Night-time driving; Dash too bright, even at 0% setting.

[pilotSteve]

My issue is that Tesla does *not* use the ambient light sensor to set the brightness, its only used a binary night/day (when set to auto) mode changer. Arrrrgh, can't they modulate the backlight brightness instead? Its not really bad but it could be so much better!

 

[ElSupreme]

I use 0% night mode at night. I find it a tiny bit too bright for my liking, but well into acceptable range. I use 100% day mode when the sun is out.

I think the 0% is a good level. I do wish that I could turn off the backlight for the 17" display at times.

But I don't think a darker setting is doable with what Tesla put in. As others have pointed out they don't seem to be able to dim the backlight on the display, so even showing a black screen is going to bleed light through. I was very worried about screen brightness, as I have some glare/low-light vision issues. But I generally find 0% to not cause any problems. And generally be fine for night vision. Even if it is slightly brighter that I would wish.

But I find it better than my old VW GTI blue LED backlight, even on minimum brightness. Even though it puts out more light, it is much less obtrusive than the blue glow I used to have.

Granted 90% of my night driving is in Atlanta, where we get LOTS of skyglow. So country driving it might be a minor issue.

 

[Musterion]

I notice when I'm driving at night, and I set my dashboard lights to 0% brightness, that they're still quite bright. Anyone else notice this? Elon/techies; is there a solution/adjustment I can make to get a true 0% brightness on the dash?

Here's your solution (credit to @wycolo and his dog):

HVAC turned itself on? Or was that the dog?

See also the drive-in thread: Drive-in problems (and solution)

 

[Robecology]

Anyone concerned that the 0% brightness setting is too bright?

When I'm on the turnpike, or any dark road, I like to drive with the dash basics barely visible. All cars I've driven to date (non-electric) allow you to turn the dash board dimness down to 0%; it virtually shuts off.

Not so with the Tesla S.

When I turn down the dash brightness to 0%, it's definitely still too bright for me.

Please - if this is ever an issue with you, contact your dealership or the help link at Teslamotors.com? I'm sure if enough of us express concern about this they will re-program the brightness to give us true 0% brightness control.

Thanks,

Robecology

(Robert H. Pike)

 

[tom66]

The dashboard LCD backlight does not dim from the videos I've seen. Only pixel intensity is altered... sort of like the reverse of a laptop/smartphone LCD backlight control. This means it will leak quite a lot of light on dark images (as the dash is) due to the generally poor contrast ratio (it's not displaying photographic quality images.)

I don't know if this is a software thing or a hardware thing. The touchscreen can dim the backlight, that's why it flickers sometimes when people take videos it uses "pulse width modulated" dimming. I'd expect there's a reason they haven't implemented PWM dimming - it can give some people eyestrain when looking at it for a long time so maybe on the dashboard it is considered unsafe/undesired.

 

[jerry33]

Having driven long distances on some really dark roads, I found that the level of illumination is higher than I would like, but stiil acceptable. It's never caused a problem with night vision for me and anyway, I keep the rear view camera on at all times so I wouldn't want that too dark. 5% is about right for in-town driving.

 

[wcalvin]

Tesla should fix it. In the meantime, here is what I use on the full-screen web browser: http://williamcalvin.org/EV/black.htm

 

[albiefett]

I too prefer a darker dash, and have found the 1/2 media and 1/2 energy screen options to be best, as they have both have mostly black backgrounds.

Also, i prefer to keep on night mode, as day mode is definitely too bright.

At times i will simply tap the center top Tesla logo, and keep the screen of the car image, which also has a darker background...

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

They could do their own version of Saab’s Black Panel/Night Panel.

Skip to 0:41-0:49 & 0:58-1:04 (~):

...] One Saab innovation, inspired by the company's roots in aeronautics, was the 'Black Panel' feature /…/, which extinguished most instrument panel lights at the touch of a button on the [dashboard], to eliminate distraction from dash lights during night driving. While active, this feature permitted darkened instruments to re-illuminate themselves when they required driver attention - if say, the engine speed increased alarmingly or if the fuel level should drop below 15 litres (4 US gal). /.../ This feature was later renamed 'Night Panel' in Saab 9-3 and Saab 9-5 models. In the later Night Panel version, the speedometer is only illuminated up to the 87 mph/140 km/h mark. The remainder of the scale will only be illuminated if the speed of the car exceeds 84 mph/135 km/h. [...

Saab 900 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- - - Updated - - -

Also,

Some previous discussion here:

Night-time driving; Dash too bright, even at 0% setting.

 

[NigelM]

Mod Note: threads merged. Please don't start multiple threads on the the same subject (this was the third one).

 

[albiefett]

Here's your solution (credit to @wycolo and his dog)

i think this is a nice solution, but the pink towel is still a little too bright for me when driving at night...

i wish TESLA would provide us with a black towel instead!

 

[kevincwelch]

Why not try a tinted sheet of plastic (sort of like a screen protector)?

I get all my bottles and sprayers, etc. from this website. They sell sheets of tinted plastic.