Drive
The Tesla records
The car’s built-in sensors and dashcam system produce synchronized driving and motion data during a normal trip.
Tesla collector research
Could your Tesla help find rough roads?
Possibly. Newer Tesla dashcam recordings can contain synchronized location, speed and three-axis acceleration data—including the vertical movement useful for recognizing bumps. Sucky Roads is exploring whether that information could become another hands-off way to measure road conditions.
The possible route
The vehicle already measures much of what we need.
Tesla’s dashcam metadata can include GPS position, vehicle speed, heading and vertical, lateral and longitudinal acceleration. Those readings may let Sucky Roads recognize road impacts without relying on a loose phone inside the vehicle.
Extract
Keep the measurements
Software could extract only the road-related telemetry. Sucky Roads would not need to keep or publish the camera video.
Map
Compare repeated passes
Processed readings could join phone and fleet-box measurements while retaining a separate Tesla calibration profile.
This is research, not a released feature. We still need real-world Tesla sample data to confirm sensor update rates, compatibility and scoring accuracy before inviting anyone to collect road data.
What the first version could require
A small TeslaCam USB device may be the bridge.
Tesla does not currently offer a public Fleet API method for downloading dashcam clips, and its normal Fleet Telemetry does not expose vertical acceleration. An early test could use a small Wi-Fi-enabled device that acts as the TeslaCam USB drive, extracts the sensor information and uploads only the needed measurements when a trusted connection is available.
If Tesla later exposes vertical acceleration at a useful rate through Fleet Telemetry, a future version could potentially work through owner authorization with no Sucky Roads hardware in the vehicle.
Help decide what comes next
Would you test it?
Joining this list does not connect your vehicle or grant access to Tesla data. It only tells us that you may be interested in a future pilot. If enough owners are interested, we’ll contact the list when we are ready to request sample clips or begin controlled testing.
No spam. We’ll only use this to measure interest and contact you about Tesla-related Sucky Roads testing.