Tesla sparked controversy by vowing to drop its radar and ultrasonic sensors in favor of a camera-only approach to its driver assistance systems, but that may be reversing course.
Electrek reports Tesla has told the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it plans to market a new radar starting in mid-January 2023, although it is publicly touting a camera-only system dubbed Tesla Vision.
This follows a report from June that said Tesla had filed its plans with the FCC, which in turn granted the automaker confidential treatment to keep details of the technology secret for six months. The company has since filed this extension, according to the latest reports.
Tesla removed radar from its vehicles last year and began phasing out ultrasonic sensors this year, which will result in some vehicles losing functionality currently supported by the sensor until camera-based systems can be upgraded to compensate.
The company said that with the removal of the sensor, it is simultaneously rolling out a “vision-based occupancy network” – previously only used in vehicles with Full Self-Driving Beta – which it claims gives its vehicles high-definition spatial positioning, greater visibility and the ability to identify and distinguish between objects.
CEO Elon Musk told Electrek in June 2021 it stopped using the radar but would consider using it again if it was “very high resolution”.
“The probability of safety will be higher with pure vision than vision+radar, not lower. Visibility has gotten so good that radar actually reduces signal/noise,” Mr. Musk said.
“A very high resolution radar is better than pure vision, but such a radar does not exist. I mean vision with high resolution radar is better than pure vision.”
Tesla announced in 2016 that all of its future vehicles would “have the necessary hardware for fully self-driving capabilities at a level of safety far greater than that of a human driver”, citing the use of eight surround cameras, front-facing radar and 12 ultrasonics. sensor.
But Tesla’s efforts to achieve true Level 5 capabilities have yet to come to fruition – that goal has proven elusive for basically all companies – and the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems are considered Level 2 or 2+.
Mr Musk said earlier this year it would take until next year’s update for the company’s driver-assistance technology to “be able to show regulators that the car is safer, even more, than a normal human”, and the fully self-driving car beta will “be able to take you from your home to your workplace, your friend’s house, to the grocery store with you touching the wheel”.
But sometimes he has made contradictory statements in the same breath. In the same earnings call, Mr. Musk said: “Like we’re not saying it’s ready enough to have no one behind the wheel. It’s just that you barely have to touch the controls, the controller of the vehicle.”
He went on to say: “But I think we’re going to be pretty close… that you won’t have anyone in the car by the end of the year. And definitely, without question, whatever is on my mind, next year.”
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