Snow/Fog and signature light bar

[Vagis9780]

I had my first experience last week with a heavy snowstorm at night coming over a mountain pass.
Having heard about the headlight issues that people were having in the snow, I was curious to see how it would be.

For me, the headlights were an issue, having to stop about every 1-1.5 miles to clean them, but the larger issue, and what I haven’t heard about yet, is the effects of the signature light bar! It acts as a flood light, illuminating a wall of falling snow straight up from the leading edge of the frunk. This was so much worse than having high beams on in the snow.

I had just gotten the truck back from a long visit to service, so I didn’t have all of my stuff in the truck. If I had had duct tape, I would’ve covered the sucker up. Since I didn’t, I got to a safe point to pull out, and I packed snow over it. This helped dim the light a bit, not making it perfect, but it was sure a lot better.

I talked to Tesla when they were open next and explained the situation and how I felt it was quite a safety hazard and an amazing miss to not be able to turn off the signature light bar in situations like snow or fog. It was explained to me that likely Tesla won’t do anything about it unless a lot of people report a similar problem.

So I’m asking if anybody else experiences this, please report it so we can get a simple software fix to turn off the signature light bar and still have the headlights on.

Safe travels(and carry duct tape)?

I am sure it wouldn’t be difficult to add a manual toggle switch to light bar. Being in Deep South, I don’t I will be having issue.

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[Ruffles]

I've driven my truck multiple times in extremely heavy fog. Would it have been nice to switch off the light bar? Sure. But saying this is a critical safety issue and the truck is impossible to drive etc. is just hyperbole. Tesla probably reads those comments and rolls their eyes. Call it what it is - a useful feature request that we hope they will prioritize.

 

[Defiant]

I've driven my truck multiple times in extremely heavy fog. Would it have been nice to switch off the light bar? Sure. But saying this is a critical safety issue and the truck is impossible to drive etc. is just hyperbole. Tesla probably reads those comments and rolls their eyes. Call it what it is - a useful feature request that we hope they will prioritize.

Less hyperbole and more different experiences.

After covering the signature light bar my visibility had a drastic improvement.
I would say being able to see around 20’ in front of the vehicle to somewhere around 80’-100’ at the same speed. And this is purely due to the reflection of the snow from the light bar.

Sounds like you are assuming that you have experienced the same type of environment, and because you noticed something different from your experience that all experiences that are different from yours are exaggerated.

It is possible that some else can have a different experience than you and in that environment a change that would be convenient in your situation could be critical in others.?

 

[Defiant]

Just showing my temporary solution with electrical tape. It’s not perfect but it definitely makes a difference. It leaves a path in the center of more visible area, but still having daytime running lights.
We will see how long it lasts.
I’ve seen others use black out tint for a more permanent solution.
If by next winter there is not an option to turn off the signature light then maybe that is the better route.

 

[Vagis9780]

Just showing my temporary solution with electrical tape. It’s not perfect but it definitely makes a difference. It leaves a path in the center of more visible area, but still having daytime running lights.
We will see how long it lasts.
I’ve seen others use black out tint for a more permanent solution.
If by next winter there is not an option to turn off the signature light then maybe that is the better route.

Good idea.

 

[J.Graham]

DRL on/off switch is needed here in ??

 

[Vagis9780]

DRL on/off switch is needed here in ??

IF, Tesla is listening, I would thing a DRL control switch could be added with an OTA update.

 

[Jet55]

My office is 100 feet from Lake Michigan and we had some wicked fog this morning . As soon as I got off the highway I had zero visibility. The Lamina-x seemed to help quite a bit. Hopefully we get some some Chicago snow soon so I can try this out. Sorry for the bad techno music.

 

[Crissa]

My office is 100 feet from Lake Michigan and we had some wicked fog this morning . As soon as I got off the highway I had zero visibility. The Lamina-x seemed to help quite a bit. Hopefully we get some some Chicago snow soon so I can try this out. Sorry for the bad techno music.

I guess the video doesn't have any of the fog?

-Crissa

 

[Generaljojo]

Same issue in Buffalo last night. Could not see at all with the light reflecting off the snow. I'm getting some tape for light bar today. To be honest I feel like a tool doing that when this should be a software update to toggle it off...

 

[smg]

YES! There should 100% be something in the menus to be able to toggle it off.

This would have made my night drive in a snowstorm much safer a couple weeks back.

 

[smg]

Keep in mind the camera sees more than the eye. It is actually much worse than this in person.
Would be so much safer without all the flakes lit up by the bar.

Dashcam Video & iPhone Video attached:

 

[J.Graham]

Keep in mind the camera sees more than the eye. It is actually much worse than this in person.
Would be so much safer without all the flakes lit up by the bar.

Dashcam Video & iPhone Video attached:

Would be great if someone could post video like this with the DRL on and then covered with tape, in the same snow storm to see the difference.

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