Repeater camera feeds are mostly useless when turn signal is on at night

[Msjulie]

Oddly feeling smug* that our lowly 2017 Audi A3 handles blind spots just fine with that little warning lamp in the mirror. What a concept!

It's a nice idea the camera but because it is directly in the indicator light, won't it always have some light cast off even if just the blinking effect?

*Ok not really.

 

[Xdama]

I said 6 months ago that would be a problem.

Pretty useless imo anyway, hidden by left hand (in UK correct side drive cars) for starters. Crap at night for the reason mentioned by the OP and you shouldn’t be looking at a screen in the centre of your car if manoeuvring lane to lane

 

[Nichigo]

I get the glare. And imo, the blind spot camera function is useless. It shows up on your dash in an area you wouldn't typically be looking at when yo'ure changing lanes, and (at least for my settings), my fist on the steering wheel blocks much of my view.

Wondering if Tesla will be able to find a solution to have it operate more like standard BSD systems (warning symbol and/or alert chime).

 

[stopcrazypp]

I get the glare. And imo, the blind spot camera function is useless. It shows up on your dash in an area you wouldn't typically be looking at when yo'ure changing lanes, and (at least for my settings), my fist on the steering wheel blocks much of my view.

Wondering if Tesla will be able to find a solution to have it operate more like standard BSD systems (warning symbol and/or alert chime).

Tesla doesn't have the two rear mounted blind spot/cross traffic radars that other systems have, so I doubt they will add a warning system similar to that. The closest you get is the current one that only reacts when it is sure you are making a move into the blind spot, not one that gives a warning simply from activating a turn signal.

 

[stopcrazypp]

It's a nice idea the camera but because it is directly in the indicator light, won't it always have some light cast off even if just the blinking effect?

Not really. The glare issue was because older versions seem to have light bleed internally into the camera module. The newer cameras (version D) seems to have eliminated that. The indicator lights shoot outward, so if it doesn't hit the lens of the camera directly or indirectly, there shouldn't be any glare from it. At most you see your side body panels lighting up, but that won't cause glare.

You can see an example in the reddit link of someone with newer cameras. There is zero glare.

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/rru8sw

 

[Msjulie]

@stopcrazypp Nice - doesn't help all the 'old' cars like mine from 2018

 

[stopcrazypp]

@stopcrazypp Nice - doesn't help all the 'old' cars like mine from 2018

Even my newer 2021 Model 3 (delivered end of 2020) has the older "C" version (which is already dechromed, but still has some light bleed, although may be not as bad as the even older ones). They switched to the newer version apparently somewhere in 2021.

 

[CharleyBC]

Yep, that's fairly annoying how the signal makes most of the blind spot image flash. But I assume that what we're seeing is also what the FSD computer is seeing, so I wonder whether this is also a safety issue. That is, will the computer fail to see something crucial while it's blinded by the flashing light?

 

[boriszima]

Yep, that's fairly annoying how the signal makes most of the blind spot image flash. But I assume that what we're seeing is also what the FSD computer is seeing, so I wonder whether this is also a safety issue. That is, will the computer fail to see something crucial while it's blinded by the flashing light?

good point. Seems something that could have been checked as this is not a trivial situation. For that have light bleed at night, is there a workaround? Other then asking Tesla to change those cameras?

Maybe there are 3rd party add on that can be installed inside the mirror housing to make it blindspot mirrors?

 

[ViPaDawG]

I went ahead and bit the bullet and created a service request in the app.

They sent me an estimate for $300 to replace both repeaters and I accepted it.

The mobile tech came by today, swapped out both repeaters. Had to update the config on the car and just like that, new AP repeaters installed.

It's soo much better at night, no more glare! He explained to me the way the part numbers work, and he mentioned there have been 24 revisions on that part.

He didn't have the chrome trim attachment, so he left it up to me if I wanted to have him come back out and install it, or if I just wanted to keep the blacked out. I'm going to think about that one.

Overall great experience, just need to recalibrate the cameras for FSD (started at 60%) and once that's complete, I'll be back to "normal" minus the glare. I'm glad I did it, as it makes the blind spot feature totally useful at night (whereas before it was completely useless).

 

[msb175]

Curious - How did the tech remove the "old" repeaters? pry tool from the fender or disengaging the clips from the inside through the wheel well?

 

[stopcrazypp]

Curious - How did the tech remove the "old" repeaters? pry tool from the fender or disengaging the clips from the inside through the wheel well?

For removing them to do PPF, I personally did a combo of both after looking at videos (including the Y one just to make sure there wasn't any significant difference in dechromed version).

I don't know if my late 2020 (2021 model year) dechromed ones are different than the chrome ones, but it was a lot harder to do than the videos show, and my clips did crack a bit. Don't recommend trying unless it was actually necessary (or if you weren't keeping them anyways, so it didn't matter).

 

[ViPaDawG]

Curious - How did the tech remove the "old" repeaters? pry tool from the fender or disengaging the clips from the inside through the wheel well?

He turned the wheel popped off the clips from the bottom of the fender, pulled it out and slid his arm in and unclipped it from the back.

He said repeater camera replacements can be a bit tricky because they sit directly on the body and aren’t attached to anything underneath so the tolerances can be all over the place. He said that makes it more challenging when installing a newer part, and he had to fiddle quite a bit with the drivers repeater to get it to stay but ultimately it did.

They were cleanly removed and he let me keep them (most likely just put them on eBay to offset some of the cost of the new ones).

 

[insaneoctane]

Can't imagine the cameras that blow out the image when signaling at night would not compromise FSDs ability to see. I suspect Tesla will ultimately have to replace owner's, with FSD, cameras for safety.

 

[thewishmaster]

Saw this on reddit:

tl; dw; there are 3 holes on the PCB of the faulty cameras that allows the light from the blinker to come through. Nothing you can fix from the outside, plus taking the repeater apart is likely to destroy it because it is not made to come apart easily. Tesla did a minor revision where the camera PCBs had a piece of tape covering the holes, and the newest repeater (different part number) has slightly different PCBs that no longer have these holes. The new ones are the ones my August 2021 car came with, based on the part number from when I had to get mine swapped for unrelated reasons. The manual fix looks like a huge pain, so try to get new repeaters if you can.

 

[Gizmo35]

Saw this as well. Im glad the reason has been properly identified. Now i just have to find a clever way to get access to the pcb without destroying the camera. I don’t want to drill a hole.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Saw this as well. Im glad the reason has been properly identified. Now i just have to find a clever way to get access to the pcb without destroying the camera. I don’t want to drill a hole.

From the video, doesn't look like there is an easy way. The housing appears to be completely sealed from factory (other than the gore patch) and isn't fastened together in a way you can take apart. The ones that they disassemble, they had to use a Dremel to cut around the edge, but they still managed to damage some of it.

From the video it looks like they say the version I have was already the fixed one (as the board is different and doesn't have the holes). I will have to double check when I have the chance if I actually do have glare (as from memory I remember seeing some), but it might have been reflections from the body and not the glare problem others were having. Also possible mine still has some residual glare from around the lens (the translucent glue mentioned in video) and a later revision used black glue instead to completely eliminate it.

 

[Hank101]

Tesla mobile service wanted $380 to upgrade my cameras to eliminate the red flashing turn signal light at night, decided to do without.

 

[mattnis]

Someone posted that Tesla will replace the cameras under warranty if you have this issue.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Someone posted that Tesla will replace the cameras under warranty if you have this issue.

Those people got lucky. Other SCs say that it was an improvement in later versions and not a warranty issue (there was a screen shot posted). After all, the blind spot camera feature didn't exist back then (even the side camera view was added after Model 3 launch, not at launch).