The first few Cybertruck Off-Road Lightbars have now been installed on customer vehicles, and we finally got a better look at their capabilities. They’ve got a bevy of unique software options – so let’s take a look at what you get for going with an OEM Tesla Off-Road Lightbar.
Lightbar Software Options
Installing the Off-Road Lightbar adds a new category to the vehicle’s settings. You can navigate to Controls > Outlets and Mods and see a new option for Light Bar. Pressing it will enable the Lightbar, as well as show additional controls in the Outlets and Mods menu.
Once you turn it on, you’ll see an image of the top of your Cybertruck with the Lightbar installed. Below, the option to turn on the Ditch Lights, Flood Lights, or Both will be available. You’ll also be able to adjust the overall brightness of the Off-Road Lightbar.
Ditch Lights and Flood Lights
The three options give you additional control over the spread of light in the Lightbar. This can be extremely beneficial for off-roading, as it can help you prevent glare or widen your field of vision.
The Off-Road Lightbar Ditch Lights setting lights up the edges of the lightbar toward the edges of the road where there could be ditches on either side of a one-way off-road path. This can be extremely helpful for keeping the vehicle centered when you’re out and about but don’t want to cover everything in a bright glare of light.
The Floodlight setting will do the opposite – covering the front path of the vehicle with light instead. It can provide a considerable amount of light out to quite a distance – we’re expecting 1,500 feet forward or more. More to follow once we get some confirmation on its specs and use.
You can also choose to enable all of the Lightbar lights, essentially enabling the Ditch Lights and Flood Lights at the same time for maximum coverage. Whichever option you choose, you’ll be able to adjust the brightness of the lights.
Currently, the Off-Road Lightbar doesn’t appear to support any adaptive functionality, such as adjusting brightness or enabling/disabling certain lights based on the vehicle’s surroundings or nearby vehicles. This will likely stay this way—due to its brightness, the Off-Road Lightbar isn’t legal for use on roads throughout North America.
Third Party Lightbars
Currently, while there are about 3-4 different third-party lightbars for the Cybertruck available, none of them get to use this new OEM software interface to manage to directionality or intensity of the lights. We’re hoping that Tesla opens up the API and interface for more modding and functionality in the future.
