LED headlights
74
Now Implemented!
Description
Offer LEDs for all headlight functions.
Competitive/Pricing/Notes
LED headlights allow to dim light that would shine directly onto oncoming vehicles but continues to cast its full light on the zones between and beside them. This works because the LED high beams can be split into many individual light-emitting diodes.
LEDs are considerably more complex to design and costly. Early cars that used LEDs often had far dimmer light than HID designs, but the latest designs are comparable.
Status
First implemented on the Model X and with the Model S refresh in April 2016, and now every new Tesla uses an all-LED design.
lightly edited by moderator
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3 Comments
I'm currently driving a BMW650 ( soon to switch to a Tesla) with adaptive LED headlights. These are the best color, focus, clarity of any headlight I have ever used. On mountain roads the adaptive head lights lead your steering. This one of those sad trade offs one has to make in life.
I'm not convinced that this is really going to buy us much, if anything. The current lights are HID and draw only 35 watts, in either high or low beam (they just re-position a 'projector' inside).
Unless it can reduce factory production costs or our replacement costs (bulbs are low $20's), I"d not be too interested in this.
I already can see plenty well, even at the higher speeds, which is where good "flame throwers" show their mettle. LED's admittedly have built-in redundancy in that one or more internal components could fail and we'd still have adequate light (until reaching the extreme failure counts).
Reducing power consumption is not a worthy goal here. The watt-hours used by the lights is insignificant compared to the drive system requirements. Reminds me of when BMW told their Mini-e drivers to "turn off the radio in order to maximize driving range!" Pfft!
Unless it can reduce factory production costs or our replacement costs (bulbs are low $20's), I"d not be too interested in this.
I already can see plenty well, even at the higher speeds, which is where good "flame throwers" show their mettle. LED's admittedly have built-in redundancy in that one or more internal components could fail and we'd still have adequate light (until reaching the extreme failure counts).
Reducing power consumption is not a worthy goal here. The watt-hours used by the lights is insignificant compared to the drive system requirements. Reminds me of when BMW told their Mini-e drivers to "turn off the radio in order to maximize driving range!" Pfft!
I know not everyone agrees with me on this but I find LED tail-lights on many car models visible flicker - it seems I am just sensitive to this.
For different reasons (ie due to the camera/display scan rate) I frequently see front LED side-lights on cars behind me flicker in the camera view (I always have this on as a blind spot assist) which can be distracting.
For different reasons (ie due to the camera/display scan rate) I frequently see front LED side-lights on cars behind me flicker in the camera view (I always have this on as a blind spot assist) which can be distracting.
