Model Y Thermal Image - Ultrasonic Sensors

[bsnr]

Hi all!

I bought a thermal camera recently and have been testing it out on all kinds of stuff. I pointed it at my Model Y and saw something I hadn't really thought about. Most electronic components heat up when turned on and the ultrasonic sensors on the car are no different. Take a look. Pretty cool to see.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

neat, i'd play with one if i had one.
model/link?

 

[Itsuo-DC]

Bjorn does the something similar in this video of a ‘21 M3 AWD. You can skip to about 12:30 to watch him with their IR footage inside the vehicle and 17:30 for the outside.

 

[acarney]

From my understanding of thermal cameras is that they need to be viewed with a little caution. One could look at that picture and see the sensors red and think they are *hot* when really they might be the hottest item in the frame, but the absolute temperature difference between the cold spots and hot spots is only tens of degrees or even less.

I would think anything with electricity powering it will generate some heat and be warmer than surrounding areas; don’t jump to conclusions that the sensors are “heated.”

 

[bsnr]

From my understanding of thermal cameras is that they need to be viewed with a little caution. One could look at that picture and see the sensors red and think they are *hot* when really they might be the hottest item in the frame, but the absolute temperature difference between the cold spots and hot spots is only tens of degrees or even less.

I would think anything with electricity powering it will generate some heat and be warmer than surrounding areas; don’t jump to conclusions that the sensors are “heated.”

You are 100% correct on that. In this case, if I remember correctly, the sensors were about 58 degrees F in this picture while the rest of the bumper was around 50 degrees F. I know these sensors are not heated but generate heat when functioning like all other electronics.

 

[bsnr]

Took another shot tonight of one of the seats just after turning on the seat heater. Changed the image mode to white hot instead of rainbow like the last picture I posted. Pretty cool to see the heating element pattern.

 

[acarney]

You are 100% correct on that. In this case, if I remember correctly, the sensors were about 58 degrees F in this picture while the rest of the bumper was around 50 degrees F. I know these sensors are not heated but generate heat when functioning like all other electronics.

There’s been a lot of speculation that they are heated and/or that the radar is heated. Just didn’t want this picture to fuel that again. We’ve seen a number of pictures with a clean dusting of frost/snow on the entire front bumper and no melted spots to still think the recently made cars (last ~3 months or so) have heated sensors.

Still cool pictures though, especially the seats!

Edit: would be curious about the charger port if you have a Model Y or 2021 Model 3. I believe the heating only turns in when you have the app precondition the car on “max” and of course you would want to do this unplugged; as soon as you start to draw some power from the mains that’ll self heat it.

 

[bsnr]

There’s been a lot of speculation that they are heated and/or that the radar is heated. Just didn’t want this picture to fuel that again. We’ve seen a number of pictures with a clean dusting of frost/snow on the entire front bumper and no melted spots to still think the recently made cars (last ~3 months or so) have heated sensors.

Still cool pictures though, especially the seats!

Edit: would be curious about the charger port if you have a Model Y or 2021 Model 3. I believe the heating only turns in when you have the app precondition the car on “max” and of course you would want to do this unplugged; as soon as you start to draw some power from the mains that’ll self heat it.

Yeah! I wasn't expecting such a crazy pattern of the heating element in the seat. I'm going to take a wild guess that the pattern uses less heating element wire to still heat the whole seat rather than a more uniform back and forth pattern from top to bottom. Less wire means less power consumption.

I have a 2021 Model Y. I will try doing as you said and see if the charger port heats up.

 

[Itsuo-DC]

There’s been a lot of speculation that they are heated and/or that the radar is heated. Just didn’t want this picture to fuel that again. We’ve seen a number of pictures with a clean dusting of frost/snow on the entire front bumper and no melted spots to still think the recently made cars (last ~3 months or so) have heated sensors.

Still cool pictures though, especially the seats!

Edit: would be curious about the charger port if you have a Model Y or 2021 Model 3. I believe the heating only turns in when you have the app precondition the car on “max” and of course you would want to do this unplugged; as soon as you start to draw some power from the mains that’ll self heat it.

Not trying to rehash and debates—I was not a part of—but Bjorn’s video seems to imply that some of the bumper sensors are definitely heated. Or at least operate at a higher temperature the the rest of the bumper? His vehicle was in camp mode for hours when he took these readings in < -20C.

 

[LionelHutz]

Took another shot tonight of one of the seats just after turning on the seat heater. Changed the image mode to white hot instead of rainbow like the last picture I posted. Pretty cool to see the heating element pattern.View attachment 628217


View attachment 628218

Sweet, we have the Nazca Lines in our seats.

 

[Koolio46]

Took another shot tonight of one of the seats just after turning on the seat heater. Changed the image mode to white hot instead of rainbow like the last picture I posted. Pretty cool to see the heating element pattern.View attachment 628217


View attachment 628218

Very cool. The heating wire goes all the way up the back of the seat but I only feel heat in the lower lumbar area.

 

[bsnr]

Very cool. The heating wire goes all the way up the back of the seat but I only feel heat in the lower lumbar area.

The first pictures of the seat I posted are of one of the back seats. Your comment peaked my curiosity so I went out and took a picture of one of the front seats. See below. This pattern is more of what I was initially expecting, at least for the seat back.

 

[bsnr]

Edit: would be curious about the charger port if you have a Model Y or 2021 Model 3. I believe the heating only turns in when you have the app precondition the car on “max” and of course you would want to do this unplugged; as soon as you start to draw some power from the mains that’ll self heat it.

This morning I tried this. My car had been sitting in the garage overnight. The temperature in the garage was 51 degrees F. I turned on climate in the app to HI and waited 10 minutes before taking these pictures. Based on these, I don't see any evidence of heating of the charge port or other sensors but it could be that it has to be below a certain ambient temperature for it to heat.

 

[jf64k]

OP, what camera are you using?

 

[bsnr]

OP, what camera are you using?

I was first looking at the Flir One Pro which has a thermal resolution of 160x120 = 19,200 pixels but then I got to doing some deep dive research on some different forums and came across the one I ended up buying which is the HT-301. It has a thermal resolution of 384x288 = 110,592 pixels which is nearly 6 times better than the Flir One Pro but it is a little over double the price at $750 but I have no regrets. Only works with Android phones so I bought a used Samsung phone off eBay. Another benefit is that it has a 25 Hz refresh rate so you can record smooth thermal videos versus the 9 Hz refresh rate with most other thermal cameras. The most comparable professional handheld thermal camera in terms of thermal resolution is something like a Flir E8 but it has a slightly less resolution of 320x240, a 9 Hz refresh rate and costs $3,000.

Took a picture of one of my exterior house walls from the inside and saw that the builder didn't put a small piece of insulation back in that I remember seeing on the ground during construction a couple years ago. You can clearly see studs and if you take a closer picture, you can see the screw heads as being slightly cooler than the surrounding sheetrock.

 

[fparent]

So are we saying that the radar behind the front bumper on the MY isn't heated? Darn, I really was hoping it was. I've had several instances with my 2018 M3 when the car refused to turn on cruise control because of wet snow sticking to the bumper.

 

[bsnr]

So are we saying that the radar behind the front bumper on the MY isn't heated? Darn, I really was hoping it was. I've had several instances with my 2018 M3 when the car refused to turn on cruise control because of wet snow sticking to the bumper.

I'm going to perform the test again when the car has been sitting out in below freezing temperatures for a while the next chance that comes up.

 

[MikeNY]

This is pretty cool. The car ones are interesting. The house one really show's how you can troubleshoot heating and cooling issues.

Edit - was asking about the model of the camera. See you posted it above.

Thanks!

 

[CyberGus]

Thermal imaging is cool


(see what I did there)

 

[rxlawdude]

I'm going to perform the test again when the car has been sitting out in below freezing temperatures for a while the next chance that comes up.

Another variable before declaring there's no heating of sensors would be to measure these after a half-hour drive in subfreezing temps.