MS Headlights

[scottflys]

So new MS.
Noticed when I drive it at night I see the headlights causing a reflection of I assume the lens cover on the road. There is not a uniform wide lit up area, there are lines in the headlight zone that appear to have reflections in them from the headlights hitting the lens or something else.
Didn't have this with my old car's.
Anyone else?
Here is a bad out of focus shot

 

[scottflys]

The reflection lines are worse on the left side if you can see them in the crappy shot

 

[BerTX]

Well, they look good. That seems to be more important these days.

 

[Takumi]

Oh they put that there so you know that they changed it to a new design and justify more $$$. It's to help keep the residuals higher?
Besides, you won't be needing that with new AP2 hardware that's better than AP1! They even made the lanes dance for your entertainment!

On a serious note, do foglights help compensate for the new headlight design? I'm thinking of using part of that EV credit to retrofit foglights just for this.

 

[scottflys]

So your saying this is normal on the new design?

 

[Snowstorm]

The recent IIHS test showed how the current Tesla S led headlight underperformed (rated poor). But that is not uncommon in the industry given a well publicized test doesn't exist till recently and most people judge lights based on looks rather than actual performance. Now that his is out, there will be market pressure to improve, I just hope there will be way to retrofit the new lights when hey become available.

 

[Maximilien]

MS headlight is bright enough that it prevents side collision. Anytime I have signals on, the yellow light flashes from mine, and pretty much no one else.

 

[calisnow]

There is a guy on the board somewhere who does headlight upgrades - search for the threads.

 

[Krafty12]

So new MS.
Noticed when I drive it at night I see the headlights causing a reflection of I assume the lens cover on the road. There is not a uniform wide lit up area, there are lines in the headlight zone that appear to have reflections in them from the headlights hitting the lens or something else.
Didn't have this with my old car's.
Anyone else?
Here is a bad out of focus shot[/QUO

You may need to adjust the lights. Call SC or look in manual. Will tell you how to do that. Adjust at night to see if that helps.

 

[AmpedInAustin]

I find them to be dangerously low on brightness. Surprised l'm not reading more complaints. Last night was a dark night and both my wife and I felt the road was not illuminated properly by the headlights, especially the sides. The road was under construction (Old Farm to Market Rd 2243, Leander TX) and we could barely see the roadway sides.

 

[jammertwo]

Headlights are very weak. My Audi has adaptive headlights, which provide physical left/right and up/down movement of the lights to keep them in the best position while driving around corners and up/down hills - they are excellent. I drove my new MS (with adaptive headlights) for the first time at night along a road without streetlights and it was really poor light coverage. Especially when compared to the adaptive lights on my Audi, these need work. I'd give them a 3/10. I'll look into adjusting as Krafty12 mentioned. Not sure if they are weak due to the energy demands of headlights? Keep them low power to conserve energy.

 

[MS16]

I'd agree that the refresh headlights are very weak. In a well lit urban area it's not an issue but I really notice it on unlit roads, then the poor headlight performance is really noticeable.

I think the Model S refresh uses reflector style headlamps while the better performing cars typically use projector style headlamps.

 

[oktane]

Ditto. Audi, Mercedes, BMW are much ahead in LED headlights. They work very well, and the difference on unlit mountain roads is striking. I had to keep toggling my high-beams on an off around the corners and just take my chances when I couldn't use high-beams due to oncoming traffic.

Don't virtually all high-end brand headlights do some sort of beam-shaping to prevent glare to other cars while still illuminating?

 

[MS16]

I imagine the pre-refresh cars have better headlamps than we do with the LED reflectors.

 

[Snowstorm]

Tesla supposedly was working with their supplier to improve the headlamps after the poor IIHs test results, but no firm commitment or date had been out forward. This will need more than a smal tweak, I hope they will offer a retrofit, even for a reasonable fee.

 

[Swift]

The refresh led headlights are downright dangerous. Seriously. The illumination is very poor.