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Antenna Expose

by Moderator

Amazingly, there are many antennas in a Tesla vehicle. We’ve examined wiring diagrams, the parts catalog, regulatory filings, parts disassembly, and more to locate antennas in each Tesla model.  (Jul-2022)

Antennas • More Antennas? • Notes

 

Antennas

More Antennas?

Touch Controls

We considered including the various capacitive touch controls, as mini antennas. For example, the Model S and Model X have the following touchpoints:

  • 4 touchpoints for door release controls
  • 5 touchpoints for drive select and emergency flashers
  • 7 touchpoints on the yoke steering wheel
  • Multiple touchpoints on the front display
  • Multiple touchpoints on the rear display

We don’t have the internal circuitry details to know how many touchpoints are used in the displays. Likely there are touchpoints every 1/2″ or so on each axis to create an X-Y grid.  Still, it can be considered a bit of a stretch to include these as antennas, so we left them out.

Ultrasonic Sensors

Ultrasonic sensors are like acoustic antennas that both transmit and receive. They send out an acoustic signal and receive any bounce-back signal from objects near the sensor.  The Model S/3/Y includes 12 sensors, and the Model X has at least 14 sensors and likely more.  Like touchpoints, we elected not to consider these in our antenna roundup.

Notes

  • Our analysis was performed on the latest documents available as of July 2022, for the 2022 model year vehicles.
  • For a given model, we didn’t see any changes for antennas in variants, like SR+, LR, Plaid, Performance, etc.
  • Quite a few modules include more than one antenna. If a single antenna is used for multiple purposes, it is only counted as one antenna, although in a few cases it is difficult to assess how many antennas are in a single module.  For example, the WiFi antenna is also used for Bluetooth and is counted together as one antenna. Similarly, radar units actually have multiple antennas used in a phased array. Still, we count a radar unit as one antenna as they address a single frequency band. Some modules, like the WC3 wireless phone chargers, have 4 loop antennas, so we count this as four antennas. I’m sure some could argue with our approach and end up with a larger or smaller count.
  • For antennas and assemblies made by outside vendors, Tesla likely has multiple vendors.  We only show one vendor, and it is possible Tesla may bring the item in-house.
  • Older vehicles have similar parts and antennas for basic functions. Some features and antennas are not available on older cars and/or have a different location.
  • Click on item images to view a larger image.
  • The very top image is a 2022 Model X. We show most antenna types and locations in this image, but not all.