Question about Model S touchscreen in TV series

[Electric Steve]

In a season 2 episode of "Big Little Lies", two of the characters are in what looks like a Model S. The steering wheel has the Tesla "T" in the center, and it's a sedan with a vertical touchscreen, so it can't really be anything else.

What's odd is that the touchscreen was dark. Can you think of any (good or otherwise) reason why this might be the case?

 

[Chaserr]

Dead 12v. Prop car with no charge. Mcu1 with dead emmc. Or... Screen is polarized. Maybe camera was polarized at a 90 degree angle. Tesla polarized at 45 degrees so you can wear sunglasses and see the screen but if you have parized glasses tilt your head and the screens go black.

 

[dannycamps]

Hollywood magic? Screens are often left dark/off during filming and the populated with content in post production because the filming camera can sometimes have issues capturing the screen content due to refresh rates, etc... If it was a prop car, it may not even have been powered up at all.

Edit: I went and watched the clip in question on YouTube. Two things - first obviously a real car and I'm going to go with screen brightness turned all the way down and second, definitely not a show I'd watch.

 

[f205v]

clean mode, maybe.

 

[Chaserr]

You would see the "Hold here to re enable screen" with clean mode on. Elon said they had a real dark mode coming a few years ago but it's not ready yet.

 

[Electric Steve]

It's definitely a real car, as @dannycamps said. I'm wondering if maybe they turned it off to simplify continuity, if the display shows the time and date

Does it show the time?

 

[Chaserr]

Top right shows the time.

You can't "turn it off" so they would have to pull a fuse or something.

You're probably right though. I don't think I have ever seen a manual time set option in settings, I think it just gets that from cellular.

 

[Electric Steve]

Top right shows the time.

You can't "turn it off" so they would have to pull a fuse or something.

You're probably right though. I don't think I have ever seen a manual time set option in settings, I think it just gets that from cellular.

Ok, so that probably explains it. They rented a Model S because it fits the characters -- a rich couple -- but then they noticed that the screen showed the time and location, neither of which they wanted filmed.

I think we can pronounce this mystery solved. Thanks, all.