Auto headlights don't work during fog (video)

[andu]

This happened two days ago as I was driving home in Spain (very odd weather, I've been driving from the Pyrenees in France back home and half of the road - more than 5 hours - was just like this). At some point, a police car started driving nearby at the same speed, on the nearby lane. I had no idea wtf is happening, but we were looking straight ahead.


After a couple of minutes, wifey looked at them and they were showing signs that we needed to turn ON the headlights. What?! I've been driving without headlights and rear fog headlights all this time? This is dangerous... It turns out Tesla has a bug, and it wasn't me. The auto headlights are turning off both the fog and the normal headlights when activated during this kind of weather. With no warning...

 

[davewill]

I think the auto headlights just go by the amount of ambient light and I would not expect them to be smart enough to detect fog. I always look for the headlight icons to know whether my lights are on when they ought to be. There's been a couple of times I've overridden the auto headlights to force them on.

 

[XPsionic]

It's so bright out, why would auto headlights turn on? This is one of those edge cases where humans will just need to toggle on the headlights.

If you're worried about actual safety you need to slow down. So many huge multi car pile ups every year when it gets foggy and people are still driving at 70mph/120kph like in this video.

 

[skygraff]

It’s disappointing that Tesla’s software has degraded auto headlight behavior to the point it can violate safety and laws. It’s very easy to miss the icon when you’re focused on the outside environment (kinda miss the days when the instrument cluster itself would illuminate when the headlights were turned on).

While it wouldn’t be foolproof with fog, I sure wish they’d program the lights to turn on with the wipers (everywhere or where required by law) or, at the very least, give us a toggle setting for that behavior.

Similarly, since accessing the light controls either takes several screen presses or an unreliable flick of the stalk (could engage brights or just fail to bring up card depending on driving mode) followed by a screen tap, I wish the UI could be designed to keep the headlight icon onscreen. It could be greyed when off, green when on, and an A embedded in either when auto but, most importantly, it should be a live button allowing us to change its state with one push in a predictable place (just like a hardware button/knob).

 

[brkaus]

Common with many cars. It’s bright out so lights don’t activate. My kids non-Tesla has same problem. I’ve been trying to teach them because they don’t have DRLs either.

 

[andu]

Common with many cars. It’s bright out so lights don’t activate. My kids non-Tesla has same problem. I’ve been trying to teach them because they don’t have DRLs either.

We're having higher expectations from Tesla. The software is smart enough to know there's fog.

 

[KenC]

What version software were you running?

 

[andu]

What version software were you running?

Latest. 2022.44.25.3

 

[Stanwood Steve]

This happened two days ago as I was driving home in Spain (very odd weather, I've been driving from the Pyrenees in France back home and half of the road - more than 5 hours - was just like this). At some point, a police car started driving nearby at the same speed, on the nearby lane. I had no idea wtf is happening, but we were looking straight ahead.


After a couple of minutes, wifey looked at them and they were showing signs that we needed to turn ON the headlights. What?! I've been driving without headlights and rear fog headlights all this time? This is dangerous... It turns out Tesla has a bug, and it wasn't me. The auto headlights are turning off both the fog and the normal headlights when activated during this kind of weather. With no warning...

I noticed the same thing a while back and just turn them on manually when in fog. I find no automatic functions are perfect and use my judgement to bridge the gap. It's a little too easy to get complacent with all the automatic functions of the car, but I consider them just an assist and still take 100% responsibility for my driving. The programming of the systems will just not be correct in 100% of the situations we encounter.

 

[rpiotro]

This happened two days ago as I was driving home in Spain (very odd weather, I've been driving from the Pyrenees in France back home and half of the road - more than 5 hours - was just like this). At some point, a police car started driving nearby at the same speed, on the nearby lane. I had no idea wtf is happening, but we were looking straight ahead.


After a couple of minutes, wifey looked at them and they were showing signs that we needed to turn ON the headlights. What?! I've been driving without headlights and rear fog headlights all this time? This is dangerous... It turns out Tesla has a bug, and it wasn't me. The auto headlights are turning off both the fog and the normal headlights when activated during this kind of weather. With no warning...

Do you expect your car to do all of your thinking for you? There will always be fringe cases where user intervention is required. You, the nut holding the wheel is ultimately responsible for the safe operation of the vehicle. The screen will indicate the status of the lighting.

 

[afadeev]

What?! I've been driving without headlights and rear fog headlights all this time? This is dangerous... It turns out Tesla has a bug, and it wasn't me. The auto headlights are turning off both the fog and the normal headlights when activated during this kind of weather. With no warning...

It's not a bug, it's a feature - Tesla auto-headlight anything has about 90% success rate.
Don't unplug your brain assuming that ANY Tesla software will work. Ever.

Auto-headlights/-wipers/-pilot --> always verify and make right as needed!

It's so bright out, why would auto headlights turn on?

Because it's legally required of the driver to turn headlights (or fog lights) ON when driving through fog?!
At least it is in all the places I've ever driven.

 

[rwiegand]

A vision based system has very little excuse for not knowing it's foggy out.

 

[rpiotro]

A vision based system has very little excuse for not knowing it's foggy out.

What should be the visibility threshold? 20 yards, 50? More?

 

[rwiegand]

What should be the visibility threshold? 20 yards, 50? More?

No idea, but those places that have legislated headlight use in fog must have defined some criterion.

 

[nate704]

Using high beam during foggy condition is a bad idea. You will not see anything.

 

[andu]

Do you expect your car to do all of your thinking for you? There will always be fringe cases where user intervention is required. You, the nut holding the wheel is ultimately responsible for the safe operation of the vehicle. The screen will indicate the status of the lighting.

Actually I do expect the car to provide the proper UX such that when it takes a bad decision like this, the end user knows. The fact that (1) it doesn't work and (2) it disables it after you manually enabled it is twice the bad.

 

[brkaus]

Using high beam during foggy condition is a bad idea. You will not see anything.

Very true. I was thinking in terms of daytime fog and just needing the lights on (although the DRL might meet the letter of the law in some cases).

 

[afadeev]

Using high beam during foggy condition is a bad idea. You will not see anything.

So is driving with your eyes closed.
No-one is proposing either.

Actually I do expect the car to provide the proper UX such that when it takes a bad decision like this, the end user knows. The fact that (1) it doesn't work and (2) it disables it after you manually enabled it is twice the bad.

If it knew it was making a bad decision, it would not be making it in the first place!

 

[davewill]

Actually I do expect the car to provide the proper UX such that when it takes a bad decision like this, the end user knows. The fact that (1) it doesn't work and (2) it disables it after you manually enabled it is twice the bad.

It does. The display clearly shows whether your lights are currently on or not. If you look out and think, "my lights ought to be on", you can check the display and see whether they are or not. I find this whole thread somewhat amusing, because it never occurred to me to expect the system to detect fog and decide to turn the lights on.

 

[kx2top]

Shouldn’t you be using your “fog lights” instead?