Tesla Is Removing Radar From Their Vehicles in Favor of “Tesla Vision”
Tesla is getting rid of ultrasonic sensors and forward-facing radar on its cars to instead be replaced by new technology.
With each new update to
Tesla’s
Autopilot technology comes a new set of concerns
from safety-conscious drivers, but could the EV company’s new “Tesla Vision” technology be the key to making it work?Across the board, Tesla is opting to temporarily remove ultrasonic sensors (USS) from the Model 3 and Model Y in order to realign its autopilot features to “Tesla Vision” or pure camera feed technology. Read on with the car ownership experts at Jerry to learn more.
What is Tesla Vision?
According to
Elektrek
, Tesla Vision is an “end-to-end computer vision system.” Put more simply, it is a series of software-powered cameras The original Autopilot configuration consisted of eight cameras, a front-facing radar, and several ultrasonic sensors placed all around the vehicle. In theory, having multiple forms of data available to the Autopilot technology would be better for making real-time decisions, but Tesla argues that a vision-based system is the closest to what humans on the road also use, and is therefore the most accurate.
Another story in
Tesla Oracle
states that Tesla is removing ultrasonic radar technology from new production Modle 3/Y vehicles starting October 2022 in order to re-align vehicles to solely use Tesla Vision. What does this mean for Tesla’s Full-Self Driving program?
In the short term, vehicles without radar will experience some limited Autopilot and
Full-Self Driving
features. Autosteer speeds, for example, were limited to only 75 mph in Tesla Vision vehicles until May of this year. USS will instead be replaced with artificial neural nets, which Tesla will roll out via software updates. If you purchased one of the new Tesla vehicles not equipped with USS, features like Autopark, Park Assist, Summon, and Smart Summon will be temporarily unavailable.
Why Tesla is choosing to eliminate radar
Tesla Oracle said that the shift was primarily spurned by Tesla’s former Director of AI, Andrej Karpathy, but CEO Elon Musk himself has been openly critical of and
removing radar technology
for years. In addition to streamlining the data that the software needs to intake and process, eliminating USS also conveniently cuts costs for Tesla and simplifies the manufacturing process.
Tesla previously relied on third-party radar and ultrasonic sensor providers for its Autopilot program, but eliminating them altogether can speed up production times.
Only time will tell how Tesla’s Autopilot technology will change as a result of this shift, but it surely will be an interesting space to watch in the automotive world.
Safe driving can lead to big savings
In order to qualify for Tesla’s Full-Self Driving Beta program, Tesla owners must have a Safety Score of 80 or above. In addition to giving you access to some pretty cool technology, safe driving can also unlock lower car insurance rates.
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