A year ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stunned the automotive world by that henceforth, all of his company’s vehicles would be shipped with the hardware necessary for “full self-driving.” By 2019, Tesla drivers would be able to sleep in their cars, he suggested. Musk one-upped that a few months later, vowing to demonstrate a completely autonomous, cross-country trip in a Tesla by the end of 2017.But since then, the company has fallen behind in updating its flagship semi-autonomous driving system, Autopilot, irking some among its legions of obsessed fans, and raising questions about Tesla’s ability to deliver on the promise of a fully self-driving car. In an August earnings call, Musk admitted the cross-country trip may be delayed. “It is certainly possible that I will have egg on my face on that front,” he said. It’s been nearly five months since the last Autopilot updateSince Musk’s announcement, Autopilot 2.0’s over-the-air software updates have been infrequent and scattered, Tesla owners say. For the first half of 2017, there were updates generally every three weeks, such as the ability to use Autosteer at on the highway and 35 mph on local roads.
It’s been nearly five months since the last significant Autopilot update, and many of the features from the previous version of the advanced driver assist system (ADAS) are still missing.Perks such as rain-sensing wipers have yet to be added, but more operational tasks, such as the ability to read speed limit signs and differentiate between vehicle types on the road, are also absent. Other features, like automated lane changes on the highway, better steering on tight roads, and auto-summon, but have yet to be rolled out. Tesla has since from its website.In his announcement a year ago, of a Tesla leaving a garage, driving across town, and finding its own parking spot — all autonomously.
While there was someone behind the wheel during the demonstration, the implication was clear: this was a car that will drive itself, and sooner than you think possible.But “Enhanced Autopilot,” as it was called, wasn’t complete. As a result, Tesla vehicles built since October 2016 have many fewer safety and convenience features enabled than in older models. Musk acknowledged as much during his announcement, noting that “it will probably sometime next year” when Tesla cars with the newer hardware suite caught up to the previous versions in functionality. In early 2017, that most of those features would be rolling out soon, but months later, many are still missing.Given the lag in Autopilot updates, some Tesla owners now question whether the company can deliver on what’s ultimately been promised: full self-driving. “It just leaves you with no faith that they are anywhere on that path,” said Ian Jordan, an electrical engineer from Seattle who owns a Model S.
Understanding Tesla’s self-driving features: The Autopilot. But the feature more related to convenience than safety, like traffic-aware cruise control, are part of the $2,500 Autopilot. The hardware and safety features of Tesla Autopilot come standard in Tesla's new Model 3 electric car, but 'convenience features' such as self-parking and automatic lane changing, will cost owners extra.
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“Today they can’t reliably detect a speed limit sign, so it just seems like an enormous gap.”. “It just leaves you with no faith that they are anywhere on that path.”Jordan, who is also an investor in Tesla, said his Model S would routinely “freak out and dive for oncoming traffic” when Autopilot becomes confused by certain intersections in his neighborhood. “Don’t know what it is,” he said. “Every time.” Unlike most other major driver assistance systems, Tesla owners can decide to turn on Autopilot regardless of where they are driving; other ADAS, like Cadillac’s Super Cruise, restrict use to divided highways. In order to gather the maximum amount of data, it would behoove Tesla to encourage customers to use Autopilot as much as possible in safe conditions.That’s probably because the company’s ambitions to offer full self-driving depends on its drivers using Autopilot all the time.
Before Teslas can start driving autonomously, the company needs to collect a lot of data to prove to customers (and regulators) that the technology is safe and reliable. So, its cars run Autopilot in “shadow mode” in order for Tesla to gather statistical data to show false positives and false negatives of the software. In shadow mode, the car isn’t taking any action, but it registers when it would have taken action.It also casts a spotlight on the major difference between Tesla and practically every other automaker and tech company pursuing autonomous driving: Tesla is breaking with its competitors in the self-driving space by declining to include LIDAR sensors under the assumption the equipment will be too expensive for personal ownership. Musk has that LIDAR sensors “don’t make sense in a car context.” Instead, the cars rely on eight cameras for 360-degree vision, as well as 12 ultrasonic sensors and forward-facing radar. Photo: TeslaMost companies assume self-driving cars will be shared and used in restricted, geofenced areas, like downtowns or college campuses. Tesla is banking on autonomous cars being cheap enough (and reliable enough) for people to own.
But to get there, it needs to convince people that Autopilot is a better, safer way to drive. As a highly advanced version of adaptive cruise control, it has a lot going for it. But there are internal and external forces that suggest things aren’t going as planned. As a highly advanced version of adaptive cruise control, it has a lot going for it.Internally, Tesla has experienced a lot of upheaval as it relates to Autopilot.
The company’s team of engineers working on Autopilot to Musk’s announcement last year, believing Autopilot lacked the capability to deliver full self-driving,. In addition, that Musk reportedly brushed aside certain concerns as negligible compared to Autopilot's overall lifesaving potential, but employees who worked on Autopilot struggled to make the same leap.A major cause of this conflict has apparently been the way Musk chose to market Autopilot.
The decision to refer to Autopilot as a “full self-driving” solution — language that makes multiple appearances on the company’s website, especially during the process of ordering a car — was the spark for multiple departures, including Sterling Anderson, who was in charge of the Autopilot team during last year’s announcement, the Journal reported. In June, Chris Lattner running software for Tesla’s Autopilot division after just six months.Externally, federal regulators were still sifting through the wreckage (both literal and digital) from the 2016 crash that killed a man driving a Tesla Model S while using Autopilot. The National Traffic Safety Board that Autopilot contributed to the crash and recommended that all automakers, Tesla included, consider more serious limitations to where its semi-autonomous systems can be used and how they market such products.There are other factors likely contributing to Tesla’s infrequent Autopilot updates. The company is in the midst of with the Model 3. Customers and investors are watching intently to see if Tesla can deliver on its promise of a mass-market, battery-electric car. And the effects of Tesla’s decision to part ways with the supplier Mobileye in 2016 are still being processed. With the introduction of the second-generation Autopilot in October 2016, Tesla eliminated Mobileye’s computer vision technology powered by its EyeQ3 chip.
The company replaced that with its own computer vision system called “Tesla Vision” powered by Nvidia’s Drive PX2 onboard computer.Autopilot 2.0 is “still missing a lot of the functionality of the original version that relied more heavily on Mobileye from their vision system,” said Sam Abuelsamid, a senior research analyst at Navigant. “And from everything that we’ve seen, it does not sound like they have caught up to where Mobileye was a year and a half ago.”. “it does not sound like they have caught up to where Mobileye was a year and a half ago.”Tesla creates the impression that these are changes that can be fixed with over-the-air software updates, an area where the company has proven to be more nimble and willing to take risks than legacy OEMs — and a feature that customers rate highly. But autonomous driving, especially Level 4 and 5 that Musk has promised, requires a very specific hardware suite in order to be safe and reliable.
Recently, it was reported that Tesla quietly with more computing power to help achieve its goal of full automation, which would seem to contradict Musk’s October 2016 vow that all vehicles would be shipped with “full self-driving capabilities.”Tesla argues that customer safety undergirds all its decisions, and that it prioritizes features that would have the most immediate impact on that. Nonetheless, a spokesperson acknowledged that its Autopilot updates have been few and far between, and that the company was working to correct that.' For our customers who opted to purchase our Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving packages, we’re working super hard on new features and rapid progress is definitely being made,” a spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. “As is the case with any new technology, validation of first-of-its-kind technology is subject to a high number of variables which can impact product readiness timelines significantly. While it's taken longer than we originally expected to roll out all Enhanced Autopilot features, the product already provides significant assistance to drivers, and this year our platform was re-engineered to facilitate improved data collection, mapping, and fleet learning – important foundational changes which we expect to enable more dramatic improvements for our customers over time. With safety at the core of everything we do and every decision we make, we will be rolling out advanced new features as soon as they’re validated, and we’re grateful for everyone’s patience.”.
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“We’re working super hard on new features.”But as Tesla expands to the mass market, that attitude may not be enough. “The customers they’ve had up till this point are clearly within the early adopter group,” Abuelsamid said. “They are willing to cut Tesla much more slack than I think a typical customer would be, in terms of both functionality and quality. Tesla really needs to get all that sorted out if they’re going to become a mainstream brand.”Any blowback from customers and critics so far has been mild. The company continues amid a soft luxury car market, and Tesla’s stock continues to climb. And despite serious questions about the company’s ability to deliver the promised number of Model 3s, Tesla’s brand remains relatively untarnished.
Fans of the taboo-shattering company seem to have internalized the fact that Musk’s mouth can sometimes outpace his company’s ability to deliver. If anything, it makes them love him more — even if it makes him seem like a buffoonish character from HBO’s Silicon Valley.“I want to believe he's Henry Ford,” one commenter on Reddit wrote in a recent post about the lack of Autopilot updates, “but it's really hard to shake the feeling he's.”Updated October 24th, 3:11PM ET: Tesla released an improvement to Autosteer last Monday. This story has been changed to reflect that there hasn’t been a significant Autopilot update in nearly five months.
And much, much more!The new Version 9 update is coming to vehicles and it's going to offer sweeping changes and a ton of new features, including important things like 'Navigate on Autopilot,' video games, and other 'productivity tools.' For those who have cars with the newer version of Tesla hardware (HW2.5), its forward camera may also offer dashcam-like functionality. One owner, who apparently is a beta tester, shared screenshots and information about the dramatic update (embedded below). More about the Tesla Dash Cam. According to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk yesterday, the update should be shipping across the entire fleet soon. Said he, ' Going over final tweaks tonight. Hopefully in wide release end of week.'
That's certainly good news! Now, let's take a look at what owners should see. Here are some of the official update notes owners will see on their screens (Complete release notes at bottom of post).Version 9.0 introduces new applications including Calendar, Energy and Web Browser which can be accessed from the application launcher in the bottom bar. For those with Enhanced Autopilot, we are also introducing Navigate on Autopilot (Beta) — our newest Autopilot convenience feature, designed to get you to your destination more efficiently by guiding your car on and off the highway.
Finally, we have made improvements to the Tesla mobile app, Status Bar, Navigation, Climate, Media, and Seatbelt Card in addition to several safety features.The Navigate on AutoPilot may be one of the more popular new features, at least in the U.S., the only territory where it will function so far. Basically, it will ' automatically steer toward and take the correct highway interchanges and exits based on your destination,' in addition to suggesting lane changes that will help decrease travel time. This may not be available on every stretch of highway just yet. The notes caution, ' For each route where Navigate on Autopilot is available.' (emphasis ours).
Sounds pretty good, right? And that's even before you take into account changes to the company's app, which will also improve the ownership experience.
According to the release notes you can, '. Start navigation in your car by using the share button in your favorite phone apps.' As well as allow passengers to take control of the media player. Among other handy features, V9 also lets you begin any new updates from the app, instead of forcing you to go to the car and initiating updates from the car's screen.And then there is the new dash cam functionality.
According to the notes, after one prepares a USB drive according to instructions, footage from the front-facing camera will be stored on the USB. Apparently, exact instructions can be found in the, though they are not there yet. We assume the document will be updated upon release. Of course, as, and as you can see in the video at the top of the page, there are a number of Atari video games that can be played on the screen. While we haven't seen Pole Position yet, it does appear to include Missile Command and Centipede. No doubt we'll have some nicely produced footage of these to share with you soon. Another new feature is a web browser that can be used (by a passenger, obviously) when the vehicle is in motion.Another feature worth a mention is Blindspot Warning: '.
The lane line on the instrument panel now turns red when your turn signal is engaged and a vehicle or obstacle is detected in your target lane.' This one is long overdue and should go some way toward improving safety. Just remember to (always) use your turn signal when changing lanes.There are any number of other small changes to the user interface (UI) which owners will appreciate. We've embedded a number of photos (below) from Twitter user Marc Benton which show them off.Ohhhh snap!!!!
Version 9 getting sent to testers, I bet wide release will be the end of the week like Elon said!— Marc Benton (@marcbenton). Version 9.0 - Model S/X pre-APVersion 9.0 introduces updates to the touchscreen and Tesla mobile app which are designed for an easier and more convenient driving experience. We have also made improvements to Climate, Navigation, Media, and Controls in addition to several safety enhancements.Version 9.0 - Model S/X AP1Version 9.0 introduces updates to the touchscreen and Tesla mobile app which are designed for an easier and more convenient driving experience.
We have also made improvements to Climate, Navigation, Media, and Controls in addition to several safety enhancements.Version 9.0 - Model S/X AP2&2.5Version 9.0 introduces updates to the touchscreen and Tesla mobile app designed for an easier and more convenient experience. For those with Enhanced Autopilot, we are also introducing Navigate on Autopilot (Beta) — our newest Autopilot convenience feature, designed to get you to your destination more efficiently by guiding your car on and off the highway.
We have also made improvements to Climate, Navigation, Media, and Controls in addition to several safety enhancements.Version 9.0 - Model 3Version 9.0 introduces new applications including Calendar, Energy and Web Browser which can be accessed from the application launcher in the bottom bar. For those with Enhanced Autopilot, we are also introducing Navigate on Autopilot (Beta) — our newest Autopilot convenience feature, designed to get you to your destination more efficiently by guiding your car on and off the highway.
Finally, we have made improvements to the Tesla mobile app, Status Bar, Navigation, Climate, Media, and Seatbelt Card in addition to several safety features.Navigate on Autopilot (Beta) - Model S/X with AP2&2.5, US ONLY!Introducing Navigate on Autopilot (Beta) — our newest Autopilot convenience feature, designed to get you to your destination more efficiently by guiding your car on and off the highway. Navigate on Autopilot intelligently suggests lane changes to keep you on your route in addition to making adjustments so you don’t get stuck behind slow cars or trucks.When Navigate on Autopilot is active, a single blue line indicates the path ahead, keeping your car in the lane. Gray lines highlight lane changes for a more efficient driving route. Navigate on Autopilot will also automatically steer toward and take the correct highway interchanges and exits based on your destination.You can enable Navigate on Autopilot by going to Controls Autopilot and first enabling Autosteer. For each route where Navigate on Autopilot is available, you have the option of enabling the feature by pressing the button located in the Navigation Turn List.Navigate on Autopilot (Beta)- Model 3, US ONLY! Introducing Navigate on Autopilot (Beta) — our newest Autopilot convenience feature, designed to get you to your destination more efficiently by guiding your car on and off the highway.
Navigate on Autopilot intelligently suggests lane changes to keep you on your route in addition to making adjustments so you don’t get stuck behind slow cars or trucks.When Navigate on Autopilot is active, a single blue line indicates the path ahead, keeping your car in the lane. Gray lines highlight lane changes for a more efficient driving route. Navigate on Autopilot will also automatically steer toward and take the correct highway interchanges and exits based on your destination.You can enable Navigate on Autopilot by going to Controls Autopilot and first enabling Autosteer.
For each route where Navigate on Autopilot is available, you have the option of enabling the feature by pressing the button located in the Navigation Turn List.Combining Autosteer and Auto Lane Change - All cars with any APAutosteer (Beta) and Auto Lane Change settings are now combined under Controls Autopilot.