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Matrix Headlights Capabilities Enablement Timeline
- Thread starter YNoVA
- Start date
whitex
Well-Known Member
Same shape for short beams on my Taycan (with matrix headlights). I think it's mandated by NHTSA. High beams get rid of that, and with the Taycan it actually slowly extends the low beam to high beams, but quickly drops to low beams if it detects cars ahead. In Europe it would just black out the cars.
As for enablement of the matrix headlights, I would not hold my breath, It was just a political bullshit the Biden administration spread. More than a year since signing, not a single car available with it, even though thousands of cars with matrix hardware have been driving in the US, since Europe has had them for a decade or more now. Furthermore, the way it was written, even when cars will show up with enabled adaptive headlights, most likely none of the old cars with the same hardware will ever get enabled, because as the regulations are written, the car must follow a particular set of regulations from when it was manufactured, In order for Tesla, Porsche, or others to enable adaptive headlights on older cars, they would have to completely re-certify the old model years up to latest standards, not just he headlights. That costs time and money, with no ROI for the manufacturers, possible costs. If Biden really wanted to do it right, they would explicitly specify a directive to NHTSA allow recertification of only the lighting system for older cars, then maybe the manufacturers would do it, saving American drivers from getting blinded by oncoming traffic.
Tesla hasn't bothered to give Europe any Matrix features even though it has been allowed over there for a long time. I guess they will wait till they can do it on all cars (including NA) before bothering. However, considering they just recently got Auto high beams working somewhat reliably I don't expect them to have matrix features working any time soon (if ever).
TesslaBull
Member
Regardless of how "fully functional" the matrix headlights are, the headlights on my 2023 M3 are the best headlights on any car I've driven. They light up the road fantastically well, and high beams are amazing, especially for lighting up the sides of the roadway. Saw a dear the other day on the side of the road lit up like daylight. My wife was driving behind me and said that after I passed the dear, she couldn't see it with her headlights, but saw it vividly in mine.
I'm also quite happy with how the auto high beams work.
I'm also quite happy with how the auto high beams work.
DaBean
Member
I enabled "fully functional" on my 2015 BMW M4 -- "anti-dazzle" as it was called -- since 2015 and it's been working super well since. It's a bit of a shame that, 8 years later, I'm back to standard on/off on my newer ultra-high-tech Tesla.
DaBean
Member
whitex
Well-Known Member
They've been standard fit on all 3/Y coming to Europe since Q1 2021.
Matrix tech has been legal in Europe for many years (Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc are class leading in it, with systems several generations in).
Tesla seem to be selling cars ok without providing actual intellgent functionality (I don't count projecting "TESLA" during a gimmick lightshow as this) so they aren't particularly motivated to do anything with it.
I suspect, cynically, that fitting cars with matrix headlights globally was more about consolidating the supply chain to a "global" headlight part that can just be reprogrammed for different markets, rather than manufacturing and having to do logistics for several different types. I think customers were optimistic and read too much into cars being fitted with them.
I think that once FSD is stable enough under its new AI driven path instead of old algorithmically driven stuff, engineers will take some spare time to work on features like actually driving matrix headlights based on stuff on the road.
whitex
Well-Known Member
Matrix headlight standard in US which have been made legal a year and half ago are not the same as the ones in Europe. So a couple of points:
- Tesla might have to design new matrix headlights for the US to meet the new standards
- Even if the old lights were somehow capable, US regulations require brand new compliance certification for the entire car which was to have this enabled, following latest standards. It is expensive to recertify older cars (no money to be made to recover this cost), but it could also be that the older cars were certified using older rules, but new rules would require charges.
E90alex
Active Member
They are identical units and share the same part numbers. They are called “global” headlights for a reason.
whitex
Well-Known Member
Not if they were designed before the NHTSA figured out the rules for adaptive headlights in the USA (which turned out different than EU rules, hence the existing hardware on European cars cannot be turned on). If was that easy, Tesla would have enabled them in the US and simplified software for themselves (no need to maintain a separate version for NA).
E90alex
Active Member
You can look at Teslas parts catalog. There are three headlight versions. Premium ECE, premium SAE and global headlights. Global are the matrix units and use the same part worldwide.
whitex
Well-Known Member
I understand. Porsche uses the same "global" matrix headlight parts too in EU as they put in my US car, but it doesn't mean they will ever be able to enable its full functionality in the US. As a matter of fact, Porsche already said that they are designing a new headlight to meet US regulations, that the old one never will.
Where did you read that?
Regardless, the update to enable adaptive headlights is not for the US in the Highland. Most assume because the lights do not meet the requirements.
zanary
Active Member
There are a few articles on the internet that exposed the issue. In short:
ROW (outside of US/Canada) follows SAE J3069 as their standard for Matrix LED lights.
NHTSA doesn't believe that is enough for the US market and is working on their own spec, following J3069, but with what they called added safety. They have a 327-page document that outlines the US spec...
The big problem is that manufactures built many of the Matrix LED lights using J3069, but they have yet to spend the money to build something that meets the new NHTSA spec (that we know of today).
This is the most recent articles that goes into some of the details, but I have yet to find a link to their 327 page NHTSA report and what the US specs are. I would suspect that it's not final yet otherwise we would have been some sort of comment from the manufactures.
However that being said, many (non Tesla cars) are being hacked to turn on the Euro standard for LED Matrix lights. You know when you see it in SoCal and NoCal becuase it's obvious when driving on a dark road, plus watch the status sequence (during light calibration) of cars that are parked facing a wall. It's pretty cool!
NHTSA roadblocking headlight technology that could save lives
Difficulties in certification and testing is leaving safer, smarter lights on the shelf
www.newsweek.com
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