Adaptive headlights rolling out for legacy Tesla Model 3/Y/S/X in Europe

Lars Moravy, VP of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla said that the company started to roll out adaptive headlights feature for 3/Y/S/X models in Europe for cars with matrix LEDs.

Earlier this year, Tesla released an Upgraded Model 3 with adaptive headlights which utilizes the matrix LED hardware to improve driving at night time.

The feature was seen as a major upgrade for the headlights and Tesla announced to send this headlight capability for previous generations of cars.

The latest response from Moravy came after an X user @A_MrBenMitchell asked about the possibility of releasing adaptive headlights for the Tesla Model 3 before the Upgraded version.

On that, Lars responded, “We just started rolling this out to older hardware capable 3/Y/S/X cars in Europe with 2024.8”.

How it works?

Adaptive headlights automatically block the light on an upcoming vehicle in the opposite lane to avoid reflection and increase visibility.

For example, a Tesla Model 3 will keep the high beam enabled when there’s no car coming from the front as usual. As a car approaches, the Model 3 blocks a beam on that car’s lane area while keeping the driving side illuminated.

When the car passes through and there’s no traffic on the road, the Model 3 fires all beams to illuminate the entire road.

Similarly, the adaptive headlights respond to a vehicle driving in front. The light blocks the car’s rear to avoid reflection but keeps the front view visible.

These processes reiterate each time when a vehicle comes in or goes out.

Matrix LEDs:

Matrix LED headlight is an adaptive driving beam system with individual controllable LEDs. These LEDs are operated through an electronic control unit (ECU) and traffic detection system to optimize light based on the traffic condition.

Matrix systems provide intelligent front lighting with dynamic control and split-second beam control. It allows to integrate a pixel-level digital control over the high beam.

The light system has several LED engines assembled into a joint module. Each LED engine has a dedicated controllable circuit for different control of light intensity and on/off switch support.

Tesla and other cars with matrix LED headlights can enable adaptive headlights but it requires robust software support to detect the traffic.

Preparing for the U.S.

Lars also mentioned that the feature is coming to more regions but the company is completing the required certifications to meet the rollout. There’s no official date for the rollout announced.