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Blinded pillar cameras

Berkshire1

Member
Jul 5, 2020
75
63
Egremont, MA
Anyone else getting intermittent messages that pillar cameras are obstructed or blinded? This has occurred on both sides and always seems to be when the bright sun is on that side of the car. Cameras are not obstructed or fogged by condensation. Seems that some sort of filter is needed. Could be a problem with FSD.
 
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ladysbff

Member
Jul 26, 2019
348
599
Traveling the universe
Model 3, I get those messages regularly in the morning if it's cold and there is condensation (I park outside), or when the sun hits it just right. Recently I had the sun blind the camera/AP repetitively on a dry and sunny day, I posted about it here: Autopilot blinded, disengaged by sun on interstate

May be a limitation of the hardware as others noted in that thread. You are in MA so could be due to the low winter sun?
 

beezy

Member
Aug 9, 2019
38
11
Rockville
Anyone else getting intermittent messages that pillar cameras are obstructed or blinded? This has occurred on both sides and always seems to be when the bright sun is on that side of the car. Cameras are not obstructed or fogged by condensation. Seems that some sort of filter is needed. Could be a problem with FSD.
Yes I just started receiving the same message last week. The weather where I live has recently dropped tremendously so I just assumed that was the case
 

GlmnAlyAirCar

Active Member
Mar 19, 2015
1,390
1,133
Sanatoga PA
Yes there are lots of threads on this topic. Unfortunately Tesla has not yet offered a workable solution.

I park in an unheated but (relative to the outdoors) warm garage. Any moisture in the air gap inside the camera housing will condense once I am on the road for a few minutes. The cameras can deal with it until there is direct sunlight. It usually takes twenty or so minutes of driving for it to clear itself up.

the only real solution here is to have some kind of heated glass for the camera or to direct dry air into the camera housing. Both of which would require a hardware upgrade.
 

Ldub22

Member
Mar 1, 2015
173
131
Kirkland, WA
Yes there are lots of threads on this topic. Unfortunately Tesla has not yet offered a workable solution.

I park in an unheated but (relative to the outdoors) warm garage. Any moisture in the air gap inside the camera housing will condense once I am on the road for a few minutes. The cameras can deal with it until there is direct sunlight. It usually takes twenty or so minutes of driving for it to clear itself up.

the only real solution here is to have some kind of heated glass for the camera or to direct dry air into the camera housing. Both of which would require a hardware upgrade.

Thanks for letting us know. Just had this problem for the first time this morning with my new Y. So far, I have had the car for 4 days, and have had three separate error incidents (inclement weather, inability to read lane markers, and now "cameras blinded") that have inactivated Autopilot features.

Not encouraging.
 

noshadow

Member
Mar 18, 2020
425
246
Berkeley, CA
I've brought the car to the Tesla SC for this issue, and they "diagnosed" it for days and found nothing wrong. They advised me to send in the "bug reports" whenever it happens, which could help them in the future figure out what's going on.
 

Freewheeler

Vendor
May 22, 2020
142
135
New York
My DS was doing it periodically so I photographed it with no condensation and they replaced the entire B pillar. This morning the PS started doing it, but it’s been cold and stormy so I’m letting it slide unless it becomes as common as the DS was.
 

techmagnetic

Member
Sep 29, 2020
61
28
Boston
I get them here and there. Sometimes it's the glare of the sun at the right angle. Others it's just dirty. But yesterday I got one for the right cam and it was clean and not in the sun at all at the moment.
 

MrWattson

Member
Aug 23, 2020
117
69
Central NJ
Been experiencing it. Today it was very sunny but being Dec in NJ, the sun angle is very low and gives off much glare. Depending on where the sun was shining, I received the message for the driver and passenger pillar cameras and the occasional various cameras.
 

HotIce

Member
Dec 18, 2020
163
70
MD
I got the message yesterday but I think it was due to the camera being hit my direct sunlight. Message went away as soon as I got into shade.
 

Snow Drift

Pirelli P Zero Winter
Feb 10, 2016
1,928
1,479
Long Island
I get it on the highway when the sun hits the side of the car direct. Then if we get to a shaded area after awhile it turns off. It is annoying and didn't happen on our old Model 3 (but that was a different software update).
 

djgarrett21

Member
Jul 22, 2018
216
275
Utah
I've got it periodically too. Pillar cam condensation.
PXL_20201114_205951544.jpg
 
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Daks

Member
Oct 21, 2020
127
86
Anchorage, AK USA
Gonna ask a stupid question, fair warning.

If Sun, or a dark rural road, or condensation easily forms and these prevent the cameras from working properly - how is FSD really close to being a reality?
 

Mike_TV

Member
Apr 29, 2020
427
300
Chicagoland
Gonna ask a stupid question, fair warning.

If Sun, or a dark rural road, or condensation easily forms and these prevent the cameras from working properly - how is FSD really close to being a reality?

From what I saw in some of the FSD beta videos out on YouTube, you can block multiple cameras and it'll still continue to drive itself.
 

spokey

Member
Aug 8, 2020
480
170
Flagtown
I get it without condensation. Mostly I can tell that the sun is shining on it. But in the last week it has happened twice where it reported the opposite camera. As in the message says the right camera is blocked but in reality the sun is shinning on the left (or vice versa).
 
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