IR LEDs Flash during FSD telemetry upload

[REM]

Fellow nerds,

What's your best ideas as to why Telsa flashes the IR LEDs during an FSD telemetry upload? The pattern seems to match ethernet port activity lights.

For reference, I drove 30 miles total today, and about 95% (or higher) was while FSD was engaged. Parked the truck in the driveway and plugged in. It pretty much immediately started uploading a total of 32.81 GB soon as I walked away and the truck locked. Took 1h 37s to complete because I only have a 100mbps fiber connection.

Edit: and for some reason, it woke up around 10 am today and uploaded an additional 6.78 GB. Not sure if that was a leftover chunk of data from the previous upload, but the truck hasn't moved since the other initial upload.

(video is low quality. oh well.)

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[eswimm]

Where are the IR LEDs? I wasn't sure why my old radar/laser detector went nuts in the Cybertruck, but it makes a lot more sense seeing this.

 

[REM]

Where are the IR LEDs? I wasn't sure why my old radar/laser detector went nuts in the Cybertruck, but it makes a lot more sense seeing this.

I know the cabin camera has an IR LED array, since it flashes at low light in order to track your eyes, head, etc for FSD attention monitoring. The repeater cameras probably also have IRs since they aren't directly lighted.

 

[txtravwill]

I've noticed that also when the truck is in my garage. The camera at night shows the interior flashing off and on.

 

[CyberZephyr]

Wow, I NEVER heard about the IR LEDS! Does it ever mention them in the manual‽

 

[REM]

Wow, I NEVER heard about the IR LEDS! Does it ever mention them in the manual‽

I didn't find any mention in the user or service manual.

 

[CarMan ElecTruck]

NEO in the Matrix..

 

[mbeltran]

Makes you wonder if this is a security vulnerability. Fiber optic transmissions use LEDs to encode/decode transmissions, probably as IP packets. A clever hacker could point a camera at a CT and pickup the data, though I would hope it is encrypted. Encryption adds overhead and so it could be weak in order to reduce the bandwidth requirements. Maybe we’ll see something on this at DefCon this year.

 

[REM]

Makes you wonder if this is a security vulnerability. Fiber optic transmissions use LEDs to encode/decode transmissions, probably as IP packets. A clever hacker could point a camera at a CT and pickup the data, though I would hope it is encrypted. Encryption adds overhead and so it could be weak in order to reduce the bandwidth requirements. Maybe we’ll see something on this at DefCon this year.

Good thought process, but ethernet port LEDs don't flash with any useable information. It just signals general packet activity.

Also, Tesla definitely encrypts their traffic end-to-end. That was the first thing I checked ?

 

[mbeltran]

, but ethernet port LEDs don't flash with any useable information. It just signals general packet activity.

Link and activity lights don’t transmit IR. Maybe OP was seeing visible light?

 

[REM]

Link and activity lights don’t transmit IR. Maybe OP was seeing visible light?

Definitely was the IR LEDs that were strobing. I was able to distinguish by using my IR security cameras.

You can use your cellphone's camera to reproduce. Especially easy to see at night time.

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