However the Tesla Autopilot only offers up semi-autonomous driving.
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According to the rumours, Tesla started installing new housing in cars this week, and will come along with improved location maps and computer hardware. That’s purely speculative at this point, but unless they have the build quality and reliability people expect, over the air updates to keep then current with technological changes, and the comprehensive charging networks needed to eliminate any hint of range anxiety, they are unlikely to retain their original value as well as a Tesla.
The agency’s director, Mark Rosenfeld, said in July that self-driving cars hold great promise for safety improvements and that “no one incident will derail the Department of Transportation and NHTSA from its mission to improve safety on the roads by pursuing new life-saving technologies”. Level 4 is full self-driving automation without the need for driver intervention, from beginning to end.
According to Electrek, sources close to the Autopilot project confirmed it will use three forward facing cameras to detect hazards on the road ahead. When it comes to selling electric cars that people want and that continue to hold their value as the years and miles go by, only one company done it successfully – Tesla.
Beyond these features, future iterations of Autopilot could see the addition of as yet unknown sensors suites on vehicles.
The new triple camera will likely be based on a similar system from Mobileye.
Since the feature was first introduced by Elon Musk’s firm in 2014 there has been some confusion as to the extent of Autopilot and what it can do.
The instantaneous amounts of torque present on the Tesla Model S make it a ideal candidate for quarter-mile racing.
On the other hand, Tesla declares it has around 600 owners in MI that need to take a trip out of state to have their automobiles correctly serviced.
Not yet hands free.
However, the auto manufacturer has been under fire in the past several weeks, as Tesla’s Autopilot feature was investigated by the NHTSA in the wake of a number of accidents involving the Model S and Model X vehicles.
The driver had engaged the assisted driving function believing it was self-driving, with in vehicle data confirming the driver’s hands were not on the wheel at the time of the scrape.
It was reported that the driver, 40-year-old Joshua Brown, may have been distracted by watching a movie in the vehicle at the time Autopilot was engaged.
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We contacted Tesla for a comment on the approval by RDW and we will update if we get an answer.
