Regenerative braking, do the brake lights turn on?

Yes, they do. You can see the lights in the diagram of the car on the screen when they light up.

 

Exactly, it's a certain threshold of regen that they kick on. Aka light regen won't do it but heavier will.

 

they illumiate based on rate of deceleration. THe instrument cluster shows when they are on.
Use the brake pedal to override if you want to be sure to indicate to following traffic that you are gently slowing

 

Here's what it looks like on my car - it could be a lot harder to see if your car is red.

 

They'll also light up in brake hold mode, whether or not you have creep turned on or off.

--Carlos V.

 

This was one of my questions when I did my first test drive of an S last summer. The Tesla rep said it was a good question! Even though he's probably had to answer it a million times. I do look at the screen for confirmation still, mainly to see when they kick in. On some long slight uphills, you can come to near stop (no regen) and never have the brake light come on.

Full release of the pedals almost always triggers brake light. Exception is at highway speeds. Regen is maxed out so you don't decelerate as quickly. Plus it's not good for traffic flow when brake lights come on on the highway, cause it can trigger a wave of people braking - the makings of a traffic jam.

 

It does come on at freeway speeds. I've followed behind plenty of S drivers that don't know how to control their accelerator foot and always try to drive around them if possible.

 

I wonder if there's a difference between S and D, since regen is stronger with the D. I have just the rear motor. I'll be going 70mph and let go of the accelerator completely and my brake light won't come on till around 55mph or so.

 

Probably. I've seen it as a complaint (at least at one time?) about D's as well at much higher speeds, that in the 80+mph range their brake lights won't come on when they take their foot full-off the accelerator. So there's different regen algorithms for different variants, leading to different brake light behavior.

 

You can see it at night time with back up camera on. With MS, it is very clear when light comes on. M3, it is kind of hard to see, especially on a brightly lit road. Test it on some dark road. With MS, actual light and graphical model light didn’t always match.

 

I just tested on my Model 3....let off the accelerator at 80 and saw the brake lights activate on the graphical representation of the car at 77mph.

 

I literally was thinking about this question this morning, glad there is a topic. My worry was more thinking about my drive back up to the KC area this last Sunday in the terrible icy/snowy weather, and wondering if I had regen on, and I slowed down, how would a car behind me know I was slowing down? In that weather especially, it's more than just fender benders that can happen. Good to know now.

BTW, as I get closer to placing my order, there are more things like this I think about depending on the driving circumstances.

 

And I don't disagree with that, but my worry is more having to remember.

 

Agreed - if you will be driving in icy conditions, you should set the regen to low (I don't think you can turn it off completely).

Interesting observation - I was cornering reasonably hard this morning while lifting off the accelerator and regen seemed to shut off completely. I'm very familiar with weight transfer while braking and cornering and how this can lead to oversteer, but this was a bit disconcerting because I had to use the brakes a lot more than I was expecting to.

 

My take after a first drive in icy/snowy conditions is the regen is a major safety issue, especially for less experienced snow drivers or people unaware of how regen works. I did a few 40mph "coasts" and the rear of the car broke loose until the stability control (SC) kicked in. There's too much of a delay for SC to kick in, it probably will keep the car stable 90% of the time, but I'm more worried about what might happen at higher speeds. So I agree that regen should be turned down, but I wish there was a way to disable in icy conditions. I'll be posting some videos later today from my drive.