All Tesla vehicles being produced now have full self-driving hardware
All Tesla vehicles being produced now have full
self-driving hardware
By Robert Ferris October 20, 2016
Tesla said Wednesday that all vehicles being produced in
its factory — including the Model 3 — will have hardware needed for full
self-driving capability at a "safety level substantially greater than that
of a human driver."
"It will take us some time to complete the
validation of the software and get regulatory approval but the important thing
is that the foundation is laid" for fully autonomous driving, said Tesla
CEO Elon Musk on a call with reporters.
Tesla spent a year testing the new hardware, and Musk
said the company's goal is to do "a demonstration drive of full autonomy
from LA to New York by the end of next year."
Musk declined to answer a reporter's question about how
the company will finance the cost of the upgrades.
Tesla said the vehicles now being produced will have
eight surround cameras that provide 360-degree visibility around the car at up
to 250 meters of range. In contrast, cars produced before Wednesday only had
one camera. The eight cameras will work with 12 updated ultrasonic sensors to
allow for detection of both hard and soft objects at nearly twice the distance
of the prior system, the company said.
To aid in seeing in heavy rain, fog, and dust, a
forward-facing radar with enhanced processing was added to provide additional
data about the world on a redundant wavelength.
The computing power will also increase by a factor of 40,
making the hardware capable of performing 12 trillion operations per second.
"It's basically a supercomputer in a car," Musk
said.
"This hardware, combined with Tesla's existing
over-the-air update capabilities, will allow the automaker to continue
improving its self-driving capabilities with minimal inconvenience for
owners," said Karl Brauer, executive publisher for Autotrader and Kelley
Blue Book, said in comments sent to CNBC. "It's a big up-front commitment
to self-driving technology that other automakers may not be willing to make at
this point."
However, Michael Harley, senior analyst for Kelley Blue
Book, said it is "actually not a challenge to offer a full range of Level
4 autonomous hardware to any new vehicle — this is essentially a collection of
cameras, sensors, radars and processors. The most critical piece of the puzzle,
which is missing from Tesla's announcement, is the car-to-car communication
that ensures full Level 4 autonomous riding is safe for passengers and
pedestrians alike."
Tesla cars made prior to the introduction of the new
hardware will still see improvements based on such things as fleet learning and
software updates, but their capability will ultimately be "limited by the
fundamental hardware."
This development follows a recent update to Tesla's
Autopilot system where the technology was tweaked to make greater use of the
car's on-board radar, and, among other things, included a warning system that
will disable the feature if drivers ignore multiple warnings to keep their
hands on the wheel.
The Autopilot system has drawn both praise and criticism,
especially since its alleged involvement in some high-profile crashes. Tesla
has defended the technology, saying it is safe when used as directed.
Musk defended the use of the Autopilot name for the
semi-autonomous system, pointing out "It does not represent self-driving
anymore than autopilot in an aircraft makes it self-flying."
He also was critical of media coverage of a Autopilot
accidents, contrasting the extensive coverage of the few Autopilot crashes that
have been reported with the "paucity of media coverage of the 1.2 million
people that die every year in manual crashes."
Continuing, Musk said it "does not reflect well upon
the media. It really doesn't."
He added, that "if in writing some article that's
negative, you effectively dissuade people from using an autonomous vehicle, you
are killing people."
The news comes ahead of Tesla's earnings on Oct. 26, and
an expected Tesla/SolarCity product announcement on Oct. 28.
Tesla and SolarCity also are expected to release
additional financing information on the merger on Nov. 1, and shareholders will
vote on the deal on Nov. 17.
Comments
Post a Comment