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When this thread inevitably fills up with Tesla fans, I have a serious question: Is it particularly difficult to turn off the high beam in Tesla cars? I keep wo

When this thread inevitably fills up with Tesla fans, I have a serious question: Is it particularly difficult to turn off the high beam in Tesla cars? I keep wondering why so many Teslas keep blinding me on dark roads.

dariusj18 4y ago
From my limited experience, I imagine there is a touch screen interface to do so. =p
- filoleg 4y ago
  You dont have to use touch screen for that, you can switch between automatic and manual modes for headlights using just one of the stalks on the sides of the steering wheel.
billfor 4y ago
FSD beta requires auto-highbeam to be enabled otherwise it will not engage.
- dawnerd 4y ago
  Not even just FSD anymore. Latest updates are forcing anyone using autopilot. You can override by turning high beams off but you have to do it every time you reengage autopilot - at least until they fix that loophole.
- chroma 4y ago
  Auto-brights are enabled by default when you engage FSD, but you can manually set it to only use regular headlights by flicking the left stalk.
itsautomatisch 4y ago
I think a lot of people just use auto high-beams on their Teslas, but it seems to be very hit-or-miss if it actually works properly or not.
- jollyllama 4y ago
  It's a feature, not a bug. The worse Tesla auto-high beams are, the harder it becomes to drive as a human. The harder it becomes to drive as a human, the greater the demand for autonomous cars. The greater the demand for autonomous cars, the greater the sales of Teslas. A lot of AI adoption is based on this sort of thing.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    I think you'd have to already be totally invested in Tesla to actually believe they'll get full autonomous driving working any time soon. So, blinding everybody is sort of preaching to the choir, right?
karmicthreat 4y ago
Because Elon insists on everything being controlled by machine learning. Hence why rain sensing and headlight both have the most complicated software in the industry and the worst performance. I say this as some who likes their model 3 but damn does the software have some warts.
mensetmanusman 4y ago
This is my experience with almost all the newer SUVs that are oncoming at night. I wonder if it has to do with how low or high the oncoming traffic is.
- MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
  Driving any kind of sedan at night is basically torture now.
jxcl 4y ago
Tesla has an "Auto high-beams" feature which attempts to detect traffic and dip the lights when it does. I find that it reacts much slower than I normally would to oncoming traffic, so I don't use this feature. If the car is in autopilot, it requires the auto high beams to be on, but using autopilot at night is not something I would be comfortable with.
- drcongo 4y ago
  Interesting, thanks. I think I've noticed it most when being followed by a Tesla on dark motorways and being blinded by the reflection in my mirrors. Maybe the auto high-beam just doesn't care about cars in front. I was starting to think Teslas just had an abnormally high proportion of arsehole drivers like BMW.
oconnore 4y ago
There is still a manual high beam, which is what I use. Same interface as any other car. If you buy a pre-2021 Tesla with a round steering wheel, it can mostly function as a normal car.
mft_ 4y ago
It's probably the auto-high-beams, which is one of the sub-par driver aid implementations on Teslas currently (along with auto wipers, and 'smart driver safety features' that regularly get alarmed --and shock the driver with loud alarm noises-- during totally safe driving.) I haven't paid too much attention, but I believe auto-high-beams are turned on when you use autopilot, and then need specifically turning off. I do find that when auto beams are turned on, the car is less inclined to respond to me when I try to operate the lights manually.
- mountainb 4y ago
  It's not a feature exclusive to Teslas. I have a 2022 Hyundai and it has a similar feature for the high beams, but obviously nothing like autopilot. It operates when the lights are set to "auto" and disables when they are set to "manual." The feature seems to work very well even in foggy conditions.
justapassenger 4y ago
As others are saying - their auto high beam lights are not great (and never been, after years and years of trying to solve that with vision, instead of simple sensor like everyone else). But also, their auto-leveling can be subpar (https://tesla-info.com/tips/headlight-alignment.php https://tesla-info.com/tips/headlight-alignment.php). So you maybe blinded by low beam lights that are mis leveled.
- drcongo 4y ago
  I'm very high up in my car (a Toyota Vellfire) so unlikely to be the auto-levelling, but I guess it could be very out of whack.
LeifCarrotson 4y ago
Headlights are an arms race. I used to be able to safely drive my 1982 Jeep CJ5 at night with its 5 3/4" sealed-beam 55W halogen 5006 headlights. Once my eyes adjusted, I could safely see far enough ahead to drive at 55 mph and - experimentally verified - stop in time for deer standing in the road, even with a wobbly vehicle and without ABS). Then HIDs and came out, and people with sealed-beam and replaceable bulb halogens started putting in painful blue-tinted bulbs. I upgraded to replaceable bulbs with high-brightness 65W H4 bulbs, but didn't go blue because I'd never look like a new, fancy HID vehicle and I didn't want to blind other drivers. Now my 65W bulbs are the least bright lights on the road, and I don't drive the Jeep at night because it's just not safe. I suppose that I could get an LED ring and new high-brightness LED bulbs with a fan on the back, but I'm already higher than the trunk of smaller cars and I don't want to be "that guy" who I often see behind me with the lifted truck inches from my bumper when I'm not driving the jeep. At least it's a little safer than the people who don't understand their auto headlights and drive in the rain with only the DRLs illuminated and no running lights visible from the back. Bulbs are cheap, and they last forever these days, there's no reason to drive with them turned off.
- rascul 4y ago
  > and I don't drive the Jeep at night because it's just not safe. I rarely drive at night anymore for the same reason. When I have to, I try to do so with a freshly cleaned windshield, that helps a decent bit. Another trick is to watch the outside line of the lane/road so you're not looking into the oncoming headlights as much. But I do agree that headlights seem to have gotten brighter and brighter. And many aren't adjusted at the proper angles, either. But also, my eyes probably aren't as good as they were in decades past.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  What gets me is how so many stock trucks and SUVs have their headlights so high up. I can deal with the occasional "that guy" because most people just don't go through the trouble of raising their vehicle, but when popular stock vehicles start out so high, I'm basically always blinded.
kbaker 4y ago
My headlights were shooting straight out when I picked it up (Oct 2020 Y) and I needed to lower the angle myself in a settings menu to not be blinding to oncoming cars. Maybe this is a more common thing that people need to adjust...
qdog 4y ago
Tesla might be worse, but I had a modern Rav4 that people mistook the low beams for high beams all the time and would flash or turn on their high beams. It also had the auto-dimming feature, which didn't react as early as I would as a human. Seems to be the way of modern cars, brighter beams, more automation.
mschuster91 4y ago
The problem is that US legislation was like 50 years old up until beginning of this year [0], but even the update was bonkers because the US made their own regulation instead of simply copying what worked in other countries... [1]. [0] https://www.popsci.com/technology/infrastructure-bill-car-headlight/ https://www.popsci.com/technology/infrastructure-bill-car-he... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/business/us-approves-smart-headlights.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/business/us-approves-smar...
brookst 4y ago
Thanks for posting this! With the mornings being darker I'm really noticing this. On the way to work today I played a game of looking at the types of oncoming cars with high beams on. In a 30 minute commute, it was 14 Teslas, two giant pickups (couldn't tell make), one lowered Subaru, one Jeep. I was wondering "is it the drivers, the UI, or the cars?". Maybe if we all start flashing brights at them it will drive service appointments and some kind of fix?
thomastjeffery 4y ago
I sincerely wish that problem was limited to Teslas. The worst offenders are pickup trucks that get a 6" lift without readjusting their lights. They end up with everyone around flashing their brights at them, and instead of getting the hint, they just flash their brights right back. Plus a lot of drivers think they need to have their fog lights on just so everyone knows they are bigger or something... To make matters worse, stock lights tend to be way brighter than necessary, especially for taller vehicles. It's at the point now where 1/10 mornings I end up flipping my rear view and putting a hand in front of my driver's side mirror just so I can see in front of me. I've had a few instances where an SUV or pickup is stopped behind me at an intersection, lighting up the interior of my car to the point that all my windows become mirrors; and I just have to sit there until they turn their lights all the way off, just so I can see the road in front of me. We are long overdue for some regulation in headlight brightness/angle regulation. It's become one of the most significant safety risks we have driving, and it should be trivial to fix.
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
Depends which car you have. For 99% of Teslas, you just push on the left stalk to toggle the high beams just like most other cars. For the <1% that drive a Model S Plaid that has a yoke and no stalks, yes, it's hard. You have to go through the touch screen. That said, Teslas do have auto high beams. But yeah, it doesn't work well at all. The problem is that as of a recent update a couple months ago, if you're driving on Autopilot, auto high beams is forced on.

dariusj18 4y ago

From my limited experience, I imagine there is a touch screen interface to do so. =p

filoleg 4y ago
You dont have to use touch screen for that, you can switch between automatic and manual modes for headlights using just one of the stalks on the sides of the steering wheel.

billfor 4y ago

FSD beta requires auto-highbeam to be enabled otherwise it will not engage.

dawnerd 4y ago
Not even just FSD anymore. Latest updates are forcing anyone using autopilot. You can override by turning high beams off but you have to do it every time you reengage autopilot - at least until they fix that loophole.
chroma 4y ago
Auto-brights are enabled by default when you engage FSD, but you can manually set it to only use regular headlights by flicking the left stalk.

itsautomatisch 4y ago

I think a lot of people just use auto high-beams on their Teslas, but it seems to be very hit-or-miss if it actually works properly or not.

jollyllama 4y ago
It's a feature, not a bug. The worse Tesla auto-high beams are, the harder it becomes to drive as a human. The harder it becomes to drive as a human, the greater the demand for autonomous cars. The greater the demand for autonomous cars, the greater the sales of Teslas. A lot of AI adoption is based on this sort of thing.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  I think you'd have to already be totally invested in Tesla to actually believe they'll get full autonomous driving working any time soon. So, blinding everybody is sort of preaching to the choir, right?

karmicthreat 4y ago

Because Elon insists on everything being controlled by machine learning. Hence why rain sensing and headlight both have the most complicated software in the industry and the worst performance. I say this as some who likes their model 3 but damn does the software have some warts.

mensetmanusman 4y ago

This is my experience with almost all the newer SUVs that are oncoming at night. I wonder if it has to do with how low or high the oncoming traffic is.

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
Driving any kind of sedan at night is basically torture now.

jxcl 4y ago

Tesla has an "Auto high-beams" feature which attempts to detect traffic and dip the lights when it does. I find that it reacts much slower than I normally would to oncoming traffic, so I don't use this feature. If the car is in autopilot, it requires the auto high beams to be on, but using autopilot at night is not something I would be comfortable with.

drcongo 4y ago
Interesting, thanks. I think I've noticed it most when being followed by a Tesla on dark motorways and being blinded by the reflection in my mirrors. Maybe the auto high-beam just doesn't care about cars in front. I was starting to think Teslas just had an abnormally high proportion of arsehole drivers like BMW.

oconnore 4y ago

There is still a manual high beam, which is what I use. Same interface as any other car. If you buy a pre-2021 Tesla with a round steering wheel, it can mostly function as a normal car.

mft_ 4y ago

It's probably the auto-high-beams, which is one of the sub-par driver aid implementations on Teslas currently (along with auto wipers, and 'smart driver safety features' that regularly get alarmed --and shock the driver with loud alarm noises-- during totally safe driving.) I haven't paid too much attention, but I believe auto-high-beams are turned on when you use autopilot, and then need specifically turning off. I do find that when auto beams are turned on, the car is less inclined to respond to me when I try to operate the lights manually.

mountainb 4y ago
It's not a feature exclusive to Teslas. I have a 2022 Hyundai and it has a similar feature for the high beams, but obviously nothing like autopilot. It operates when the lights are set to "auto" and disables when they are set to "manual." The feature seems to work very well even in foggy conditions.

justapassenger 4y ago

As others are saying - their auto high beam lights are not great (and never been, after years and years of trying to solve that with vision, instead of simple sensor like everyone else). But also, their auto-leveling can be subpar (https://tesla-info.com/tips/headlight-alignment.php https://tesla-info.com/tips/headlight-alignment.php). So you maybe blinded by low beam lights that are mis leveled.

drcongo 4y ago
I'm very high up in my car (a Toyota Vellfire) so unlikely to be the auto-levelling, but I guess it could be very out of whack.

LeifCarrotson 4y ago

Headlights are an arms race. I used to be able to safely drive my 1982 Jeep CJ5 at night with its 5 3/4" sealed-beam 55W halogen 5006 headlights. Once my eyes adjusted, I could safely see far enough ahead to drive at 55 mph and - experimentally verified - stop in time for deer standing in the road, even with a wobbly vehicle and without ABS). Then HIDs and came out, and people with sealed-beam and replaceable bulb halogens started putting in painful blue-tinted bulbs. I upgraded to replaceable bulbs with high-brightness 65W H4 bulbs, but didn't go blue because I'd never look like a new, fancy HID vehicle and I didn't want to blind other drivers. Now my 65W bulbs are the least bright lights on the road, and I don't drive the Jeep at night because it's just not safe. I suppose that I could get an LED ring and new high-brightness LED bulbs with a fan on the back, but I'm already higher than the trunk of smaller cars and I don't want to be "that guy" who I often see behind me with the lifted truck inches from my bumper when I'm not driving the jeep. At least it's a little safer than the people who don't understand their auto headlights and drive in the rain with only the DRLs illuminated and no running lights visible from the back. Bulbs are cheap, and they last forever these days, there's no reason to drive with them turned off.

rascul 4y ago
> and I don't drive the Jeep at night because it's just not safe. I rarely drive at night anymore for the same reason. When I have to, I try to do so with a freshly cleaned windshield, that helps a decent bit. Another trick is to watch the outside line of the lane/road so you're not looking into the oncoming headlights as much. But I do agree that headlights seem to have gotten brighter and brighter. And many aren't adjusted at the proper angles, either. But also, my eyes probably aren't as good as they were in decades past.
aidenn0 4y ago
What gets me is how so many stock trucks and SUVs have their headlights so high up. I can deal with the occasional "that guy" because most people just don't go through the trouble of raising their vehicle, but when popular stock vehicles start out so high, I'm basically always blinded.

kbaker 4y ago

My headlights were shooting straight out when I picked it up (Oct 2020 Y) and I needed to lower the angle myself in a settings menu to not be blinding to oncoming cars. Maybe this is a more common thing that people need to adjust...

qdog 4y ago

Tesla might be worse, but I had a modern Rav4 that people mistook the low beams for high beams all the time and would flash or turn on their high beams. It also had the auto-dimming feature, which didn't react as early as I would as a human. Seems to be the way of modern cars, brighter beams, more automation.

mschuster91 4y ago

The problem is that US legislation was like 50 years old up until beginning of this year [0], but even the update was bonkers because the US made their own regulation instead of simply copying what worked in other countries... [1]. [0] https://www.popsci.com/technology/infrastructure-bill-car-headlight/ https://www.popsci.com/technology/infrastructure-bill-car-he... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/business/us-approves-smart-headlights.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/business/us-approves-smar...

brookst 4y ago

Thanks for posting this! With the mornings being darker I'm really noticing this. On the way to work today I played a game of looking at the types of oncoming cars with high beams on. In a 30 minute commute, it was 14 Teslas, two giant pickups (couldn't tell make), one lowered Subaru, one Jeep. I was wondering "is it the drivers, the UI, or the cars?". Maybe if we all start flashing brights at them it will drive service appointments and some kind of fix?

thomastjeffery 4y ago

I sincerely wish that problem was limited to Teslas. The worst offenders are pickup trucks that get a 6" lift without readjusting their lights. They end up with everyone around flashing their brights at them, and instead of getting the hint, they just flash their brights right back. Plus a lot of drivers think they need to have their fog lights on just so everyone knows they are bigger or something... To make matters worse, stock lights tend to be way brighter than necessary, especially for taller vehicles. It's at the point now where 1/10 mornings I end up flipping my rear view and putting a hand in front of my driver's side mirror just so I can see in front of me. I've had a few instances where an SUV or pickup is stopped behind me at an intersection, lighting up the interior of my car to the point that all my windows become mirrors; and I just have to sit there until they turn their lights all the way off, just so I can see the road in front of me. We are long overdue for some regulation in headlight brightness/angle regulation. It's become one of the most significant safety risks we have driving, and it should be trivial to fix.

Sohcahtoa82 4y ago

Depends which car you have. For 99% of Teslas, you just push on the left stalk to toggle the high beams just like most other cars. For the <1% that drive a Model S Plaid that has a yoke and no stalks, yes, it's hard. You have to go through the touch screen. That said, Teslas do have auto high beams. But yeah, it doesn't work well at all. The problem is that as of a recent update a couple months ago, if you're driving on Autopilot, auto high beams is forced on.