Blinded by the light: Tesla fixes glaringly bright Cybertruck headlights

Feeling a bit blinded by the light when a Cybertruck rolls by? It's not just you — Tesla's recalling most built to date because the boxy pickup's front parking lights are too bright. Tesla released an over-the-air update to address the problem, which it reported to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after …

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Not a fan of the beast, but...

It's not as the Hummer was ever any better in any aspect -to the notable exception of gaz-guzzling, admittedly because the cybertruck guzzles another kind of energy.

[VicMortimer]

Re: Not a fan of the beast, but...

You know the Hummer is electric now, right?

It's also a MUCH more capable vehicle than the Turdla cyberdumpster.

And the H1 Hummer is a HMMWV with air conditioning. It's a military vehicle that's actually designed to do what the Turdla looks like it might be designed to do. Yeah, it's a gas guzzler, but it's not a sad joke.

[Rich 2]

Are they waterproof yet?

Just wondering if anything happened following reports a year ago that the rain was damaging the paint. Or something like that

[GNU Enjoyer]

Re: Are they waterproof yet?

The cybertrucks are unpainted - those use a proprietary alloy of 301 stainless steel that seems less corrosion resistant than 304 stainless (the press would only work with a special formulation of 301 it seems).

If you want unpainted steel that is subjected to salt spray etc (like a vehicle) to not rust though after 10-20 years, you want 316 stainless steel, but that is very difficult to cold work and is slightly heavier than (already heavy) 304 and 301 stainless.

Cybertrucks have been found to start rusting after only a bit more than a year if a signage magnet is applied (accelerates rusting in stainless steel), or if any iron dust (i.e. from railways) ends up on the body.

Telsa now seems to be offering a wrap as a bundled option, which will likely reduce corrosion to an acceptable rate (painting isn't offered and it's rather difficult to get paint to adhere to stainless after all).

[Paul Herber]

"US motor vehicle safety regulations"

Does that DT know about these? Socialism gone mad!!!!!

/s

[IGotOut]

FFS...

It's fixed by a software up date?

It's a fucking headlight. Let me guess it's DRM locked so if you want to swap it out when goes faulty, you'll need to go to Tesla to pay 10K because a 3rd party or 2nd hand one won't be allowed to work.

[munnoch]

Re: FFS...

I'm guessing there is a PWM driver that controls the brightness. It may even react to ambient light levels. So a software update to the embedded controller seems quite plausible.

I only wish other manufacturers would do something about their ridiculously bright LED headlights. Not to mention the accent lights that are making cars look more like Light Cycles...

[FirstTangoInParis]

Re: FFS...

It would be really useful if cars in UK and Europe could be switched between left and right hand drive headlights rather than having to stick a bit of tape on them. Shirley it must be possible what with them cars being awash with software (and my latest one has a little play with levelling the lights when you power it up in the dark). I asked VW about this for a newish T-Roc and got told that the beam isn't bright enough for oncoming vehicles if you're driving in Europe if you have a UK car. I didn't believe that. Wouldn't want to cause one of these -->

[The Organ Grinder's Monkey]

Re: FFS...

Not sure about other makes / models, but a mate has an Audi S5 convertible, & you can do that exact thing via the hated touchscreen. He'd made several foreign trips with tape stuck to the headlights before someone who'd R'TFM "enlightened" him. He's not one for reading manuals.

Also Porsche 911s from mid 90s onwards (iirc) had a small lever on the back of each headlight to flip between left & right-hand traffic.

[The Organ Grinder's Monkey]

Re: FFS...

(Reply to my own post as it had timed out for editing.)

The Audi's trick is made possible by it's having Matrix LED headlamps wherein the LEDs are in a shaped array, & the car can turn individual LEDs on & off to point light to precisely where it's wanted (& vice versa for dipped beam.) This also enables the steerable headlight beams that a lot of posh cars have now. Hopefully a lot more reliable than the mechanical steerable ones in the Citroën SM that had a linkage connecting them to the steering.

(There's a promo of an S Class Merc using it's headlights to project a movie against a wall in surprisingly high res. Pointless, but striking.)

[Oneman2Many]

Re: FFS...

Its not even posh cars these days, its available on higher end versions of most cars.

Did see a demo of it maintaining high bean while not blinding drivers on the other side of the road.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: FFS...

I have those lights in my Skoda, and they do work remarkably well. As traffic appears ahead (travelling towards me or on the same direction) you can see the system cutting holes in the beam pattern. I've never been flashed yet while driving along busy roads, so they clearly work as required. I didn't order them, they came as standard, but although I expected it to be a gimmick I'm impressed by it, rather to my surprise.

The one place that they work less well is on a motorway, where the lights of oncoming vehicles are hidden by the central barrier.

The setup menu also has an option for left- or right- hand traffic, so easy to switch when abroad.

[seven of five]

Re: FFS...

> The one place that they work less well is on a motorway, where the lights of oncoming vehicles are hidden by the central barrier.

They also don't work very good if the car ahead is rather small/flat (think MX-5) or on a very curvy road (swiss alps), where your car will give the oncoming traffic around half a second of high-beam before recognizing the oncoming traffic.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: FFS...

"where your car will give the oncoming traffic around half a second of high-beam before recognizing the oncoming traffic."

Most drivers don't react that fast, so I suppose it's still a plus. Unless people are relying on it working all the time and unnecessarily using high beam in situations where they really should not. My personlal experience of automating tasks a driver would normally do is that the automation is overly conservative. Like rain sensing wipers running more than I'd normally set the delay to and wearing them out faster. Headlights coming on because a seagull shadow passed over the sensor on a sunny day etc.

[Gene Cash]

Re: FFS...

> He's not one for reading manuals.

I don't blame him. They make Oracle manuals look like Shakespeare.

The ones for my bike were so bad, I finally had to draw a diagram for the menu myself so I could figure it out. One image could have eliminated over 50 pages of useless confusing words.

[IanRS]

Re: FFS...

Some can. My Skoda Superb 2017 model can, although you lose the steering linked headlight aim adjustment when the lights are set for driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, presumably as there is not enough possible adjustment to go even further right. The menu option is buried quite deep though.

[Alan Burlison]

Re: FFS...

> It would be really useful if cars in UK and Europe could be switched between left and right hand drive headlights rather than having to stick a bit of tape on them.

Check in your infotainment system.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1990585/Volkswagen-T-Roc.html?page=140#manual

[Strahd Ivarius]

Re: FFS...

When UK goes back to the EU, besides adopting the Euro, it will have to drive on the proper side of the road...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: FFS...

> I only wish other manufacturers would do something about their ridiculously bright LED headlights. Not to mention the accent lights that are making cars look more like Light Cycles...

How about the ridiculously bright accent lights?

Was followed, in the rain and dark, by a car that was too close. Even though I could not see the headlights in the rearview (too close!) was still being dazzled by the bleeping stupid line of light along the top of the grille and this glaring white disc in the centre.

It was only after seeing the same car from the front in broad daylight - when it still looked too bright not to be a distraction - that I found out that disc was a VW logo. Great advertising gimmick - I'm going to remember that for a while. As if Golf drivers weren't enough of a pest, now they've got a model out for the "for f's sake, if I'm going too slow for just you, bleeding overtake, oh god you don't know how, do you" class of driver.

[Henry Hallan]

Re: FFS...

If you slow down enough they'll work out how to overtake. Don't brake check, just lift your foot off the pedal and wait.

[GNU Enjoyer]

Re: FFS...

If the idiot is close enough and your vehicle is light enough, "abruptly ceasing to accelerate" without brake lights might result in them hitting you - rather it might be a better idea to press the brake just enough to light up the brake lights, but not enough to actually brake, after lifting your foot off the accelerator.

[Alan Burlison]

Re: FFS...

> How about the ridiculously bright accent lights?

It's not just the accent lights, it's all the lights. They've shrunk the size of them all whilst retaining the same total output and the result is incredibly bright point sources which are still within the total output limits. It's like looking down the wrong end of a laser pointer.

There needs to be limits on output per unit area, not just total output.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: FFS...

"It's not just the accent lights, it's all the lights. They've shrunk the size of them all whilst retaining the same total output and the result is incredibly bright point sources which are still within the total output limits. It's like looking down the wrong end of a laser pointer."

I just noticed that for the first time yesterday. Car in front applies the brakes, VERY bright point source lights. Then he starts indication a right turn. But I could barely see the tiny but still bright orange indicator immedially adjacent to the even brighter red brake light. A recipe for disaster since the vast majority of drivers forget the "Signal, Brake, Manoeuvrer" mantra 5 minutes after passing their test or get them in the wrong order. (if they even remember they have indicators!!)

[brainwrong]

Re: FFS...

"I only wish other manufacturers would do something about their ridiculously bright LED headlights."

The problem I have with them is that there is *NO* warm up time, or any kind of soft start, so your eyes have no time to adjust when they flash their high beam. Halogen lamps have a short but sufficient warm up time, even HID headlight lamps have a warm up.

The regulators have completely failed with vehicle lighting regulations over the last 25+ years. Turn indicators should not be allowed to use clear lenses*, and the front ones should be positioned at the front of the car and not halfway round the sides. And I'm fucked off with getting a face full of 3rd brake light in every traffic queue. And why do all LED lights have to use PWM and visibly flash? LED's are DC devices that work at any current up to their rated maximum, just use a lower current or fewer or smaller LEDs.

* Changing luminance is more noticeable than changing chrominance.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: FFS...

For phsyiological reasons, it turns out that an LED being driven with PWM to the same average current as a constant current device appears brighter. I have no idea why.

[The man with a spanner]

Re: FFS...

I would imagine that when the led pulse is on the light is indeed very bright and that the sensors in the eye saturate. That would be fine if they desaturated in line with the light pulse but there is quite a prolonged after image whilst the sensor desaturated/resets. The result being that the average actual light intensity is reduced but due to the saturation of the sensor the visual effect is virtually the same as full continuous power.

Making the power free parts of the pulse longer will work at some point, but risks causing flicker and may give different results for different people. Actually just reducing the power should work.

[brainwrong]

Re: FFS...

That's a lie first peddled by Clive Sinclair to explain why the LED digits on his calculator flashed (~30Hz IIRC) to a general public who at the time would not have understood multiplexing. Without a nearly linear relationship between mean light level and the eye's response then DLP video projectors won't work well.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: FFS...

There seems to be a small but growing trend of drivers who keep their headlamps on main beam at all time on motorways. About 1 in 10 at the moment, and almost all of them electric SUVs.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: FFS...

I'd argue strongly that the only switch required for lights is main beam/dip select. Leave the headlights on at all times the vehicle is moving, make driving on (front) sidelights illegal and do away with ridiculous coloured-pencil-brigade inspired 'accent' lights. Forget the complex switch, forget automatics that invariably don't work well, save production costs.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: FFS...

There's also the increasingly large number of drivers who leave their lights on Auto, which doesn't detect rain or fog when the day is still bright, and so fly along the motorway at 70 with only front DRLs and no rear lights at all.

[Alan Burlison]

Re: FFS...

> There's also the increasingly large number of drivers who leave their lights on Auto, which doesn't detect rain or fog when the day is still bright

I can't speak for other manufacturers, but that's not the case for newer Skoda models, and I assume therefore all other similar VAG group cars.

"The RLFS sensor (RLSF is an abbreviation formed from the German words for rain, light, humidity and sun) in the rearview mirror picks up both light and energy in the infrared spectrum. By detecting refraction it can also tell whether it is damp outside or raining. Depending on the result, the sensor sends a clear instruction to the BCM whether to activate the lights and windscreen wipers or deactivate them. ... If the windscreen wipers are turned on manually or automatically and operate for one minute, the electronics send an instruction to change from daytime to nighttime mode. The only lights that need to be switched on or off manually are fog lights."

https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/en/skoda-world/innovation-and-technology/how-it-works-lights-that-switch-themselves-on-and-off/

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: FFS...

Certainly isn't the case for my 2021 Skoda, which has lights that are oversensitive to ambient light levels (even on the lowest sensitivity setting) activating in any patch of shadow, but still doesn't turn them on in fog or rain. Just part of the crap VW MIB3 infotainment system.

[Kevin Johnston]

Re: FFS...

I would love to know what these people put in their accident report for their insurance company when it asks what lights you had on at the time. Do they lie and say full lighting all round or do they tell the truth and say 'not a clue, it was set to Auto'?

[HellDiverUK]

Re: FFS...

That's poor programming by the manufacturer. My old Mk5 Astra (~2008?) had auto lights and wipers. If you were driving and the auto wipers went to "wiping all the time" rather than automatic intermittent, then the dip lights came on. The lights also came on if you drove at more than 80mph (according to the manual).

My recent Seat Ibiza, incidentally, keeps its rear lights on with the DRLs - why this wasn't a thing with every car, I don't know. So many folks driving around in the pitch dark with only the dazzling front DRLs showing their path.

[Oneman2Many]

Re: FFS...

Probably find they are just badly adjusted, not on main beam

[elDog]

A lot of the rolling steel beasts in the US (at least) have beam directions in the light fixture.

You get a simple truck that is loaded a bit in the back (trash run, perhaps a trailer) and the angle of the beams (driving, high, etc.) are all pointing too high.

Lowering the dimness would help but if that LED beam is coming at your face while you're trying to stay in your lane and wondering if you'll swerve just right.

Now, i'm not suggesting that Tesla add a new gadget to their line of frivolities, but how about a beam angle adjuster with a joystick toggle? I'm sure people that buy Tesla stuff are responsible and won't use it for duels...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now they just need to hire someone to redesign the headlights on all their other models.

[DS999]

Even those meager shipment numbers

Are wildly exaggerated. Musk has been having his other companies buy THOUSANDS of them, so the number of actual sales to third parties is even less than the "official" numbers.

[Oneman2Many]

Re: Even those meager shipment numbers

SpaceX has hundreds of them lined up in front of Starbase, its a terrible place to store them will all the salt water. Don't know who owns them but I thought it was for storage but it could be that ownership is with SpaceX

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that the Cyberturd is banned in many countries doesn’t help

Don’t expect sales to ever amount to much.