Tesla Improves Automatic Emergency Braking With Update

By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla will introduce an enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking in the latest FSD Beta, v11.3
Tesla will introduce an enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking in the latest FSD Beta, v11.3
Tesla

Tesla is introducing improvements to its Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) system that goes beyond the standard AEB functionality. This new system includes the ability to detect and respond to vehicles that are not only in front of the car but ones that cross the car's path.

AEB is an important safety feature that can help reduce the risk of accidents and save road life. The system uses sensors and cameras to monitor the road ahead and identify potential obstacles, including other vehicles, pedestrians, and objects. When the system detects that a collision is about to occur, it will warn the driver with visual and/or audible alerts. If the driver does not respond, it will apply the brakes automatically to slow down or stop the vehicle.

How Tesla is Advancing AEB

Tesla's improvements to Automatic Emergency Braking system go beyond the standard AEB functionality, adding the ability to detect and react to vehicles that cross the car's path or "steals the right of way," such as a vehicle that runs a red light or cuts off the Tesla. According to Tesla, nearly half of the collisions of this nature would be avoided with this newly expanded system. From Tesla's release notes in the upcoming FSD Beta v11.3, Tesla states:

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.

While the latest update has not gone out to the public, we have seen countless examples of Teslas already reacting to vehicles that turn in front of or swerve in front of them.

History of AEB

Automatic Emergency Braking is a safety technology that has been around since the mid-2000s and has become an increasingly common feature in newer vehicles. AEB is also known by other names, such as Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) on Honda vehicles and Active Brake Assist on Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Bosch and Volvo were among the early pioneers in the field.

Bosch introduced its Predictive Safety System in 2006, and Volvo launched its City Safety system in 2008. Since then, many other car manufacturers and technology companies have developed their AEB systems, incorporating a range of sensors, algorithms, and machine learning techniques to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the technology.

Learnings From FSD Beta

The AEB advancement is listed in the most recent FSD Beta release notes, v11.3. However, the upgraded system will respond in FSD or with all Autopilot features off. This is a significant safety advancement that Tesla will be providing, free of charge, during the next major over-the-air update for FSD Beta users.

Tesla is clearly taking everything it's learning from FSD Beta and its improved vision system and applying it to other areas, much like how it introduced Auto Cancel turn signals. With Auto Cancel Turn Signals, Tesla learned when to turn off your turn signal with its FSD Beta progress, and now you have the option to let the vehicle to turn off your turn signal for you after switching lanes

Improved AEB for All?

FSD Beta currently remains on a separate track from Tesla's other updates, which means not everyone will get the improvements to AEB, at least initially. Given Tesla's history with safety features, we expect that Tesla will eventually add this feature to non-FSD Beta builds or merge FSD and non-FSD builds so that all owners have access to the improved Automatic Emergency Braking.

It's already been shown that Teslas on Autopilot are ten times safer than human drivers and 2.5 times safer with Autopilot disengaged. It's due to features like this that continue to make the safest car on the planet even safer.

Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time
Note the weather under the arrival time
Not a Tesla App

You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

The weather pop-up above the ETA
The weather pop-up above the ETA
Not a Tesla App

One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a 3-hour radar overlay centered on either your vehicle or your route. You can play or pause the animation of the weather overlay, but it’s useful to see the direction the storm is moving in.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, as long as you’re not zoomed out too far. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Tesla Updates Santa Mode & Rainbow Road to Use Ambient Lighting and Updates SteamOS [VIDEO]

By Karan Singh
Flo / Roberto Bonato

While Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update brought many new features, including Apple Watch Support, Cross Traffic Alerts, Weather Overlays, Search Along Route, and others, there are also several smaller items in this update that didn’t get much attention.

Ambient Lighting Now Affects Easter Eggs

The 2024+ Model 3 and Cybertruck both come equipped with ambient lighting, and Tesla is now taking advantage of this custom lighting feature by incorporating it into several easter eggs.

Rainbow Road: If you head over to Apps > ToyBox > Rainbow Road, you’ll find a new option available that allows the ambient lighting in the vehicle to also change shades while Rainbow Road is active. The Rainbow Road easter egg is a tribute to the iconic course course in Nintendo’s Mario Kart.

Check out the feature in action below:

Santa Mode: Just in time for Christmas, Tesla has improved Santa Mode by cycling the ambient lighting between Christmas colors. Similar to Rainbow Road, the use of ambient lighting for the easter egg is optional and can be enabled under Apps > ToyBox > Santa Mode.

When using Santa Mode with ambient lighting turned on, the lights will cycle just between Christmas colors, red, green and white, instead of the full rainbow. There’s a video of the feature below:

Update: It looks like it affects other Easter eggs as well, such as turning orange when using Romance mode.

SteamOS (Beta) Update

The Model S and Model X vehicles that support Steam gaming are receiving a Steam app update in the holiday update as well. This update could end up being very interesting, but for now Tesla says that the SteamOS, which also runs on Valve’s Steam Deck has been updated to version 3.6.

Valve outlines a wide range of fixes and improvements in their release notes for version 3.6, but Tesla simply states that the OS update includes performance enhancements and improved game compatibility.

The SteamOS hasn’t been updated on the Model S and X for quite a while, so we believe there may be more to this besides performance improvements and fixes. We’ll be looking to share some insights into this in the near future.

So, there you have it—three new features in the Holiday update that have mostly gone under the radar. While they may not apply to everyone, there are plenty of other cool features in the Holiday Update, like the arrival of Dynamic Road Closure Routing and Nearby Parking, that are coming to every vehicle, so go check out the full release notes.

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