Tesla Owners Celebrate ‘Naatu Naatu’ Oscar Win by Syncing Lights on Dozens of Cars
After it won an Oscar, Tesla owners put on their own intricate Naatu Naatu “dance.”
Dozens of Tesla owners in New Jersey recently gathered at Papaianni Park in Edison, New Jersey, over the weekend to celebrate the Oscar win of the Tollywood film RRR with a custom light show put on by their cars.
A clip, which has since gone viral with nearly 400,000 views, was posted to Twitter by the official RRR Movie account early Monday morning. It shows dozens of Teslas flashing their lights in a synchronized fashion to the song Naatu Naatu, creating what could be thought of as a 21st-century fireworks show.
Naatu Naatu recently won the Oscar for "Best Original Song" at the 95th annual Academy Awards. It was the first Telugu-language song to have won this category, beating out Lady Gaga's "Hold My Hand" (from Top Gun: Maverick), Rihanna's "Lift Me Up" (from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), and more for the award.
As for the light show, this feature isn't exactly new. Tesla is the king of Easter eggs, after all, and has wooed fans of the cars by enabling its flagship Model X to put on light shows and even "dance." In 2021, Tesla pushed an over-the-air update to its vehicles on Christmas Eve to enable the light show feature on all of its models.
And it's not just baked-in scenes, either. Tesla actually supports making custom light show files for its cars, which is how the fleet of parked vehicles synced up to Naatu Naatu. In fact, it has an entire section on Github dedicated to teaching owners how to use the free open-source XLights light sequencer application to choreograph the entire process. Of course, if you're not a very tech-savvy person, there are always websites like TeslaLightShows and TeslaLightShare that let users download pre-baked shows based on popular or requested songs.
Lighting has been used repeatedly by automakers are a means of communication in recent years. While this example is certainly more of an artsy approach, Tesla has used vehicle lighting as a means for logistics prior to vehicles being delivered to owners. Likewise, other manufacturers like GMC and Rivian use lighting to indicate a vehicle's state of charge.
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