High beams not working or I don't know how to work them

[timeshifter]

Picked up my car 4 days ago. I drove it 100 miles home and used the auto high beam feature. Worked very nicely. I'm not sure what software version I was on when I picked it up. I do recall that the high beam indicator and headlight indicator where horizontal across the top.

I soon updated to 2021.4.11 and again to 2021.4.12. The headlight indicators are now vertical along the left edge of the screen.

The auto high beams don't work. I've checked the settings and it's selected. I tried changing it back and forth.

I can manually, temporarily turn on high beams by pulling (or pushing, don't recall) on the stalk. I'll see the lights come up and the blue indicator icon on the screen. But I have to keep pressure on the stalk.

Any ideas?

update: just went out and fooled with it a bit. If I turn off Auto High Beam I can turn them on with the stalk. But, while driving for the last few days I don't recall EVER seeing the high beams come on in places where I'd expect they would.

 

[AlexHung]

Have you look at page 54 of the manual?

 

[Jim R]

I guess the internet was closer than the manual?

 

[NJEV-Don]

I have a question as well. I have Auto High Beams turned on in the car settings. I can see it on my main screen on the left side that shows a greyed out high beam indicator which signifies that it is in fact enabled but not currently on because there is sufficient light detected. My issue is that when I use my blinkers that causes the greyed out icon to turn off. It seems like it happens a lot. am I doing something wrong? I constantly have to push the stalk to turn that back on. It seems like a flaw. In other cars it’s a roaring switch on the stalk that is less prone to accidental turning off. It’s. it a huge deal but it’s kind of annoying. Any thoughts?

 

[Robb.W]

The auto high beams don't work. I've checked the settings and it's selected. I tried changing it back and forth.

I can manually, temporarily turn on high beams by pulling (or pushing, don't recall) on the stalk. I'll see the lights come up and the blue indicator icon on the screen. But I have to keep pressure on the stalk.

Any ideas?

Yes, you can activate the "Auto High Beams" feature in the settings. However, the high beams won't automatically come on while you're out driving. You still have to manually turn on the high beams by pushing forward the left stalk. Once you've activated the high beams, then the vehicle will automatically turn them off and on as oncoming traffic approaches.

 

[timeshifter]

Have you look at page 54 of the manual?

Which manual are you referring to? I got two manuals with the car, one for Safety and Security and one for Roadside Assistance. Neither goes up to page 54. Neither has anything in the table of contents about high beams.

 

[agordon117]

Pretty sure this is a bug. My car has enabled auto high beams at least twice since the last update by itself. Which led me to be super confused about why my brights weren't able to be normally toggled anymore. The first time it happened, a bunch of things had changed back to default automatically, so I shut it off at the same time. The next day I found it had re-enabled when I actually went to use my brights.

 

[agordon117]

Also, the auto high beam feature is known to be very hit or miss for everyone not in the FSD beta. It might work okay in some situations but work completely erratically in others.

 

[angus[Y]oung]

Which manual are you referring to? I got two manuals with the car, one for Safety and Security and one for Roadside Assistance. Neither goes up to page 54. Neither has anything in the table of contents about high beams.

@timeshifter have a look here: https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_y_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

 

[Ruffles]

There is also a bug where if you enable the Auto High Beams in the settings AND push the left stick forward to turn it on, it will save that setting to your profile and when you get back in to drive, it will still be enabled and turned on UNLESS there is a sentry event when you are out of the car. If so, you will have to press the left stick forward again to turn on (it will stay enabled in the settings however).

 

[MP3Mike]

Really, the feature is named wrong, because it isn't Automatic High Beams, it is a feature to Automatically Dip to Low Beams when there is a vehicle in front of you. (You have to have the auto feature enabled and turn the high beams on before it does anything.)

 

[AlexHung]

Which manual are you referring to? I got two manuals with the car, one for Safety and Security and one for Roadside Assistance. Neither goes up to page 54. Neither has anything in the table of contents about high beams.

The owner’s manual you can download from Tesla web site.

 

[wtwieder]

Picked up my car 4 days ago. I drove it 100 miles home and used the auto high beam feature. Worked very nicely. I'm not sure what software version I was on when I picked it up. I do recall that the high beam indicator and headlight indicator where horizontal across the top.

I soon updated to 2021.4.11 and again to 2021.4.12. The headlight indicators are now vertical along the left edge of the screen.

The auto high beams don't work. I've checked the settings and it's selected. I tried changing it back and forth.

I can manually, temporarily turn on high beams by pulling (or pushing, don't recall) on the stalk. I'll see the lights come up and the blue indicator icon on the screen. But I have to keep pressure on the stalk.

Any ideas?

update: just went out and fooled with it a bit. If I turn off Auto High Beam I can turn them on with the stalk. But, while driving for the last few days I don't recall EVER seeing the high beams come on in places where I'd expect they would.

I have noticed lately, perhaps within the last 3 months, that my auto high beams don't turn on in the same locations that they had in the past. They particulary don't turn on where the street is narrow, even though dark and no traffic on the street. They DO turn on when there are 4 lanes of traffic but near on coming or near tail lights in front of your car. I went Tesla and they checked out my front cameras were OK. I saw no other reports on the forum about the change in auto high beam performance and still thought something was wrong. They let me take another M3 home overnight. It indeed did the same, not turning on where I had previously expected.
Apparenly, there has been a software change. Why the software change? Perhaps when you are traveling slower on a narrow residential street, you shouldn't need high beams that possibly could disturb residents in homes ahead at a crossing.

 

[GeekyDoc]

Yikes, was going to post and then came across this thread and got a bit confused. I'm having a similar issue (I think): I have auto beams on in settings. But I do not see the icon that indicates that they are on in the display. At night when I randomly need to use high beams and push the stalk forward, nothing happens. I have to do it multiple times and sometimes it will switch to auto high beams and maybe 1 out of 7 times high beams will come on as I expect them to. I keep having to toggle pushing the stalk forward multiple times to get high beams by which time I have traversed the distance where I needed them in the first place.

What am I missing/doing wrong? TIA!

 

[avs007]

Is the section of road you are trying to use it completely dark, or are there street signs and reflectors? Sometimes auto hi beams can be finicky if there are highly reflective objects at the right places... Even my non-tesla's auto highbeams are finicky like that... Usually if the highbeams don't turn on where I expect it to (normally it's because of a really bright reflection from a chevron sign, or a street light in the right spot, I'll just pull the left stalk towards me. That will manually operate the highbeams overriding any settings you have as long as you are applying constant pressure... It's normally referred to as a flash-to-pass)

 

[GeekyDoc]

This is usually on back roads and mostly pretty dark; trying to avoid deer. Pulling the stalk towards me gets me the high beam everytime but it doesn't stick (which is supposed to work that way as far as I understand and all good). It's the pushing forward on the stalk which does nothing and then sometimes activating auto high beams that is confusing me.

 

[Big Earl]

This is usually on back roads and mostly pretty dark; trying to avoid deer. Pulling the stalk towards me gets me the high beam everytime but it doesn't stick (which is supposed to work that way as far as I understand and all good). It's the pushing forward on the stalk which does nothing and then sometimes activating auto high beams that is confusing me.

When auto high beams setting is turned on in the car menu, pressing the control stalk forward will enable/disable auto high beam. When enabled, you'll see a gray high beam icon with the letter A inside of it. High beams will turn on and off automatically. Pressing the stalk forward again will disable the setting and your low beams will remain on.

When the auto high beams setting is turned on in the car menu, the only way to force high beams on is to pull the stalk toward you, and that is only temporary. If you want to manually turn the high beams on and keep them on, you have to turn off the auto high beam setting in the car menu. With the auto high beams turned off, you can toggle high beams manually by pressing the stalk forward.

Since auto high beams are so flaky right now, I keep them in manual and turn them off and on myself.

 

[avs007]

This is usually on back roads and mostly pretty dark; trying to avoid deer. Pulling the stalk towards me gets me the high beam everytime but it doesn't stick (which is supposed to work that way as far as I understand and all good). It's the pushing forward on the stalk which does nothing and then sometimes activating auto high beams that is confusing me.

Yeah if you push forward and it sometimes doesn't activate, that is becuase it thinks there is an oncoming car. I live on the top of a hill, with an unlit windy road going up on the back side... My auto highbeams always don't work in the same sections of road... Near the beginning, there are some really low street lights on the driver's side of the curve... Then in the middle, it's all dark no lights, but there are several really reflective signs on both sides of the road.. And again towards the end, it's all dark, but there is a lone street light that is pretty bright that is normally obscured, but as you crest one of the hills, that light pokes out thru the trees on the driver's side of the road.. The street lights I can understand, because it's a seperate light source... But the bright signs annoy me, because it's just the reflection of my own headlights.

I usually flip on the brights at the base of the hill, and it always turns off at these spots... And if I push the stalk forward at these spots, nothing happens until after I clear these spots.. But like I said, this usually happens on my other non-telsa cars too. But I did notice the Tesla will turn on the brights faster after clearing these spots compared to my other cars.

 

[MP3Mike]

It's the pushing forward on the stalk which does nothing and then sometimes activating auto high beams that is confusing me.

Just remember it isn't really auto high beams. It is auto-low beams. So when you turn on the high beams, by pushing the stalk away from you, it turns on high beams unless the auto feature thinks the low beams are needed. (The idea being that, with the auto high beams enabled, you can leave high beams on all the time and then the car decides when to dip the headlights.)

 

[Mrbrock]

Just remember it isn't really auto high beams. It is auto-low beams. So when you turn on the high beams, by pushing the stalk away from you, it turns on high beams unless the auto feature thinks the low beams are needed. (The idea being that, with the auto high beams enabled, you can leave the stalk pushed forward all the time and then the car decides when to dip the headlights.)

This is confusing. Are you sure they work that way? When I had the auto feature activated I did not have to push the stalk away from me. However, the auto feature did not work properly so i disabled. Now it turns on when I push away from me and turns off when I pull towards me, like normal high beams. Also, low beams are always on when it's dark. Why would the car think it only needs high beams? I don't believe that is possible. There is OFF/Low Beams ON/Low+High ON.