Parking sensors

[InTheShadows]

I backed over one yesterday complete with gut-wrenching "scrape" sounds. Fortunately, the scrape is way down underneath where you'd only see it with the car on a hoist. The rear-view camera is useless here in the Canadian winter. There is so much road salt, and the Model S aerodynamics seem to bring all of the dirt up and on to the back of the car. After driving about 50', the camera gets coated and all you see is a grey screen. I wish the sensors were available when I bought my car, but based on this, they might not have helped anyway.

Sorry to hear about your scrape. I have noticed the salt on the camera issue too. I wipe ours off every time I go past the back of the car but like you said it doesn't last long when the roads are wet with salt.

I was wondering if a washer could be fitted next to it to squirt it clean like some other premium cars do with the headlights.

 

[mknox]

I have noticed the salt on the camera issue too. I wipe ours off every time I go past the back of the car but like you said it doesn't last long when the roads are wet with salt.

I actually keep a small plastic bottle with windshield washer fluid and some paper towels in the back of the car for this very reason. I was worried that wiping it "dry" with the gritty salt grime might scratch the lens. Having said that, driving just a short distance seems to undo all of that cleaning!

 

[Andrew]

I picked up my car from the Santa Monica Service Center this morning, and spent a little while chatting with my service rep. The parking sensor retrofit came up, and he mentioned that there's a "VIN breakpoint" where newer cars have the necessary harnesses built-in, and others don't. He said he didn't know what the VIN # is, though. So that is part of what makes the retrofit tricky -- presumably they don't want to offer it as a retrofit and not be able to do it for everyone.

We didn't discuss what it would take to upgrade/retrofit the harness for cars that don't already have it... Then I said something about $6K for new bumpers, and he kind of agreed. (I'm guessing the new bumpers is a bigger issue than the wiring harness!)

So it's no news, really, but at least it seems they may still be trying to come up with a solution.