With Tesla’s Autopilot 8.0 update, the electric automaker’s autonomous driving systems now place greater reliance on radar, rather than on cameras as it has done before.
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Tesla is rolling out an update for its electric cars that will ensure better performance from its Autopilot mode. “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”, said Tesla. It will be able to detect large objects like other vehicles or animals, wrestling control of the auto from human drivers to apply the brakes.
Tesla is looking to enhance the capabilities of the existing radar in its vehicles to boost the safety of it’s Autopilot feature.
“We’re making much more effective use of radar”, Musk was quoted as telling reporters on a phone call.
Unfortunately, a false negative of the previous version of the technology, along with a potentially distracted driver led to the first fatal accident in a Tesla Model S that was driving with Autopilot activated. “There won’t ever be zero fatalities”, Musk stated. The Model S, traveling at 74 miles per hour with a 65 miles per hour speed limit, hit the trailer and traveled under it before veering off the road, killing driver Joshua Brown. According to Forbes, Tesla’s advances in the radar technology and the information gathered by other Tesla vehicles will enable them to build a 3D of the world so the Autopilot system can distinguish the usual street objects from the unexpected obstacles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, one of the agencies probing the fatal May crash, sometimes closes investigations if it determines a manufacturer has resolved the issue at hand and no further investigation is warranted.
This ability would have prevented the death of Brown last May and will now also be able to spot potentially harmful objects through varied weather conditions, including rain or fog. The Autopilot 8.0 will automatically shut off if the driver ignores repeated warnings to put their hands on the steering wheel.
Tesla’s Autopilot should get a lot safer in the next few weeks.
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“When the data shows that false braking events would be rare, the auto will begin mild braking using radar, even if the camera doesn’t notice the object ahead”.
