sleep mode settings to minimize this. Sentry Driver focuses on active monitoring when driving occurs.

If you’re concerned about phantom drain, consider whether you need both apps running simultaneously.

The Bottom Line

Choose Sentry Driver if: You share your Tesla with others (especially teens) and want real-time alerts about their driving. You care about knowing now, not analyzing later.

Choose TeslaFi if: You want comprehensive ownership data - battery degradation, efficiency tracking, cost analysis, firmware updates. You’re the primary driver and don’t need to monitor others.

The honest truth: Most people don’t need both. Figure out which question you’re actually trying to answer:

• “How is my car being driven right now?” → Sentry Driver
• “What’s my ownership data over time?” → TeslaFi

Pick accordingly.