Tesla has deployed its first software update of 2024, 2024.2, and it includes a brand new and long-awaited feature – adaptive headlights. Unfortunately, the feature is limited to the upgraded Model 3, and as a result, is only available in Europe, for now.
Last month Drive Tesla reported on European certification documents that revealed Tesla would soon add a new feature, “Adaptive Main Beam” headlights for the new Model 3 Highland. At the time we suggested the new feature would arrive through a free over-the-air (OTA) software update, as it seemed unlikely Tesla would be upgrading the hardware in the new Model 3 just a couple of months after its launch.
As it turns out we didn’t have to wait long for the answer. On Thursday Tesla started deploying their first 2024 numbered software update, 2024.2, and the release notes in Europe include “Adaptive High Beam.”
According to the release notes, shared on the TFF Forum, the adaptive headlights only work on high beam, and will “adjust to reduce glare for other drivers and cyclists.”
“By detecting other road users and selectively dimming individual pixels of the headlights, the high beam can remain on longer, enabling better visibility at night,” the release notes explain.
As we noted at the beginning of this article, so far the adaptive headlights appear to only be for the upgraded Model 3, despite the legacy Model 3 and the Model S/X/Y also featuring matrix headlights since as 2021 with the capability to selectively turn off/dim individual pixels.
We will have to wait until the first Highland Model 3s are delivered in North America to find out if we will also get adaptive headlights. The first deliveries are expected to take place this month.
This software update has also been released to Tesla employees in Canada and the US, and the North American version of 2024.2 obviously doesn’t include Adaptive High Beams. However, we have been told the only feature in the release notes here are “improvements and important security fixes.”
Since the update has only just been released in Europe, there have been no tests of the new headlight capability, but we’ll be sure to bring them to you when they hit the internet.
