During an online press conference about the software update, Musk said: “It’s not going from bad to good, it’s going from good to great”.
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The advanced signal processing will allow the existing radar access to six times as many radar objects, along with more information per object.
On Sunday a new post on Tesla’s official blog included details about a major software update for the company’s Autopilot software.
All radar-equipped Model S and Model X cars from the past two years will benefit from the downloadable update, due out in the next couple of weeks.
The guys from Tesla Motors’ Autopilot technology have made a move to upgrade its vehicles’ radar function following a crash reported months back.
The latest update to Tesla’s Autopilot software is being described as one of its most significant to date with its radar technology now being upgraded to prevent accidents like the one that happened to the driver, Josh Brown.
The company says that it will also use fleet learning to enhance object detection, by uploading and comparing data about exactly when a auto brakes when a given radar object (like a road sign) is nearby, all of its vehicles will be able to navigate past them safely. The radar has been fitted in the automaker’s vehicles since October 2014, and had been a supplementary sensor until now.
“After careful consideration, we now believe it can be used as a primary control sensor without requiring the camera to confirm visual image recognition”, Tesla said. Due to their concave design, dish-shape objects like soda cans were reflecting back to the vehicles’ radar sensor as being large and unsafe. Initially the vehicle fleet will simply note the position of these items to compile a “geocoded whitelist”, with appropriate responses coming online later. For more Tesla news, keep an eye on our Model S and Model 3 news roundups.
Away from radar, he also revealed that Teslas in Autopilot mode will need to be parked if repeated warnings to hold the steering wheel are ignored by the driver.
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In addition to these critical changes, Tesla says there are over 200 other, smaller ones as part of the Version 8.0 update.
