Autopilot is meant to allow drivers to remove their hands from the wheel for up to three minutes, depending on the driving scenario.
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The Tesla CEO announced on Sunday the upgrade to the autopilot system will make the cars safer and will dramatically reduce the number and severity of the crashes their vehicles have been involved in, reports the Associated Press.
The investigation into the Tesla fatality revealed that Brown had possibly been watching a Harry Potter film at the time of the accident, despite the fact that Musk himself had always said drivers should remain engaged even when using autopilot.
Tesla has said previously that Autopilot did not notice “the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky”, but the radar-led upgrade system should. The company says that’s a real issue as people become more comfortable with the technology, and may be the cause for some recent crashes.
The 8.0 upgrade will also include an improved Autosteering and a new safety mechanism that will disable the Autopilot system if the driver disengages his hands from the steering wheel.
The updates will be put into place within the next two weeks and cars will be automatically updated.
“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. The biggest change is in how the company uses its radar sensors.
Increasing the use of radars, alongside the car’s cameras, will help Autopilot detect not only the object directly in front of it, but also whatever is in front of that auto, Musk said. As the system confidence level rises, the braking force will gradually increase to full strength when it is approximately 99.99% certain of a collision. Rather, they will now work in conjunction with the radar to provide a more-complete picture of the world around the auto.
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The update will also make it more hard for drivers to keep their hands off the wheel while Autopilot is engaged. This information will be uploaded to the Tesla database to so that if several cars pass by an object safely it will be added to a “geocoded whitelist”. However, the Autopilot system is not created to control any parts of the vehicle, most importantly the brakes.
