Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Cabin Camera Blinded Error

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
This is a follow up to my earlier post, #47. Tesla swapped the interior occupant camera on 10/28/22. However, I still had cabin camera issues when it was darker during the evening and night drives and had red hand pay attention to road warnings. I scheduled for Tesla mobile service appt and sent my date and time stamps of such occurrences to them. Yesterday Tesla mobile service try to debug the issue and replaced the Triple camera ( see the invoice below). If this does not fix I have to drop off my car with them and they said they will figure it out.

Last evening I drove when it was darker and at least in two drives I did not get any warnings asking me to pay attention to the road. I have to do more drives to confirm that the issue was addressed properly.
Screenshot 2022-11-14 8.25.30 PM.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dewg
The text in bhakan's post of 10 minutes ago I find fascinating is:
"Performed IR test, not able to see it on".

Taken at face value, that is the first acknowledgement by a Tesla service person I've seen that suggests they think there are supposed to be working illuminators in at least some of the cars. It also strongly suggests this tech thought he knew a way to detect if it was working.

As to replacing the Triple camera. I'll speculate that the illuminators are just a pair of of LED's mounted on a board--not readily replaceable by themselves. So perhaps replacing the Triple camera swaps in new illuminators--and also some of what drives or controls them.

Maybe there is hope for the rest of us.
 
The text in bhakan's post of 10 minutes ago I find fascinating is:
"Performed IR test, not able to see it on".

Taken at face value, that is the first acknowledgement by a Tesla service person I've seen that suggests they think there are supposed to be working illuminators in at least some of the cars. It also strongly suggests this tech thought he knew a way to detect if it was working.

As to replacing the Triple camera. I'll speculate that the illuminators are just a pair of of LED's mounted on a board--not readily replaceable by themselves. So perhaps replacing the Triple camera swaps in new illuminators--and also some of what drives or controls them.

Maybe there is hope for the rest of us.
The tech spent a good amount of time, more than an hr possibly. It was sunny and my car was parked on the driveway with no shade. He used some black cushions etc etc to block the light and did the IR test. He did say it was harder with a lot of light.

He mentioned replacing the Triple camera may work. He was on the phone possibly discussing with other techs.
I have to do more drives.
 
Hi All,

You have piqued my interest with the discussion of the Infra-red illumination in the cabin.
Last evening returning from dinner, not quite dark yet, I asked my wife to take a picture
of the cabin camera... It looks to me like the IR illumination is "on."
My wife's phone is an iPhone 13.
I mention this because any of us should be able to take a picture in the evening hours
to show the illumination (or lack of illumination) with our daily cellphone cameras.

IR Illumination by Cabin Camera.jpg

My car is a 2022 Model X delivered 9/27/2022.

Shawn
 
Hi All,

You have piqued my interest with the discussion of the Infra-red illumination in the cabin.
Last evening returning from dinner, not quite dark yet, I asked my wife to take a picture
of the cabin camera... It looks to me like the IR illumination is "on."
My wife's phone is an iPhone 13.
I mention this because any of us should be able to take a picture in the evening hours
to show the illumination (or lack of illumination) with our daily cellphone cameras.

View attachment 875250

My car is a 2022 Model X delivered 9/27/2022.

Shawn
My replacement cameras 100% do NOT have those on my 2021 refresh S and my original but not shielded camera did.

There is definitely something wrong / not working on a bunch of the newer Cabin Cameras on newer vehicles.

On a side note I have not had the camera blinded error in the last week even with some late night driving so I don’t have a clue what Tesla is doing on the backside even without newer software.
 
Hi All,

You have piqued my interest with the discussion of the Infra-red illumination in the cabin.
Last evening returning from dinner, not quite dark yet, I asked my wife to take a picture
of the cabin camera... It looks to me like the IR illumination is "on."
My wife's phone is an iPhone 13.
I mention this because any of us should be able to take a picture in the evening hours
to show the illumination (or lack of illumination) with our daily cellphone cameras.

View attachment 875250

My car is a 2022 Model X delivered 9/27/2022.

Shawn
Hmmm...That's interesting! They just replaced the Triple camera two days ago and Occupancy camera two weeks ago. Still, when I just took a pic with my Pixel 6 Pro it does not look like what you have posted. See below. I have a 2022 MSLR delivered on 2/20/2022. So, it is possible my car did not get those IR illuminators.

PXL_20221117_014318910.NIGHT.jpg
 
Pictures should be in the evening or at dusk with the car running…
I don’t know when the IR lights illuminate…
Maybe not in bright daylight.

Shawn
Yes. It was darker this evening after 8:30pm in my driveway. The car was on P after I input my PIN in the previous pic. I just went and put on D as for our cars it is just the Drive selection. Now I can see the IR illuminators.
PXL_20221117_021917958.jpg
 
Early in this thread forum participant dtdtdt linked an IR illuminator, which I subsequently purchased and mounted in my 2022 model Y Long Range. Initially, I used a rough-and-ready arrangement of large rubber bands, of which I posted pictures. A little later I bought something sold as a clamp mount for GoPro cameras. That has been up and working satisfactorily since late October. While camera clamp mounts are available in wide variety, I chose this one for claimed maximum opening gap of 60mm--just a little more than I measured to be the height of the rearview mirror.

It is not so fine a fit as I hoped, largely because the mirror has more depth to the housing than wanted, and has sloping surfaces. But neither the mount nor the illuminator has fallen off, despite travelling over plenty of speed humps since.

To extend my comments on the illuminator itself: turned down to the lowest intensity setting available, if it is pointed reasonably well toward my face it has so far averted the dreaded blocked cabin camera autosteer abort on the dark streets of my neighborhood, where without this help my FSDb run terminates in a few seconds.

At that lowest intensity setting, the illuminator battery has shown the ability to sustain operation for over half a day. I don't have to dismount it to recharge it, using a 3-foot USB cable down to a port in the console. There is a row of four blue LEDs on the back which indicate state of charge if it is either turned on or charging. In my case this is fortunate, as I can readily see them when I walk out to the garage, and thus get warned if I accidentally leave it turned on.

Here is a mounting picture as seen from the side.

Illum_clamp_0.jpg

And here is the view through my windshield in my garage showing how the power status LEDs let me know where I stand.
Illum_powLEDs_2.jpg
 
Just wanted to say for my 2022 MY LR, I bought the “Andoer Mini IR Night Vision Light” thing on Amazon and it has worked well the past few nights at mid-power placed on the wireless charger area. Have not needed to angle/turn it yet - haven’t gotten the red death message since before.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Dewg