Making my model Y safer

I just wanted to share 2 things I added to the car that are working very well for me to make things a bit safer.

1. A rearview mirror fed by a camera over the license plate. This was actually a built in feature of the Venza I sold to get this car. Tesla's mirror was a huge disappointment. Fair warning: It's made for people towing trailers or large vehicles. I had a great collision shop with Tesla experience install it, and they had to drill a hole to get the wire through to mount the camera above the license plate. Now I can SEE behind me WAY better than before.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. A mini screen with information I need to have right in front of my eyes. I was finding looking at the main screen distracting and this solved the problem. Once again, Toyota had Tesla beat on this too, with a heads-up display right on the windshield. This item was also installed by my buddies at Brighton Collision in Rochester, NY. A really great place.
   
   
   

BIG improvements. Highly recommended.

 

[MattM24]

Interesting. Does your rear window have tinted glass? That's what killed that approach for me.. The camera image was way too dark.

Orginally, I had 20% tint over the factory dark glass. That was really hard to see through, so I removed the tint. I now have a Tesla sunshade over the rear window.

 

[Richard__G]

Orginally, I had 20% tint over the factory dark glass. That was really hard to see through, so I removed the tint. I now have a Tesla sunshade over the rear window.

It's cool that you could do that. I assume the tint on my 2023 MLYR is baked in (?).

 

[MattM24]

It's cool that you could do that. I assume the tint on my 2023 MLYR is baked in (?).

That’s not tint. That’s the actual glass. I put 20% tint on top of that dark glass, which brought me down to about 4-5%.
I’m now back at factory dark glass, which would probably be the same as your 23.

 

[Richard__G]

That’s not tint. That’s the actual glass. I put 20% tint on top of that dark glass, which brought me down to about 4-5%.
I’m now back at factory dark glass, which would probably be the same as your 23.

Got it, thanks.

 

[John_ML]

I am with you on both modifcations and thanks for the links.

 

[J Neptune]

This thread got me rolling. So much chatter hate from the purist.

First of all NOTHING wrong with making personal improvements for your own car. Second The factory setup is the ideal design Tesla team THINKS works well for most people, doesn’t mean it will.

We can talk about factory color, wheels, suspension and brakes all day long and pull up countless threads people swapping those out, what’s up purist?

Anyways, OP these are thoughtful mods. Front screen to retain critical info within your peripheral vision is a solid recommendation from me too. Less time moving your head away from the road the better.

I also agree MY rear view mirror is useless. I added a wider larger JDM Broadway mirror to mine.

The hate is strong.

It’s almost like telling someone how great your new shoes feel on your feet, and they immediately tell you about 10 other brands out there. Lol.

But I ll give my opinions as well since this is the interweb. The rear view is pretty cool. Don’t know if I would spend the money on it, but if it was a feature that was just factory thing for all cars, I would like it (as well as everyone who does not like OPs upgrade).

The second…. I ve gotten use to it the no “dash” thing. From what OP showed, I don’t need to see my tire pressure all the time because there is a warning sign for it. I don’t need to know if I m in drive bc I’m driving. The speedometer, is ok. lol. But it’s a cool feature to have. Be really nice, if you can change the screen color, phone calls or text alerts show up, battery life meter, or even if you connect the rear view camera to it.

Either ways, they are better improvements than interior lights, fake carbon fiber interior covers, painted exterior Tesla logos from amazon.

 

[Richard__G]

I am with you on both modifcations and thanks for the links.

You're very welcome.

 

[Richard__G]

The hate is strong.

It’s almost like telling someone how great your new shoes feel on your feet, and they immediately tell you about 10 other brands out there. Lol.

But I ll give my opinions as well since this is the interweb. The rear view is pretty cool. Don’t know if I would spend the money on it, but if it was a feature that was just factory thing for all cars, I would like it (as well as everyone who does not like OPs upgrade).

The second…. I ve gotten use to it the no “dash” thing. From what OP showed, I don’t need to see my tire pressure all the time because there is a warning sign for it. I don’t need to know if I m in drive bc I’m driving. The speedometer, is ok. lol. But it’s a cool feature to have. Be really nice, if you can change the screen color, phone calls or text alerts show up, battery life meter, or even if you connect the rear view camera to it.

Either ways, they are better improvements than interior lights, fake carbon fiber interior covers, painted exterior Tesla logos from amazon.

 

[Richard__G]

"The hate is strong."

Sheesh, no kidding. All I intended was to bring the Tesla up to par with the convenience/safety features that were on the Toyota Venza I sold to get this car.

Considering the expense and incredible hassle involved in getting this car, it was pretty annoying to have to do so.

Just to reiterate, the Venza had:

1. A genuine heads up display on the windshield that shows speed and other stuff. It was great and the Tesla column display is ALMOST as good, and the signals & time display on it are very handy too. The rest I can do without, but it IS better to have the info there as well as on the main screen and it is way less distracting, for me.
2. A camera mounted on the top inside of the hatch. feeding the mirror. Turning the camera feed of still provided a normal RVM which was still FAR superior to the Tesla RVM. Having a camera fed mirror is CRITICAL to me for safety, considering the phenomenally poor RVM that came with the car.

Having to bring this car "up to snuff" with the Venza was pretty aggravating, but all-in-all, far better than getting killed in it because I got distracted or couldn't see what was happening behind me.

BTW, I am LOVING the the Tesla, it just needed stuff which it really should have had in the first place (mirror).

'Nuff said!

 

[Richard__G]

I put the same kind of camera mirror setup in my Y a year or two back. I went with the Autovox T9.
If I were to do it again, I would go with an OEM company like Gentex.

I ended up moving the camera from the rear bumper to inside the car at the bottom of the rear windshield. I did this due to a single raindrop blurring the entire rearview when I had the camera on the bumper.
With the camera in the car (and higher up) you get a more natural position and you can use rainx/Aquapel to still see well in the rain.

The only really annoying part about these cameras is the refresh rate of the camera causing LED headlights to look like they are flashing lights in the daytime.

"The only really annoying part about these cameras is the refresh rate of the camera causing LED headlights to look like they are flashing lights in the daytime."

I was wondering about that! Good to know I'm not hallucinating .

 

[MattM24]

"The only really annoying part about these cameras is the refresh rate of the camera causing LED headlights to look like they are flashing lights in the daytime."

I was wondering about that! Good to know I'm not hallucinating .

Luckily, it’s only an issue in bright daylight and not at night.

 

[Richard__G]

Luckily, it’s only an issue in bright daylight and not at night.

UPDATE ON THE MIRROR:

Well, it sucks in the rain. One drop on the lens and ya can't see much that makes any sense. I went of a short trip yesterday - highway driving for about 2 hrs. and back in the rain. I ended up using the Tesla full screen rear view camera and that worked really well and both cameras are mounted above the license plate. I'm not sure what the difference is, other than the Tesla camera lens is flat and the Wolfbox lens is curved. Rain-X didn't help much. Sigh..

 

[Iron]

Nice of you to be honest and let us know.

 

[Richard__G]

Nice of you to be honest and let us know.

Thanks, I just wanted to present the whole picture- only fair.

BUT, I let them know and they immediately got back to me, are sending a new camera, and even offered me a free forward/cabin view camera w/ display they just released.

Their customer service is phenomenal.

 

[SidetrackedSue]

As someone who lives in the land of snow and ice (and the corresponding salt and grit on the roads) external backup cameras are not usable for a good portion of the year. I clean mine whenever I return home (we keep water and a cloth handy for this task) and occasionally when I arrive some place and can't use the camera to park, but, of course, between the cleaning and the next time I go to park the car has been on the roads and if there's any moisture on them, it degrades, most often to the point of not being useful.

I thought the Venza camera was inside the back window, solving this issue completely.

Hopefully the your camera will have some sort of protective shutter. Or better yet, a spray or multiple filters to be removed as the outer ones get dirty. (Think of race horse jockeys covering their goggles with saran wrap and tearing it off as their goggles are cakes with mud during the ride to clear their view.)

Note, similar blinding happens in flat back vehicles here (station wagon, minivan, SUV) but the rear trunk and angle of glass protects regular cars and fast-backs. I assume it has something to do with the airflow over the vehicle blowing the road mist down and away from the window whereas a vertical flat back creates a bit of a vacuum that sucks it in. I miss the square back of my PriusV because of the available storage of tall items like suitcases but the MYs back window doesn't get blinded by salt and sand stains. Of course it is less than useless for seeing out of, but at least one doesn't have to keep washing it off with snow (which is how I used to keep mine clear.)