This Christmas · Tesla Light Show
by Chris Brown
Donny Hathaway's 1970 standard, in the Chris Brown version from the 2007 film of the same name. It opens quietly, the first third by far the smallest, and then the groove arrives and the show wakes up: the side markers re-fire about 1.4 times a second around the car with the front turn signals answering, and from the middle on it stays full. It sits on the darker side of the catalog, three minutes seventeen. The R&B pick on the Christmas shelf, warm rather than loud, and made for a driveway full of family.
How this one is choreographed
This is one of the fastest shows in the library: the lights re-fire about 1.1 times a second and rarely sit still. The peak is in the middle third, where roughly 36% of the car is lit against 18% at the top, then it eases back for the finish. The fullest ten seconds arrive late, starting at 2:34 with about 40% of the car lit, so keep the camera rolling to the end. Most of the work falls on the side markers, re-firing about 1.4 times a second, with the front turn signals answering back at 1.2. The work is split close to evenly between the two ends, 49% front to 51% rear, so it plays from either end, or side-on from the curb. The quietest part of the car is the inner main beams, at about 0.6 re-fires a second. It runs 3:17 and averages 59 of 255 across the light channels, a darker show that spends most of its time well below full, so the hits carry further. About 20% of the light values are partial, toward the top of the range for this catalog, so the show leans on swells and dimming as much as on hits. It never goes completely dark for long: the longest gap is 0.9 of a second, at 0:07.
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.
Setting up for Christmas? The Christmas guide walks through the whole evening, from picking the show to parking the car so the neighbours can actually see it. Read the Christmas guide.
