American Girl · Tesla Light Show
by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Jangling, wide open, and gone before you are ready. This one opens at full strength, about the widest it gets in the first third, then thins out and lets the later sections breathe, which is unusual here and suits a song that starts at the chorus and never really lands anywhere quieter. Side markers lead with the signature bar behind, and it runs bright across four and a half minutes. The fourth of July pick for people who find the anthems a bit much.
How this one is choreographed
The lights re-fire about 0.8 times a second, a middle pace that tracks the beat without crowding it. It opens at full strength, about 37% of the car lit in the first third, then thins out and lets the later sections breathe. The fullest ten seconds come early, starting at 0:19 with about 40% of the car lit, so have people watching from the first bar. Most of the work falls on the side markers, re-firing about 0.9 times a second, with the signature light bar and daytime running lights answering back at 0.9. The work is split close to evenly between the two ends, 53% front to 47% rear, so it plays from either end, or side-on from the curb. The quietest part of the car is the rear turn signals, at about 0.5 re-fires a second. It runs 4:36 and averages 84 of 255 across the light channels, a bright show that stays close to full through its busiest passages. The values are mostly hard on or hard off, only about 13% of samples sitting at a partial level, which reads sharp and percussive from across a parking lot. The longest full blackout lasts 1.1 seconds, at 3:33, and that pause is what makes the next hit land.
Measured from the exported light sequence for this show, not estimated from the song.
Get it for your Tesla
This show downloads for every Tesla: Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. Preview it on your model with the View-on picker above, add it to your library, and it re-tailors to your car's lights automatically.
How to play it on your car
- Open the show above and add it to your library (remix it in the builder first if you want).
- Add your own copy of the song: an MP3/WAV you own. We distribute only the light pattern, never audio.
- Export the
.fseqbuilt for your model, then place your song next to it (or let the one-click USB writer do both). - Put both files in a
LightShowfolder on a USB drive. Or skip the manual steps: in Chrome/Edge, click 🔌 Write it to my USB drive for me right after exporting and we do it all, verified byte-for-byte. Then plug in and start it from Toybox → Light Show. Full walkthrough in the setup guide.
Car says Light Show instead of Custom Light Show, or the drive is not detected at all? That is the USB format, the folder name, or filenames that do not match. If it plays but drifts out of time, that is the audio sample rate. Fix both here.
