In a conference call with reporters, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the new version of Autopilot could have saved the life of Joshua Brown, an OH man who died in May when Brown’s Tesla T-boned a tractor-trailer while he was using an older version of Autopilot. To help improve concentration among more laissez-faire Autopilot users, the new software update will force users to park up and restart the auto if they choose to ignore three alarms telling them to put their hands back on the steering wheel.
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However, by using fleet learning and connecting the cars to the cloud, the radar sensor will learn whether or not it should be breaking.
“The new version of Autopilot, with its improved radar would see a large metal object across the road” and be able to determine that the object is not an overpass or overhead road sign that poses no threat. However, given that radar can see through most visual obstructions that a camera cannot detect, such as fog, dust, rain and snow, Tesla has decided to make it a primary control sensor.
Tesla Motors on Sunday outlined a number of enhancements that’ll arrive in version eight of its Autopilot software including a more prominent role for the radar system that was added to all vehicles in October 2014.
The first Tesla fatal accident was reported last May when a man crashed into a tractor-trailer while driving his Tesla with the Autopilot feature on. Having the vehicle hit the brakes every time it sees a non-threatening object such as this would be annoying at best and at worst, could cause injury.
Tesla is making use of so-called “fleet learning” that will allow the technology to progress at a much faster rate, said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of SC.
Instead it’s merely the latest stage in Tesla’s continual improvement of its products. “It’s really about improving the probability of safety”.
In a call with reporters, Mr Musk said the NHTSA appeared to be “happy” with the Autopilot update. It urged Tesla to rename the technology as it felt “autopilot” was “misleading and dangerous”.
Tesla removed the term “self-driving” from its Chinese website after the crash. The radar system will now work in tandem with the other sensors, rather than acting as merely a supplement. This is because any metallic item with a curved surface can amplify the radar signal causing the vehicle to believe the object is bigger than it really is.
“The vehicle computer will then silently compare when it would have braked to the driver action and upload that to the Tesla database”.
Interestingly, Musk also revealed: “Autopilot accidents are far more common with expert users; they get very comfortable with the system”.
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“If several cars drive safely past a given radar object, whether Autopilot is turned on or off, then that object is added to the geocoded whitelist”, the blog post said. In the wake of Brown’s death, two federal government agencies begun investigations into Tesla.
