After a fatal crash last month and one hospitalisation earlier this month, Tesla’s autopilot has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
The autopilot was first introduced in 2014 with a front facing camera, front-facing radar and a 360-degree ultrasonic sensor. It was first updated in October 2015 with ‘Autopilot update’ (v7.0) with features such as Autosteer and Autopark.
Sources close to the matter say that the autopilot feature will get another major update, called AutoPilot 2.0 with some new and improved features. However, Autopilot will keep the current front-facing radar, but will deploy a forward facing the triple camera to ‘see’ the road ahead. It will also be equipped with improved radar technology with additional sensors on the corners of the car.
Rumours are that Tesla started installing new software in cars this week and will also get improved location maps and computer hardware. The most exciting thing in the update is that it will take the car one step closer having completely autonomous self-driving capabilities.
The AutoPilot 2.0 updates will apparently include a new sensor suite that will enable “level 3 autonomous driving” and potentially level 4 fully autonomous driving in the near future. Tesla is also rumoured to be working with Nvidia towards the development of a computing platform for self-driving cars.
Nvidia already supplies Tesla with its Tegra processors, which power the centre console, infotainment, navigation and instrument-cluster systems of the Model S and X.
Nvidia’s next-generation visual computing platform for cars, Nvidia Drive PX 2 is expected to launch in autumn this year.
Tesla saw its first fatal accident in Florida in July when the driver, Joshua Brown, died after autopilot sensors on a Model S vehicle failed to distinguish a white tractor-trailer crossing the highway against a bright sky.
Last month, Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled his ‘Master Plan, Part Deux’ for his electric car business, saying it wouldn’t focus purely on producing cars. Instead, the four-part plan for worldwide ascendancy focuses on making the company work on sustainable energy projects.
The plans include integrating energy generation and storage; expanding Tesla to create electric trucks and public transport; fully autonomous vehicles; and finally to allow cities where cars are shared as autonomous taxis.
