Tesla unveils full self-driving hardware

Tesla has today revealed that all Tesla vehicles produced in house – including Model 3 – will have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.

“Full autonomy will enable a Tesla to be substantially safer than a human driver, lower the financial cost of transportation for those who own a car, and provide low-cost on-demand mobility for those who do not,” says a statement by Tesla.

The way it will be safer, according to Tesla, is that “eight surround cameras now provide 360 degree visibility around the car at up to 250m of range”. Also, 12 updated ultrasonic sensors will complement this vision, allowing for detection of both hard and soft objects at nearly twice the distance of the prior system.

“A forward-facing radar with enhanced processing provides additional data on a redundant wavelength, capable of seeing through heavy rain, fog, dust and even the car ahead,” Tesla adds.

To make sense of all of the new data, a new onboard computer with more than 40 times the computing power of the previous generation runs the new Tesla-developed neural net for vision, sonar and radar processing software.

Model S and Model X vehicles with this new hardware are already in production.

Before activating the features enabled by the new hardware, Tesla says it will “further calibrate the system using millions of miles of real-world driving to ensure significant improvements to safety and convenience.”

While this is occurring, Teslas with new hardware will temporarily lack certain features currently available on Teslas with first-generation autopilot hardware, including some standard safety features such as automatic emergency breaking, collision warning, lane holding and active cruise control.

As these features are validated, Tesla will enable them over-the-air, together with an expanding set of new features.