A couple of months ago, Tesla released a version 8.0 software update, which came with a new radar processing technology that can directly push over-the-air to all its vehicles equipped with the first generation Autopilot hardware.
One of the main features of the new radar processing capacity is the ability for the system to see ahead of the car in front of you and basically track two cars ahead on the road. The radar is able to bounce underneath or around the vehicle in front of the Tesla Model S or X and see where the driver potentially cannot, because the leading vehicle is obstructing the view.
This new technology has now been proved in a real world situation in an accident on the highway in the Netherlands, where a dashcam of a Tesla Model X shows the Autopilot’s forward collision warning predicting an accident before it could be detected by the driver!
In the video below, you can hear the Tesla Autopilot’s Forward Collision Warning sending out an alert for seemingly no reason, but a fraction of a second later you’ll understand why when the lead vehicle in front of the Tesla crashes into an SUV that wasn’t visible from the standpoint of the Tesla driver, but apparently it was for the Autopilot’s radar.
Hans Noordsij, the Tesla owner who shared the footage of the accident via his Twitter account, said that everyone involved in the accident “turned out to be OK” despite the fact that the black SUV rolled over a couple of times. He further adds that the Autopilot automatically applied the brakes before he could do it himself.
This real world situation proves the efficiency of Tesla’s Autopilot 8.0 and how the radar can detect danger before the driver and how it works hand-in-hand with the autonomous emergency braking system to eliminate the risks of an impact!
Thanks Evo Malaysia for the tip!
Source: Hans Noordsij, Electrek.co via Motor1
