Tesla has made improvements to automatic emergency braking
Tesla
Tesla has introduced notable upgrades to its Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) system in a recent FSD Beta update. Initially, FSD Beta 11.3, which only went out to Tesla employees, included a significant update to Tesla's automatic emergency braking.
However, when FSD Beta 11.3.1 was released to public testers, the release notes significantly differed from the employee version, leaving some uncertainty regarding the status of AEB enhancements.
Other features were removed from the release notes in FSD Beta 11.3.1, including Voice Drive Notes, which was clearly still available in the public beta. It's not clear whether the changes to the release notes was a mistake or if Tesla chosen to highlight changes between 11.3 and 11.3.1.
AEB Now Detects Vehicles Moving Across Tesla's Path
The company's impact report has recently confirmed that the improved AEB system was incorporated into the FSD Beta. The enhancements include detecting and responding to vehicles moving perpendicular to the Tesla. This advanced feature aims to reduce the likelihood of accidents occurring when other vehicles cross Tesla's path, such as running red lights or cutting the Tesla off.
This development represents a significant leap forward in AEB technology, as traditional systems mainly focus on detecting and reacting to objects and vehicles directly in front of the car. With the ability to detect crossing vehicles, Tesla's upgraded AEB system offers increased safety and assistance to drivers.
Expanded Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) to handle vehicles that cross ego's path. This includes cases where other vehicles run their red light or turn across ego's path, stealing the right-of-way. Replay of previous collisions of this type suggests that 49% of the events would be mitigated by the new behavior. This improvement is now active in both manual driving and autopilot operation.
Safety Improvements Tested Extensively with Fleet Miles
Tesla has rigorously tested and validated these AEB advancements by utilizing millions of fleet miles in shadow mode. The Tesla Vision system, which consists of eight cameras, allows Tesla vehicles to identify and react to oncoming vehicles well beyond the range of traditional sensors. In addition, the Automatic Emergency Braking system offers a loud warning and rapid braking when a Tesla vehicle senses an impending collision, and the driver has not intervened.
These AEB enhancements demonstrate Tesla's commitment to improving road safety and minimizing accident risks. In 2021, US pedestrian and road-user fatalities reached their highest levels, with a 53% increase since 2012 and over 75% of deaths at night. Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y have all received five-star ratings from Euro NCAP, including for nighttime pedestrian crash avoidance. Furthermore, the Model 3 and Model Y have earned a "Superior" rating from IIHS for the nighttime performance of their pedestrian AEB systems.
Improved AEB System Expected to Reach All Tesla Owners
The availability of the improved AEB for all Tesla owners remains uncertain, as FSD Beta is currently separate from other updates. However, considering Tesla's history of prioritizing safety features, it is likely that the upgraded Automatic Emergency Braking system will eventually be made accessible to all users. This move would further solidify Tesla's position as a manufacturer of some of the safest vehicles available today.
Moreover, Tesla's commitment to vehicle safety and continuous software updates demonstrates its dedication to its customers. As Tesla learns more about real-world driving scenarios and collects data from its fleet, it will continue refining and enhancing its driver assistance systems. The result is a safer and more reliable driving experience for Tesla owners and other road users.
Integrating the improved AEB system into Tesla's FSD Beta may pave the way for more advanced driver assistance features. In addition, by incorporating cutting-edge technology and prioritizing safety, Tesla sets a high standard for other automakers to follow in creating vehicles that protect their occupants and other road users.
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Tesla has invested billions of dollars over the years toward vehicle autonomy. The mission continues as Elon Musk and Tesla now prepare to unveil their ride-hailing product, Robotaxi this August. Or, as Musk called it on Tuesday, Tesla CyberCab.
Early Days
Five years ago, during Tesla’s Autonomy Investor Day in April 2019, Elon Musk said he felt “very confident predicting autonomous robotaxis for Tesla in the following year [2020]”. At the time, Musk added a bolder claim, predicting that Tesla wouldn’t even make cars with steering wheels or pedals by 2022. While timeliness may not be Musk’s strong suit, he has a track record for getting things done that others were unwilling to try or thought were impossible. Musk later admitted he can be overly optimistic and said “sometimes I am not on time, but I get it done.”
Now, 5 years later, we have the robotaxi unveiling scheduled for August 8th. After the release of FSD v12, it’s clear that we’re much closer to autonomy than we were in 2019, although FSD v12 is still a far cry from full autonomy.
While Tesla still has the robotaxi unveiling scheduled for August, Tesla announced yesterday that it’d be prioritizing a simpler “next-gen” model that could be released by early 2025.
Latest Updates
On the conference call, Musk added that Tesla now has over 300 million miles driven with FSD v12 since it was launched just last month. He added that it's becoming “very clear that the vision-based approach with end-to-end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy”.
Tesla said it has been investing in the hardware and software ecosystems necessary to achieve vehicle autonomy and a ride-hailing service. The company is confident that it can establish a scalable and profitable autonomous driving business by employing a vision-only architecture.
think of it [Tesla] as combination of Airbnb and Uber meaning that there will be some number of cars that Tesla owns itself and operates
Tesla = Uber + AirBnb
Later on, Elon Musk unveiled that the new service will operate and result in a mix between Uber and Airbnb where the Tesla driver decides if and when he wants his Tesla to be used and by whom. Tesla stated:
“We believe the Tesla software experience is best-in-class across all our products, and plan to seamlessly layer ride-hailing into the Tesla App.”
Tesla’s CEO clarified that the owners will be able to add or remove their car from the fleet “whenever they want” adding that it will be up to them to decide if they want to only let the car be used “by friends and family or only by five-star users or by anyone at any time”. The flexible program will, just like Airbnb, allow the owners to take the car out of the market when they want.
The upcoming ride-hailing service will enable users to easily request a Tesla vehicle, control the car's temperature, monitor its real-time location, and adjust the audio system. The only question is when.
“We have updated our future vehicle line-up to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025”. This was one of the key sentences that were part of Tesla’s deck shared on Tuesday directly before its financial results.
Since Reuters’ report a few weeks ago saying Tesla had “scrapped” the highly expected cheaper model— which Elon quickly denied on X —retail and institutional shareholders started asking for more details on Tesla’s product roadmap for 2024 and beyond.
In the earnings conference call, Elon Musk reiterated that Tesla expects to launch the next model in “early 2025, if not late this year”.
“We've updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of previously mentioned start of production in the second half of 2025. So, we expect it to be more like the early 2025, if not late this year. “
Over concerns of temporary production halts to update the factories for these new models, Musk said that Tesla will produce new models with certain aspects from their next-generation platform and current models. This will reduce the number of changes needed on production lines and allow Tesla not only to ramp up production faster but also to get the vehicles to market quicker.
Model Y Redesign
Tesla appears to hit that their next-gen vehicle will be less “next-gen” than they were initially aiming for, but to get a new vehicle out the door by late 2024, the process would already have to be in motion. Tesla may likely be referring to the redesigned Model Y, which is expected to reuse many parts from the new Model 3. Earlier this year, Tesla said that the redesigned Model Y will not be released this year, so it makes sense that they’re looking to speed up that production.
Tesla CEO concluded by saying that these measures will allow Tesla to reach a capacity of over 3 million units. Tesla produced 1.84 million vehicles in 2023. However, this year they’re ramping up Cybertruck production and introduced the new Model 3 into new markets.
And we think this should allow us to get to over 3 million vehicles of capacity when realized to the full extent.
Tesla reported on Tuesday its earnings results followed by a conference call where it teased its upcoming Robotaxi and its next-generation platform saying its “purpose-built Robotaxi product will continue to pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy”.
Earlier in the day, Tesla announced the new Performance variant of its sedan Model 3 with deliveries in the United States starting already next month. The new version starts at $45,490 (after applying the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit) and goes from 0 to 60mph in 2.9 seconds.
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