Tesla Autopilot

Yesterday, we reported on a Tesla owner almost crashing on video trying to recreate the fatal Autopilot accident that happened in Mountain View last month.

Now, another Tesla owner recreated the situation at the exact same spot as the tragic accident – confirming previous potential explanations.
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Tesla and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are both investigating the fatal accident involving a Model X Autopilot in Mountain View last month, but now another Tesla owner also conducted his own little investigation into the accident by following a similar scenario on Autopilot and almost crashed on video by doing so.
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After a fatal accident involving a Tesla Model X that caught on fire after the crash came under investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) earlier this week, Tesla issued a statement elaborating on the circumstances of the crash, but it couldn’t confirm the use of Autopilot.

The company has now reviewed the data logs and confirmed that Autopilot was activated during the crash.
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Tesla recently updated its onboard media computer, but the automaker also has a separate custom Autopilot computer to power its driver assist features and eventually, its self-driving capabilities.

Today, we get out first look at Tesla’s latest version of this Autopilot (2.5) computer in current Model 3, Model S, and Model X vehicles.
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We are just starting to understand the potential of Tesla Autopilot 2.0 following the latest software update that the automaker started pushing to its the fleet last week.

Now we see Tesla’s Autopilot handle a construction zone with the new update – something that we wouldn’t recommend trying.
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After Tesla started pushing a new Autopilot update to the fleet last week, we reported on some of the first drive videos showing impressive improvements to Tesla’s semi-autonomous driver assist system.

Now the update has reached more Tesla owners and they have been able to test the new software more thoroughly – giving us a better look at the latest version of Autopilot.
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As we reported yesterday, Tesla started pushing a new Autopilot update to the fleet this week and it apparently features some significant improvements to Tesla’s semi-autonomous driver assist system.

Now some owners are releasing videos of their first drivers with the new software and most of them are quite impressed.
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In the Netherlands today, a Tesla Model S crashed into a cyclist, scooter and another car, leaving someone injured and in an unknown condition.

The police cited a “technical issue” that led to the accident, which the local media quickly linked to Autopilot, but Tesla says that the system is not to blame.
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Tesla has started pushing a new software update to its fleet this week and owners testing it are reporting significant improvements to the Autopilot system – something that the automaker has been promising for a while now.
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As recently reported, some significant Tesla Autopilot updates are in the works and it could represent one of the greatest leaps for the program in a long time.

With the latest updates, it looks like Tesla is now getting closer to the promised ‘On-ramp to Off-ramp’ feature and it even handles the ‘curve of death’, according to a Model X owner.
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Over the years, Tesla drivers have blamed Autopilot, the company’s driver assist system, for a bunch of crashes and even their drunk driving.

Now a Model S driver claims to have successfully used Autopilot as a defense to get out of a ticket for using his cellphone during arguably reckless driving.

If true, it would create an important precedent, but things are more complicated than they seem.
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Tesla has been promising a significant new update to the Autopilot software for a while now and Elon Musk, along with a few other executives, have been teasing the quality of the new version over the last few months.

Electrek has now learned the first details of this new update as Tesla started beta testing the new build.
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After Tesla Autopilot had a difficult year with several delays for the release of features under the new hardware suite, Tesla is now promising those features in 2018 – along with the delayed fully self-driving demonstration.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising some significant updates to the Autopilot program recently as owners grow increasingly more frustrated with the progress.

Now, Musk says that a new Autopilot update is ‘in final testing phase’.
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In its report to the Californian DMV today, Tesla confirmed that it didn’t test fully autonomous vehicles on state roads in 2017.

The automaker keeps its autonomous driving test program more opaque as Tesla owners are frustrated by the delayed release of new Autopilot features.
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After the Tesla Autopilot came under scrutiny over the last two years following a fatal accident in a Model S while the vehicle was on Autopilot, the driver assist system seemed to have caught a break.

But now another accident has resulted in the launch of another investigation.
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There was a period of time over a year ago when accidents in Tesla vehicles were often blamed on Autopilot despite drivers being told that they are always responsible of their cars.

It appeared to have ended after more education about the driver assist system, but now a driver in California took it to an all new level.
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Speaking at a conference on artificial intelligence yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk updated his timeline prediction for a fully self-driving car  to 2 years. He also predicts that  another year after that cars will be significantly better drivers than humans.

Now it’s interesting to look into how Tesla’s self-driving effort plays into this prediction.
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Earlier this year, Tesla said that it was working with insurers in order for them to better understand features like the Autopilot.

Now, a major insurer announced that they are offering a 5 percent discount for drivers using Tesla’s driver assist system.
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On the consumer-facing side, we have seen some decent progress with the latest Autopilot 2.0 software updates recently, but Tesla is also adding capabilities in the background running on what has been known as “shadow mode.”

A recent look at the new capabilities in the background of Autopilot gives us a glimpse of what Tesla is working on.
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In its shareholder letter released yesterday, Tesla gave an interesting albeit vague update on its Autopilot program, but CEO Elon Musk also briefly mentioned the program in the following conference call with analysts.

He surprisingly hinted at an upcoming Tesla Autopilot hardware announcement.
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