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.

 

[Richard__G]

I have a general dislike for rearview mirrors. For whatever reason (tall guy/long torso) the mirror really hampers my forward view to the right. I am constantly ducking around the mirror to see in that direction (especially at narrow 4-way stops).

My perfect solution would be a rear-mount camera displayed on the main screen, and complete removal of physical mirror (-> cyber truck). I am still debating taking mine off to try it.

Glad the add on works for the OP but it looks even larger than stock.

It IS larger and because it is, provides a wider angle of view, and doesn't get in my way at all. It's about the size of a "normal" car RVM. I'm 5'11", but YMMV.

 

[Stirfry]

It IS larger and because it is, provides a wider angle of view, and doesn't get in my way at all. It's about the size of a "normal" car RVM. I'm 5'11", but YMMV.

Yeesh, even bigger would be bad for me haha. I'm going to try taking off mirror this weekend.

Glad you found something that works for you.

 

[Richard__G]

Yeesh, even bigger would be bad for me haha. I'm going to try taking off mirror this weekend.

Glad you found something that works for you.

Yow, brave! Will you use the Tesla rear view camera instead? Thanks, I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[Stirfry]

Yow, brave! Will you use the Tesla rear view camera instead? Thanks, I'm pretty happy with it.

Maybe, we'll see how it goes

 

[ElectricAnt54]

i find Apple CarPlay / Android Auto to increase safety because the systems allow driver to be less distracted when trying to control infotainment such as music, podcasts, listening/creating text messages, navigation. Some behind the wheel screens offer it but you can get them in your center screen via “Tesla Android Project” & some other devices.

 

[Ratm68]

With all due respect to y'all. The stock rear view mirror SUCKED. It was tiny and dark and barely useful.

Having to distract my eyes from the road to get speed, time, etc., also sucked.

It's one thing to be a Tesla purist, I prefer to make things better. That's just how I roll.

I say this with all due respect to everyone who has helped me so much on the forum. I really appreciate and value this community, but in this case, I will have to agree to disagree.

• It's great at night.
• It has a switch to change the display from rear to front or to a split view of both, side by side.
• The angle of view (higher or lower) can be adjusted by swiping in the screen.
• It has a micro card to record the forward view I think,, but I've not really looked at that.

Can you elaborate more on night time? I would imagine any sort of cameras would be completed blinded by headlights so i'm interested to see how it would perform at night. Any nighttime photo to share?

 

[Richard__G]

Can you elaborate more on night time? I would imagine any sort of cameras would be completed blinded by headlights so i'm interested to see how it would perform at night. Any nighttime photo to share?

It works very well at night, headlights are no problem. I'll get a photo this evening and post it.

 

[Richard__G]

i find Apple CarPlay / Android Auto to increase safety because the systems allow driver to be less distracted when trying to control infotainment such as music, podcasts, listening/creating text messages, navigation. Some behind the wheel screens offer it but you can get them in your center screen via “Tesla Android Project” & some other devices.

How interesting! I loved Apple Car Play in my Venza. Here's a YouTube video on how it works, +'s and -'s.

Still trying to wrap my head around how I'd use it. Way too many sensory inputs available in this car, way too little brainpower available to comprehend it!

 

[Richard__G]

How interesting! I loved Apple Car Play in my Venza. Here's a YouTube video on how it works, +'s and -'s.

Still trying to wrap my head around how I'd use it. Way too many sensory inputs available in this car, way too little brainpower available to comprehend it!

OOPS, here's the link.

 

[gx9901]

The view out the rear of the Model Y is indeed a tiny sliver, but I got used to it within a few weeks of taking delivery and haven't felt any issues with my rearward vision. The rear view out of my wife's Volvo C40 is an even smaller box, but we've also gotten used to it. But I would not disagree with having a video rear view mirror is safer than the stock setup. I crossed off the MY and C40 when my mom wanted to shop for an EV for precisely this reason since she's over 70 and we don't want her taking any chances on something too different than she's used to.

As for adding the front instrument cluster, my opinion is that how much safety it adds depends on the individual. I was concerned with the lack of front instrument cluster before buying the MY, but about 10 seconds into my test drive I realized that the location of the speedometer worked perfectly for me. What I found was that my peripheral vision works better side to side compared to up and down, so looking to the side to acquire the speedometer felt as safe to me, if not more, than looking down to see it. Because of this I have never felt the urge to add a screen in front of me to display information.

 

[Richard__G]

The view out the rear of the Model Y is indeed a tiny sliver, but I got used to it within a few weeks of taking delivery and haven't felt any issues with my rearward vision. The rear view out of my wife's Volvo C40 is an even smaller box, but we've also gotten used to it. But I would not disagree with having a video rear view mirror is safer than the stock setup. I crossed off the MY and C40 when my mom wanted to shop for an EV for precisely this reason since she's over 70 and we don't want her taking any chances on something too different than she's used to.

As for adding the front instrument cluster, my opinion is that how much safety it adds depends on the individual. I was concerned with the lack of front instrument cluster before buying the MY, but about 10 seconds into my test drive I realized that the location of the speedometer worked perfectly for me. What I found was that my peripheral vision works better side to side compared to up and down, so looking to the side to acquire the speedometer felt as safe to me, if not more, than looking down to see it. Because of this I have never felt the urge to add a screen in front of me to display information.

Interesting. My peripheral vision works better vertically, so that puppy is really proving its worth to me. Another thing I like about it (and this may be a bit lame) is that it shows the turn signals. This is pretty handy as I'm still trying to master the correct level of touch to turn them off! They seem pretty finicky.

It must be very entertaining to the drivers behind me when I fumble around with it and the signals keep going back & forth .

 

[gx9901]

Interesting. My peripheral vision works better vertically, so that puppy is really proving its worth to me. Another thing I like about it (and this may be a bit lame) is that it shows the turn signals. This is pretty handy as I'm still trying to master the correct level of touch to turn them off! They seem pretty finicky.

It must be very entertaining to the drivers behind me when I fumble around with it and the signals keep going back & forth .

Are you using auto-cancel for the turn signals? Since they added that feature I've not had to turn off the turn signal myself very often.

 

[Richard__G]

Are you using auto-cancel for the turn signals? Since they added that feature I've not had to turn off the turn signal myself very often.

Didn't know about that. Thanks! How long does it wait to auto-cancel?

 

[Stirfry]

Didn't know about that. Thanks! How long does it wait to auto-cancel?

I believe there two settings:

1. Auto-cancel after 3 signals/flashes (default setting I believe?)
2. Auto-cancel after lane has been changed (keeps flashing until it detects you have changed lanes)

This is for when the stalk is pushed to the detente. If you push it past the detente then it will stay on until the wheel has been fully turned/returned to the straight position.

I use the second setting I listed and find it works very well.

 

[gx9901]

Didn't know about that. Thanks! How long does it wait to auto-cancel?

When you have auto-cancel activated, the turn signal comes on and stays on whether you move the stalk to the first or second detent when you are not using AP. The car then reads the lanes, including turn signs, and determines when to cancel the signal. So in a lane change situation, you activate the turn signal and the signal will stay on until you are completely into the adjacent lane. If you cross two lanes in one move, it will stay on until you get into the lane you end up in. If it reads a turn sign on the ground in the lane you moved into, the turn signal will stay on until after you make the turn.

The first and second detent on the turn signal stalk does the exact same thing for the most part when you use auto-cancel, except for when you have AP turned on. In this case, I've found that you need to get to the second detent to keep the turn signal on for a lane change. With AP on and stalk moved to the first detent, it flashes the turn signal 3 times and re-engages AP so it pulls you back to the original lane.

This is actually pretty slick and I've used it ever since it was introduced to the Model 3/Y. Where I used to always pull the stalk to the second detent, now I only do so during lane changes with AP on and only use the first detent the rest of the time.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

How interesting! I loved Apple Car Play in my Venza. Here's a YouTube video on how it works, +'s and -'s.

Still trying to wrap my head around how I'd use it. Way too many sensory inputs available in this car, way too little brainpower available to comprehend it!

Carplay in a tesla is used same as your Venza. I tend to use Siri voice commands usually. “Hey siri, navigate to the apple pan in west Los Angeles” , “hey siri I play heavy metal playlist shuffled”, hey siri read my messages (let’s you respond), hey siri I call xxxx”. just run tesla web browser and inside that is where you see CarPlay GUI. Want tesla nav instead? Use atesla voice command to navigate. You will see turn indicators & hear Tesla nav voice even when CarPlay is Visible. I personally only use Tesla nav on long distance road trips where I am not familiar with route, or if I want to be kept up to date on charger availability…basically 1% of my driving per year.

 

[EatsShoots]

My eyes adjusted very quickly to the focus shift using these mirrors in both the Venza and this Wolf device. It quickly becomes a non-issue.

Neither my Venza nor this device cause glare. It was/is very well controlled. Not sure why yours does.

It's not glare so much as at nights the lights just wash everything out so I cannot see what the heck is really behind me, because the camera isn't the best.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

OOPS, here's the link.

I don’t use the Carlinkit T2C product, I use Tesla Android www.teslaandroid.com which is more advanced & offers more than just CarPlay but more expensive. I think it has better support, the software is open source (but you can buy premade bundles) & headed up by a fellow in Poland. Tech enthusiasts would definitely like Tesla android better but if all you want is CarPlay then the cheaper options should be fine.

 

[Richard__G]

I believe there two settings:

1. Auto-cancel after 3 signals/flashes (default setting I believe?)
2. Auto-cancel after lane has been changed (keeps flashing until it detects you have changed lanes)

This is for when the stalk is pushed to the detente. If you push it past the detente then it will stay on until the wheel has been fully turned/returned to the straight position.

I use the second setting I listed and find it works very well.

Awesome. Thank you!!

 

[MountainPass]

I appreciate the rearview mirror/camera recommendation - perfect for my track car with a big wing obstructing the rear view!