What's inside a Tesla Model 3 / Y adaptive headlight? 

I can’t wait. I have a model Y now too. It’s a shame they made us wait for the US to approve the headlights. The rest of the world has had adaptive headlights for many years. My previous cars to owning a Tesla had adaptive lights. I’ve been madly checking each day hoping to get the update. Are you in Europe or Australia? I’ll be reviewing this improvement once my car updates.

@@notinthemanual NHTSA has approved ADB headlight 2 years ago with the FMVSS 108 2022 amendment. However it takes time for the OEM to adapt to the new rule, which is quite a bit different from European's variant------the de facto world standard.

@@notinthemanual There are actually guys in north America that hack Audi cars sold locally to force enable its ADB function.

@@oijhhytdirhrbru There seems to be a lot of hoops for OEMs to jump through in the US and Australia. Europe seems to have a streamlined approval process. The new Model 3 here in Australia already has the adaptive high beams activated so hopefully old 3 and Y aren’t far behind.

@@oijhhytdirhrbru Yes feature unlocking on Audis and VW cars is common here too.

Cheers Max. I am happy with where I’m at and appreciate all of the loyal subscribers I have like yourself 👍. This has gone so much better than I thought it would when I started this channel. It would be nice to be reaching more people but I understand that these long format videos aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. I am making content that I like to watch. I started this channel to share as much knowledge as possible about everything I have learnt over the years and what I am currently learning about these cars. Thanks for the kind words and it pressuring me to get this video done haha 😂

Thanks Debellate. I enjoyed pulling it apart. I was so surprised to see how tiny the LED matrix was.

Yes that makes sense. Interesting about the lights automatically changing between LHD and RHD countries. Thanks.

Unfortunately it’s just for Europe now 😔 My car didn’t get it with update 2024.8.7

Thanks Søren. Yes the LED strip at the bottom is used for indicators.

For sure 😂

Just a little

Thanks Mike. Haha. Yes I did. A hairdryer or heat gun would have melted the sealant like disassembling a mobile phone. I got a bit caveman on it. It was never going to be used again anyway.

Yes. I am going to try and make a custom light show and see what options there are for the lights. I think if coloured was an option someone would have done it by now. Ive tested a few light shows now and none of them use coloured lights.

Hi Kelvin. I don’t know how much they cost to replace but it’s definitely a whole unit replacement from what I’ve heard. I think it would be in the thousands. I wouldn’t want to find out the hard way. With LEDs it would be pretty reliable so I’d say it only needs to be replaced after it is damaged. Very good build and manufacturing quality.

It cost $1,400.00 in California

Hi John. Thanks. Most new cars, not just Tesla use CAN-BUS network signals to control their headlight functions. They aren't just turned on and off with voltage from a switch in the dashboard. This makes it difficult when fitting accessories that you want to work in unison. The only way to do this is to fit an adapter for light control that reads the CAN-BUS signals and can give a voltage out to operate a relay when it senses the main lights or high beam signal. You can then use this relay to supply power to your accessory lights. I was able to find this one with a quick search that works for high beam and is for light bars. You would need something like this but for normal headlight or daytime running light signals. www.bilkomponenter.no/products/styrestrom-alc-ekstralys-tesla-model-3

Hey Chris. Sorry. I’m not sure if it has the same mounts or plugs. When there was a shortage of parts Tesla were supplying some newer M3 and MY with older non-adaptive headlights so it could work. The other issue could be software. There may have to be a firmware change or setting to enable them. I don’t have an older car to check for you.

Thx for your answer...I think i'm gonna try💪🏾

@@chrisvilet7324 Good luck 🤞

I don’t remember seeing one. It’s sealed up pretty tight. Moisture would have to get in to begin with they would have to be very careful where they assemble them and control the humidity. I’ll have another look and see if there was anything I missed.

Hi Franz. I checked today and found two places where there is a membrane to allow moisture to evaporate. You were right they look like gore-tex 👍

I haven’t noticed a difference. I now have a 2023 Model Y I’ll have a look and let you know. I still have access to a 2021 Model 3 to compare as well.

that be great if u don't mind.. i did notice yesterday at the service center the older models 2020 were a different color over the 23 version modal 3/y. @@notinthemanual

@@shaneturner4630 I finally got a chance to check this today and my 2023 MY lights are exactly the same as a 2021 M3. I can’t tell any difference with lights on or off.

It’s very well made so I expect most of them to work beyond 10yrs but I do agree the more parts you have the more chance some of them will fail. It’s a percentages game.

Hi Daniel. Yes the LED matrix is the part of the headlight with the bank of LEDs focused by the glass lens. These LEDs can be activated in a pattern to create shapes with the light. This is how the lights can write TESLA on the wall during the lightshow. They can be used to have high beams on with a car in front of you and not blind the driver through the rear vision mirror. I had this feature in my old car and it was very useful.

With a heat gun and a lot of patience it might be possible you wouldn’t be guaranteed of it sealing again. You would also need to be able to buy the clear cover separately or have a doner light with other issues.

There is a seperate board with the matrix array of leds on the back of the projector lens. It has a 10pin connector and a fair bit of electronics. Some of the pins are outputs to other leds. I haven’t tried working out which pins are the supply voltage to this board. I’d say it will need a communication signal to let it know which leds to turn on so powering it up could either have no LEDs light up or it could go into some sort of safety default that if the board loses communication. I haven’t had a reason to investigate this further.

Doesn’t sound right to me. This headlight was sealed up tight. There are 2 gore-tex vents to allow moisture out but limit moisture ingress. I did a short on these vents as I forgot them in this video.

There are exposed solder joints and wires inside the headlight so the internal components are not waterproof.

Tesla techs will see your door hanging off & tell you it’s normal! They’re the worst, they lie to your face & then get offended when you tell them they’re lying.

I’m confused by it too! Especially when they remove ultrasonic sensors to save money.

Unfortunately not

Oh no, that sucks. I heard they were doing that due to supply issues as well as leaving USB ports out to be fitted later. I hadn’t actually heard from anyone who received a car with them though. Will they update them for you later? To be honest Tesla seem to be focussed on FSD and I doubt they will get the adaptive function working anytime soon but who knows…….

I agree its proably a long way off but it has to be better than the crappy auto high beam the car currently has. It is not safe to use. I like to stay positve about it. We will definitely be used as guinea pigs for this system as per usual Tesla features and it will have a long teething period for sure. This system won't be too complex for earlier HW versions. I do think it will be difficult without radar but if VW can manage adaptive headlights with their less capable older systems then it won't be an issue for Tesla HW.

@@notinthemanual Thing is theres no sensors in the lamps. Im very sure Tesla...Should wonder if its Elon thats been using the usual greed-costsavingknife on this system too, in reality rendering it useless. My point on auto-dim is that its the cameras thats used for that random functionality. When you pass another car it takes approx. 3 seconds before it will go hi-beam again if no further cars are detected. Im sure this is due to the camera being saturated with light and it takes 2-3 secs before it is useable again and data has been processed. Such is not possible if your into adaptive light as your gonna blind all cars behind the first you pass then. Beside that, the cameras are so bad at night they cant detect a car 300 meters in front of you so this will still fail miserably too...Remember these systems has been in production for +5 years and Tesla has beeing telling stories about neural computing and so, but still 5 years later, wipers & auto-dim are still the, by far, absolutely worst automation of their kind in the entire autoindustry...Due to being camerabased as no onene else. So no miracle ahead, "Vision" is forever gonna give a "reduced speed due to limited visibility" and your forever gonna fight those wipers & auto-dim & that is why i have gone from loving my 30.000 Miles a year all weather tool to call it a toycar for sunny days and a stressmaker the remaining. Totally unheard of that a manufacturer can degrade your product in such a way and such actually can be legal as even the basic fruisecontrol cant keep a constant speed in medium rain. Sorry :-)

@@ChipMIK Cheers for giving your opinion ChipMIK. Everyone has a different perspective on this and that’s fine. There is a lot of truth to what your saying but I not at that low point yet. Even though Tesla have tested my positivity I still love the car overall. The only car I’ve had with good auto wipers was my Tiguan. Every other car I’ve had with auto wipers sucked worse than this car so my expectations were pretty low to begin with. Same goes with auto high beam. They have never impressed me in any car. Even the Tiguan would blind people for that couple of seconds for it to recognise what was happening. There is definitely a cost saving trend here in the background.