Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims that his cars will be the safest on the road, once the company completes an Over the Air (OTA) update of their Autopilot system within the next two weeks. This upgrade was required so that the system could become more reliant on the Model S and X's radar-based sensors. The semi-autonomous Autopilot system had previously relied on camera-based sensors to recognize obstacles in the road.
The update that Tesla has developed is a first-of-it's-kind software. Not only does it allow the system to better deal with the light issues that appear at the root of the fatal crash that occurred in Florida in May, but it also dramatically cuts down on "false positives" that can create false braking events.
However, the update doesn't require the installation of any new cameras or sensors, which has some questioning whether the current setup is enough.
Tesla says the new system is better able to detect metallic objects, like other vehicles, as well as "dense" objects, such as animals and initiate the braking system accordingly. By also utilizing the radar system, the cars will be able to "see" around the front of the vehicle. It bounces the radar around a vehicle traveling in front of the Tesla to determine if there are objects that may need to be avoided.
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