Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric auto company is making major improvements to the Autopilot system used by its vehicles, which will dramatically reduce the number and severity of crashes they’re involved in. When asked about Mobileye, and why the company was no longer providing the semi-autonomous driving technology to Tesla, Musk declined to comment, instead shifting the conversation to the new upgrade. In fact, when asked if the updated Autopilot would have been able to prevent the fatal accident, Musk said there is a good chance it would have.
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Following that crash, Tesla said parts of the car’s automated driving system were not complete and the vehicle wasn’t meant to be driven hands-free. Most noteworthy is that the use of the radar system, which was added to all Tesla (TSLA) vehicles in 2014 to play a supplementary role, will be significantly increased.
Musk painted the new system as a “dramatic improvement”, one that could make Teslas in Autopilot mode up to three times safer than vehicles without the system. At 11am on Saturday, Elon Musk announced a new plan for the Autopilot 8.0 update.
Musk said that he has wanted to make these kinds of improvements to Autopilot since previous year, but he was told it couldn’t be done for various technical reasons.
In that fatal crash, “neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied”, Tesla said.
Mr. Musk has vigorously defended the Autopilot technology, saying it improves safety.
Fleet learning will also help radar vision become more intelligent as information to added to the Tesla database and analyzed. The accident is being investigated by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The downside of radar is that it can inaccurately identify objects and obstacles, resulting in false alarms and potential unnecessary braking events.
Musk also notes that the drivers that end up with the most warnings to pay attention to the road are veterans of the system. “There won’t ever be zero fatalities, there won’t ever be zero injuries”, he said.
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“We do not have an update on the Tesla investigation to share at this time”, he said.
