After several incidents – a fatal crash last month and one hospital visit earlier this week – Tesla’s autopilot mode has been in the spotlight of late.
First introduced in 2014, the car maker's Autopilot, which includes a front-facing camera, front-facing radar, and a 360 degree ultrasonic sensor, was last updated in October 2015 when the electric car firm released the first ‘Autopilot update’ (v7.0), introducing features such as Autosteer and Autopark.
However, according to Electrek, sources close to the company said the autopilot feature will be getting another, more substantial update soon, called AutoPilot 2.0, bringing some new and improved features.
Those with knowledge of the next generation Tesla Autopilot said it will keep the current front-facing radar but will bring a forward facing triple camera to 'see' the road ahead, as well as improved radar technology with additional sensors on the corners of the car.
According to the rumours, Tesla started installing new housing in cars this week, and will come along with improved location maps and computer hardware.
However, the truly exciting thing here is that the update will be one step closer to the cars having completely autonomous self-driving abilities.
The AutoPilot 2.0 updates will apparently include a new sensor suite that will enable "level 3 autonomous driving" and potentially level 4 fully autonomous driving in the near future.
Perhaps tellingly, the car company is also rumoured to be working with Nvidia towards development of a computing platform for self-driving cars.
Nvidia already supplies Tesla with its Tegra processors, which power the centre console, infotainment, navigation and instrument-cluster systems of the Model S and X.
And as Nvidia's next-generation visual computing platform for cars, Nvidia Drive PX 2 is expected to launch in autumn this year, we could see autonomous, or close to autonomous driving capabilities built into tesla cars sooner than you think.
Tesla saw its first fatal accident in Florida in July when the driver, Joshua Brown, died after autopilot sensors on a Model S vehicle failed to distinguish a white tractor-trailer crossing the highway against a bright sky.
The accident has turned up the pressure on auto industry executives and regulators to tighten rules on automated driving technology.
Last month, Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled his 'Master Plan, Part Deux' for his electric car business, saying it wouldn’t focus purely on producing cars.
Instead, the four-part plan for worldwide ascendancy focuses on making the company work on sustainable energy projects.
These include: integrating energy generation and storage; expanding Tesla to create electric trucks and public transport; fully autonomous vehicles; and ultimately to allow cities where cars are shared as autonomous taxis.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
