From box to backups.

Two ways to get going.

Ready-made image: the easiest route for a Pi Zero 2 W, explained below. Installer: for other compatible boards or an existing system; jump to the installer route.

For the ready-made image, gather four essentials.

• Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. The board the ready-to-flash image is built and tested for.
• High-endurance microSD card, at least 64 GB. Consider 128–256 GB for more history on HW4 cars.
• USB data cable. Match the connector in your car. A charging-only cable will not work.
• A backup destination. A NAS, an SSH server with rsync, or a configured rclone cloud remote. Check 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi reaches the car.

Before spending money, read the compatibility notes. Confirmed testing is on a 2026 Model 3 with HW4.

1. Flash the microSD card.

Download glovebox-<version>-image.zip from the latest GitHub release. Open Raspberry Pi Imager, choose Use custom under the operating system selection, and select the downloaded image. Choose your microSD card and write it.

2. Plug into the right USB port.

Insert the card into the Pi. Connect its USB port, rather than its PWR port, to the car’s data-capable dashcam port. The same cable carries power and recordings. A phone charger also works for initial setup at your desk.

The project reports the car sees its drive within about 20 seconds. Setup Wi-Fi can take a couple of minutes to appear.

3. Join the setup network.

On your phone, join Glovebox-XXXX (the final four characters vary). The setup page should open automatically. If not, enter http://192.168.66.1 in your browser.

The temporary setup network is open. Set up in a trusted location; it switches off after configuration. If no network appears, allow at least two minutes. After setup, bring it back by creating an empty file named glovebox-setup on the boot partition and restarting the Pi.

4. Follow the wizard.

1. Choose your home 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and enter its password.
2. Configure the backup destination and use the built-in connection test.
3. Optionally configure music, Light Show, or Boombox drives.
4. Optionally pair Bluetooth keep-awake using your Tesla key card.

The NAS guide explains backup choices. For cloud remotes, prepare an rclone configuration on a computer first.

5. Check your first backup.

With the car parked in home Wi-Fi range, open Glovebox’s web interface and check car and backup status. Confirm new files have arrived in the destination folder. The device interface has no login, so keep it on a trusted network and do not port-forward it.

Encrypted clips are backed up unchanged. Watch those with Tesla’s dashcam viewer; unencrypted clips can play in Glovebox.

Using another board? Take the installer route.

Glovebox also works beyond the Pi Zero 2 W. Supported USB gadget-capable ports include the Pi Zero / Zero W data port and the USB-C port on Pi 4, 5, 400, 500 and CM4/CM5 setups. Other boards need a supported USB device controller. Pi 1, 2 and 3B cannot act as a USB drive.

1. Prepare Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32- or 64-bit, trixie or newer), or a suitable Debian-based system such as Armbian. Connect Wi-Fi and enable SSH.
2. Download install.sh from the latest release onto the board and inspect it.
3. Check without installing: sudo GLOVEBOX_CHECK_ONLY=1 bash install.sh.
4. Once the checks and any power warnings are understood, run sudo bash install.sh. The installer configures services and allocates recording storage, leaving 3 GB free by default.
5. Follow any reboot instruction, then open http://<board-name>.local:8080 and complete the wizard. An already-networked board does not need the temporary setup Wi-Fi.

The system needs systemd, a kernel at least 5.10, XFS/exFAT and USB gadget modules. Pi 4/5 power demand can exceed car USB power. Without Bluetooth, backups still work but Bluetooth keep-awake is unavailable. Read the full installer documentation for board-specific requirements.