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Posted: 2019-01-28 03:25:08
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"Keeping Summer safe" is a pretty bloody reference for Elon Musk to make.

Adult Swim

Tesla's Elon Musk knows his Rick and Morty episodes. On Saturday, Musk tweeted about the Adult Swim animated show -- with a rather grim reference.

"Tesla Sentry Mode will play Bach's Toccata and Fugue during a robbery (and keep Summer safe)," the billionaire tweeted.

Let's break down that sentence. Musk tweeted about Sentry Mode a few days ago, on Jan. 22, when a Tesla owner tweeted about a dent and wished the car featured "360 (degree) dash cam feature while parked."

And a Tesla owner's wish is Musk's command, apparently, as he responded, "Tesla Sentry Mode coming soon for all cars with Enhanced Autopilot."

Will Sentry Mode actually play Johann Sebastian Bach's iconic Toccata and Fugue, that famed-from-horror-movies classical tune you may think of as Dracula's theme? 

What exactly Sentry Mode entails is still mysterious. A Tesla rep told me in an email that the company wasn't ready to say more than what Musk tweeted. Engadget has surmised that Sentry Mode will feature "always-on dash cam function or will switch on automatically when it senses a blow or break-in to the vehicle."

When asked about timing for the vehicle surveillance feature, Musk said on Friday he expected a "rough beta in two to three weeks."

The Rick and Morty comment refers to a more violent form of vehicle protection. In a second-season episode of the show, Rick and Morty go inside the microverse battery of the Space Cruiser, and leave teenage Summer alone in the ship. 

Rick instructs the ship to "keep Summer safe," which it does, to bloody results. If you remember the slice-and-dice scene from 1997's Cube ... yeah, like that. Let's hope that Musk limits Sentry Mode's reaction to damage or theft to classical music, not Rick-style vengeance.

And yes, the term "Sentry Mode" is likely to sound familiar to Marvel fans -- Iron Man uses the term for a feature that allows for remote-operation of his Mark XLIII armor.

Rick and Morty writers are back at work, but there's still no date for the show's return.

First published Jan. 27, 4:11 p.m. PT. 
Update, 6:55 p.m. PT:
Adds comment from Tesla. 

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