How is life with exposed external cameras?

[asellus]

As title. Kind of a pedantic feeling question, but hey.

I've only had a couple cars with constantly-exposed exterior cameras, and especially in the wintertime they become unusable by the time I reach the end of my block. Granted, they were sports cars, so the cameras were placed low and the rear cameras existed in heavily spoiled air.

I think VW (and a few others.. Hyundai, Lexis) did it right with protected reverse cameras that pop out only when they are being used.

How does the R2 (or R1S for that matter) fare in day-to-day use for camera usability and cleanliness? How often do you find yourself explicitly cleaning the cameras, or increasing your wash frequency simply because your cameras are blurry/blocked? It's something I asked at the Rivian store near me and the best answer I got was that "we haven't really heard any complaints about it"

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[NinjaWrap]

I wouldn't be concerned except maybe the front bumper (such an odd placement choice). I will put a piece of PPF over that on day one.

 

[Redmond Chad]

My now-sold R1S, my wife's Model X and several EVs before that had these cameras. When driving through really heavy rain, I would occasionally get a message about one camera being blocked. If I went a few months without washing one, I might get a message about one camera. Wiping my finger over it the next time I got out of the car usually fixes it...if it doesn't fix itself with rainwater or wind or whatever.

It's not ideal, but it's been a fairly rare and easy-to-fix problem for us.

 

[sparked]

I'm assuming it's going to be annoying in winter climates with road salt, ice and heavy snow. Hopefully it's just the front and rear that need a wipe every now and then. We won't get R2 customer reports in these kind of conditions for a few months.

 

[macb00kemdanno]

I wouldn't be concerned except maybe the front bumper (such an odd placement choice). I will put a piece of PPF over that on day one.

Yeah, I'm probably going to do the same. Low-front mount cameras just seem like a serious BAD idea. I wonder how the front-mounted bumper cams in Teslas are holding up?

Edit:

 

[emroch]

I noticed the lenses on the showroom car were very warm to the touch, even though the cameras weren't actively being viewed (and the car was in Show and Tell mode, so I doubt it was recording anything). I guess just the sensor being active is producing heat? If that's normal, I wouldn't worry about snow or ice on the cameras, but salt and mud could be an issue.

 

[Millbarge]

I'm assuming it's going to be annoying in winter climates with road salt, ice and heavy snow. Hopefully it's just the front and rear that need a wipe every now and then. We won't get R2 customer reports in these kind of conditions for a few months.

All that happens is the "self drive", smart cruise and certain safety features may be temporarily unavailable, meaning you have to drive like you normally would without certain features.

You don't have to wait months to get reports on how this works. Check the Tesla owners forums to see--or the R1 forums.

 

[sparked]

All that happens is the "self drive", smart cruise and certain safety features may be temporarily unavailable, meaning you have to drive like you normally would without certain features.

You don't have to wait months to get reports on how this works. Check the Tesla owners forums to see--or the R1 forums.

Use case probably matters since I don't know how much i care about the self drive features in regular city driving. If you're a highway commuter in winter, it could be more annoying.

 

[southerncadesi]

The R1's have camera washers for the front and rear cameras, so those can be cleaned easily even when driving. R2 (to my knowledge) does not have camera washers so I imagine things will get a little more grimy.

Side cameras haven't been an issue for me, but I'm also a garaged California driver. (yeah one of those )

 

[jrmbadger]

As someone in your area who has both a model y and a R1S, they do occasionally get grimy, but you can just take a cloth (I usually just use my finger) and wipe it off. I usually go a couple weeks between wipings. The "washer" on the rear camera does help some.

 

[VandalSibs]

The R1's have camera washers for the front and rear cameras, so those can be cleaned easily even when driving.

R1T does NOT have that for any of the cameras. It's only on R1S, and only on the rear camera I think....

 

[southerncadesi]

R1T does NOT have that for any of the cameras. It's only on R1S, and only on the rear camera I think....

Oh interesting that the T’s don’t have it. R1S (gen2) has both.

 

[SwampNut]

This company has my preferred solution for winter issues: <LINK>

You can use the same ceramic coating you should use on the paint to coat the cameras. I’ve done that and nothing sticks.

 

[James Connolly]

It all depends where you're at I guess. I live in interior New England not too far from the coast. We get all kinds of winter weather here. Dry fluffy snow is seldom a problem it just seems to fall off. Heavy wet snow can build up all across the relatively flat front the vehicle, causing not only the headlights to be obscured but the camera as well. The good news is that if you pull over your snow brush can clear the accumulation in seconds. Occasionally it will fall off all by itself as soon as you stop the vehicle. Icy sleet is probably the worst, but again it can be cleared relatively easily by pulling over and brushing it off. On only one occasion did they sleet accrete hard enough that it didn't want to come off. Fortunately I carry a gallon of windshield washer fluid refill in my frunk and that was able to loosen the icy accretion so that I could brush it off.

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