Skip to main content

Your Tesla Autopilot has arrived

In a blog on its website, Tesla Motors, which since October 2014 has been equipping its Model S car with hardware such as a forward radar, forward camera, electric assist braking system, to allow for the incremental introduction of self-driving technology, has announced the release of Tesla version 7 software. Called Tesla Autopilot, it allows those tools to deliver a range of new active safety and convenience features, designed to work in conjunction with the automated driving capabilities already offered
October 20, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
In a blog on its website, 597 Tesla Motors, which since October 2014 has been equipping its Model S car with hardware such as a forward radar, forward camera, electric assist braking system, to allow for the incremental introduction of self-driving technology, has announced the release of Tesla version 7 software. Called Tesla Autopilot, it allows those tools to deliver a range of new active safety and convenience features, designed to work in conjunction with the automated driving capabilities already offered in the Model S.

This combined suite of features represents what Tesla claims is the only fully integrated autopilot system involving four different feedback modules: camera, radar, ultrasonics, and GPS. These mutually reinforcing systems offer real-time data feedback from the Tesla fleet, ensuring that the system is continually learning and improving upon itself.

Autopilot allows the Model S to steer within a lane, change lanes with the simple tap of a turn signal, and manage speed by using active, traffic-aware cruise control. Digital control of motors, brakes, and steering helps avoid collisions from the front and sides, as well as preventing the car from wandering off the road. Your car can also scan for a parking space, alert you when one is available, and parallel park on command.

Tesla Autopilot relieves drivers of the most tedious and potentially dangerous aspects of road travel. While truly driverless cars are still a few years away, Tesla claims Autopilot functions like the systems that airplane pilots use when conditions are clear. The driver is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car and always has intuitive access to the information the car is using to inform its actions.

This release also features a visual refresh of the digital displays for every single Model S around the world. The instrument panel is focused on the driver and includes more functional apps to help the driver monitor the ride.

Related Content

  • June 25, 2015
    Continental developing road departure protection systems
    International automotive supplier Continental is working on new road departure protection systems that aim to eliminate unintended road departures, which currently are not completely covered by today’s lateral guidance advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), preventing fatal accidents from occurring on highways and rural roads. According to the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, approximately 55 per cent of traffic fatalities in the US involve a vehicle crossing the roadwa
  • July 4, 2017
    Daimler Buses introduces pedestrian recognition for buses
    Daimler Buses is launching the new Active Brake Assist 4 (ABA 4) with pedestrian recognition which it says is the world's first emergency braking assistance system in a bus to automatically brake for pedestrians.
  • November 12, 2015
    Preventing connected vehicles creating disconnected drivers
    Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are evolving at a rapid pace – but drivers’ ability to cope with them is not and at some point the mismatch must be addressed. Probably the biggest challenge the transportation industry has ever faced.” That is how Dr Bryan Reimer of Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab describes the challenges posed by semi-autonomous vehicles.
  • September 18, 2024
    The Ys and wherefores of a Tesla future
    On the Tesla stand, lunch is being served. Or it will be one day, by a Tesla robot that has the same AI and sensor technology as the new fully autonomous Model Y electric Tesla.