Tesla brings curves adapt for adaptive headlights

New Tesla firmware version 2024.20 brings optimizations for existing features and improves visibility for adaptive headlights on road curvature with new “curves adapt”.

Earlier this year, Tesla debuted adaptive headlights but only for a limited number of owners. Also known as adaptive high beams, this capability detects incoming traffic and automatically dims individual headlight pixels.

For example, the car will project high beams as usual while driving. However, it disables certain high-beam pixels as soon as an incoming vehicle is detected. In the meantime, the car will project a low beam and cover only the driver’s side of the lane. The beam will reilluminate all of its pixels when there’s no incoming traffic detected. That’s how adaptive headlights help to improve on-road visibility at night time.

In the background, the feature relies on the matrix LED hardware including individually controllable LEDs. These LEDs can be operated using an electronic control unit and traffic detection system to enable/disable the corresponding LEDs.

In March, the feature was released widely including in Europe. However, further expansion has not been confirmed by the electric vehicle (EV) maker.

New Things

Despite its adaptive behavior, Tesla owners showed a need for curve adaptions to improve the light projection on bends. This problem persists in traditional headlights which struggle to bend properly and leave dark areas with no visibility.

The new curve adapt will help to automatically adjust the direction of the beam to illuminate the road ahead while driving through curves. It means that the beam not only projects the light straight ahead but dynamically adjusts projection based on the road’s curvature.

The addition will increase driving experience at night time and reduce risks of accidents on survey roads by allowing drivers to react faster to hazards or pedestrians. This new firmware for adaptive headlights curves rolling out for Tesla EVs in batches.