As of 19 October 2016, all Teslas produced will have the hardware necessary for fully autonomous driving (video)

Yes, you read that right: “All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware” – The Tesla Team, 19 October, 2016

and ...

“... at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.”

That’s the good news.

Bad news? – cars made after the 19th can do it, they’re just not going to. Adaptive cruise control & lane keeping, for example, will initially be disabled. And yes, you read that right too.

They’re going to watch the humans get it wrong for a few months.

Point of this is to gather statistics on how much better the fully autonomous system would have done it. To demonstrate how much more capable it is, the new system will be less capable, initially.

Can’t demonstrate how much better autonomous Autopilot is, if it never lets the humans make any mistakes.

One reason Autopilot is expected to be safer than a human, is that it is effectively able to see through the vehicle in front, by bouncing radar underneath. Samsung demonstrated some of the value of being able to see through the vehicle in front last year, with its impractical, “transparent safety truck”.

And if you ever thought you needed eyes in the back of your head, the new Teslas have them + the sides too – 8 cameras provide 360° vision.


Credit: Tesla

In addition to extra sensors, there has been a more than 40 times increase in computing power. This has been inevitable, ever since the comment about the effort required to, “shoehorn”, the last version of the software into the available computer hardware.

“Autonomous”? – Elon Musk has claimed that by the end of 2017 he will be able to demonstrate a vehicle capable of driving from LA to New York with no – that's none, nothing, zero, nada – input from the driver – apart from plugging in a charging cable as required.

Tesla’s announcement: All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware
https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/blog/all-tesla-cars-being-produced-now-have-full-self-driving-hardware?redirect=no



Road & Track
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a31237/tesla-autopilot-hardware-standard/

Thanks to Bill for a heads up on material in this item. / Tesla cars produced now have full self driving hardware Tesla Team self-driving vehicles play crucial role improving transportation safety accelerating world’s world transition sustainable future full autonomy enable Tesla substantially safer human driver lower financial cost transportation own car provide low-cost on-demand mobility low cost on demand mobility excited announce all Tesla vehicles produced factory Model 3 hardware needed full self-driving capability safety level substantially greater human driver eight surround cameras 360 degree visibility around car up to 250 meters range twelve updated ultrasonic sensors complement vision detection both hard soft objects nearly twice distance prior system forward-facing radar enhanced processing provides additional data about the world redundant wavelength seeing through heavy rain fog dust car ahead make sense data new onboard computer more than 40 times computing power previous generation new Tesla-developed Tesla developed neural net vision sonar radar processing software system view of the world driver alone cannot access seeing in every direction simultaneously wavelengths go far beyond the human senses eight surround cameras provide 360 degree visibility /