Other changes applied to Autopilot have reduced the possibility of drivers being distracted, as they will be prompted to keep at least one hand on the wheel when the system is active.
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Now, in an effort to end such software problems, Tesla’s incoming Autopilot 8.0 software update will overhaul how its radar systems and camera work in detecting potential hazards for the vehicle and pedestrians nearby. According to the Verge, Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes that this new upgraded autopilot system may have avoided the fatal crash that occurred back in May.
There were reports that the driver in the May Model S crash was watching a movie. According to Tesla, the radar system was introduced in 2014 and was created to act more as a supplementary sensor to the primary camera and image processing system. And Musk says this version might have prevented the collision that killed Brown.
An over-the-air update will lean heavily on the car’s radar systems in order to give the electric cars a better sense of what is going on on the roads around them. Some Tesla Motors vehicles can park themselves without a driver inside with a software update beamed to customers over the January 9-10 weekend.
In May, the driver of a Tesla Model S electric auto was killed when the vehicle hit a tractor-trailer.
The system is seen as an aggressive step toward self-driving cars, though Tesla warns users that the technology doesn’t, in fact, make Tesla vehicles autonomous and that drivers must remain ready to take control.
One of the main challenges of using cameras and radars for a braking system is how to prevent so-called false positives, in which a auto might think an overhead highway sign, for example, is an obstacle to be avoided.
Musk says that it was “very likely” that the latest version of Autopilot would have prevented the death, but also reiterated that the system does not represent “perfect safety”.
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Zhang Yu, managing director of consultancy Automotive Foresight, said the term “self-driving”, used by Tesla in its earlier marketing campaign, had confused some Chinese customers who might have overlooked the instruction requiring drivers to have their hands on the wheel.
