Tesla captures terrifying footage of tornado tearing through Canadian city

The vehicle escaped with only ‘dents and dings’

(Reddit)

A Tesla Model X’s cameras have captured the moment a tornado tore through a Canadian city with winds up to 130mph.

The twister swept through Barrie, Ottawa, on Friday, blowing roofs off of houses, upending cars, and leaving 10 people injured and 71 homes uninhabitable.

The Model X comes equipped with Tesla’s Sentry mode, and its built-in cameras, which detect and record any movement around the vehicle, filmed the tornado in all its fury.

The owner, who was not in the vehicle at the time, posted footage to Reddit from cameras on both the driver’s and passenger side of the car, which showed debris flying through the air as the winds reached more than 100 miles per hour around.

Writing on Reddit, the owner said the vehicle escaped with only “dents and dings all over”.

“It’s like it got sandblasted all over the driver side and feels all rough and rock chipped,” Reddit user VanillaGorilla wrote.

“Seeing the photos of what it did to homes in the area, I’d rather be in the Tesla than a house.”

Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman said that given the extent of the damage caused by the tornado, it could have easily claimed lives.

“I can’t tell you how incredible it is that nobody has been killed, and I hope that as all the secondary searches are completed, and the patients are treated at the hospital, that it continues to be the case. This certainly could have been a much more serious disaster,” the mayor said.

The Model X, which sells for $79,990, weighs 5,421lbs due to the size of its battery, which is much heavier than internal combustion engine vehicles.

The owner said they had scheduled a service with Tesla, and wasn’t sure what the repair bill would be.

According to Tesla marketing material, Sentry Mode is primarily designed to guard against break-ins and theft.

It continuously monitors the vehicle when it’s been left unattended, and if a “minimal threat” is detected, such as someone leaning on the side of the car, it switches into an “Alert” state.

“If a more severe threat is detected, such as someone breaking a window, Sentry Mode switches to an “Alarm” state, which activates the car alarm, increases the brightness of the center display, and plays music at maximum volume from the car’s audio system,” Tesla says.

Owners will receive a notification to the Tesla app, and be able to download a recording of the incident from 10 minutes prior to the alarm mode being activated.