Tesla appears to be backtracking on its decision to remove traditional radar sensors from its cars and its doubling down of camera-based autonomous driving systems – as US road safety regulators continue to investigate the technology.
US electric car giant Tesla is set to backflip on its decision to ditch radar sensors from its cars, less than two years after its first camera-based autonomous driving systems rolled out – and months after it went all-in on camera technology in Australia.
According to a submission to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulator, Tesla will again equip its US cars with radar sensors from “mid-January 2023”, although details of the system remain confidential until early February.
It is not yet clear when these changes will be applied to Australian-delivered Tesla cars, as all examples sold locally are built in Shanghai, China – not Fremont, California, like US and Canadian cars.
This news represents a significant backflip, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has claimed on multiple occasions radar (and lidar) sensors are not necessary to deliver full autonomous driving.
Introduced in the US in May 2021 – and in Australia this year – the camera suite, known as Tesla Vision, replaced radar sensors which were used for the car-maker’s advanced driver assistance systems, marketed as ‘Autopilot’ and ‘Full Self-Driving’.
Tesla’s camera-based technology has been fitted to all Australian-delivered Model 3s and Model Ys built in China from June 2022.
Last month, overseas reports suggested the Tesla Model 3 will be heavily updated next year, with the first examples of the revised electric sedan expected to enter production in China between July and September 2023.
The introduction of the camera-only system came as US safety regulators launched an investigation into 416,000 vehicles believed to be equipped with the system.
The investigation – opened by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – focuses on claims of “phantom braking” from Tesla owners who have reported their cars unexpectedly slam the brakes, having perceived a non-existent obstacle ahead.
Tesla’s decision to revert to radar sensors from camera-based technology is a significant back down from Mr Musk’s bold claims regarding ‘Tesla Vision’ in 2021.
“There’s no question in my mind that with a pure vision solution, we can make a car that is dramatically safer than the average person,” Mr Musk told Tesla investors in a quarterly earnings call.
“When your vision works, it works better than the best human because it’s like having eight cameras, it’s like having eyes in the back of your head, beside your head, and has three eyes of different focal distances looking forward. This is — and processing it at a speed that is superhuman.”
As previously reported, the car-maker’s controversial ‘Full Self-Driving’ next-generation autonomous driving technology went live in North America late last month amid numerous safety investigations and without approval from road safety regulators.
Tesla claims the system can accelerate, stop, steer and park the car without human intervention, although the driver is still required to be attentive and maintain control to respond to unforeseen scenarios or a failure of the technology.
The system was initially rolled out in September 2021 as a limited ‘beta’ service – allowing the company to gather real-time data from more than 160,000 users on public roads to help improve the technology – but it is now available from $US15,000 ($AU23,900) for all Tesla cars equipped with the necessary hardware.
Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving tech is not believed to comply with Australian road rules, although local Tesla customers can order the system for $10,100 which will unlock its capabilities when – or if – it is approved.
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