Now this U-turn by Elon Musk sounds rather intriguing…
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Looks as if he finally realized Tesla had manoeuvred itself into a fully autonomous driving dead end? Literally a blind alley?
https://www.handelsblatt.com/techni...en-tesla-setzt-wieder-auf-radar/29052020.html
I was just about to copy the article when this paywall thingy came up.
Any Handelsblatt subscribers that can help out?
I just worked it out somehow and then clicked on “translate“ for the non-German-speaking readers - amazing how translation engines have improved over the years!
New technology with sensors: Tesla relies on radar again
As the only car manufacturer, the US company has so far relied entirely on cameras for autonomous driving. A wrong path, as Elon Musk now also had to realize.
03/24/2023 by Felix Holtermann and Joachim Hofer
Tesla manufacturing © dpa
New York, Munich It doesn't work without radar. The car world is largely in agreement: Radar sensors are necessary for safe automated and autonomous driving. Only one did not want to admit this: Tesla founder Elon Musk. The CEO of the electric car pioneer has so far relied entirely on cameras.
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Now, according to experts, a spectacular U-turn is looming. The experts expect that Musk will soon start installing a self-developed, high-resolution radar system in his cars. This is indicated by documents that Tesla has submitted to the US supervision Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which monitors all radio wave-emitting devices in America, including radars.
The pivot is a sensitive topic for the most valuable car company in the world. Because as early as 2016, Musk promised buyers to develop a practical autopilot that will "enable your car to earn money for you if you don't use it." So a private Robotaxi. But he has not succeeded to do so to this day.
Now Tesla is taking a path that other manufacturers have long since taken with less full-bodied announcements. "All leading manufacturers use radar - only Tesla at the moment," says Klaus Schmitz, semiconductor specialist at the management consultancy Arthur D. Little. But that should change soon. The US company is in the process of bringing the so-called hardware 4 generation into its vehicles.
The radar system developed by Tesla itself is a modern, so-called 4D system. In addition to distance, speed and direction of movement, such solutions also recognize the height of objects. "In addition, such sensors also offer a significantly improved resolution," says Peter Fintl, chip expert at the consulting company Capgemini.
Guidehouse analyst Sam Abuelsamid, who has been observing Tesla for many years, has analyzed the documents submitted to the FCC. "The new solution is significantly more powerful than previous systems," he tells the Handelsblatt. Thus, there are more radar antennas, which allows a significantly higher resolution using special software.
Among other things, this could solve Tesla's problem with so-called phantom braking due to misinterpreted camera data. For example, the old system sometimes interprets photos of people on truck tarpaulins as real pedestrians. "This does not happen to a radar," says Abuelsamid. Tesla is thus closing out to other manufacturers.
Tesla initially did not respond to a Handelsblatt request for the new sensor.
The camera recordings that Tesla has used so far are evaluated and interpreted by artificial intelligence (AI) - analogous to a human driver who can only rely on his eyes. Musk has so far rejected the installation of additional systems: "In my opinion, this is a crutch," he had said in the past.
Tesla in court for fatal accidents
Tesla's previous autopilot is most likely to correspond to a so-called Level 2 system, i.e. a solution that only supports the driver (Level 5 corresponds to fully autonomous driving). Which does not prevent Tesla from marketing the autopilot as a "Full Self-Driving Beta" (FSD Beta).
This is a problem for supervision: In August 2021, the US Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated an investigation of the autopilot in 765,000 Tesla vehicles after about a dozen accidents. This spring, the company is on trial in the first jury trials for fatal accidents for which the autopilot is blamed.
Experts consider the installation of radar sensors for autopilot applications to be indispensable. "In the industry, it is undisputed that due to the technical limitations of purely camera-based systems, a supplement by further senses - i.e. sensors - makes sense," emphasizes consultant Fintl. Especially at higher speeds, for example on the highway, "radars are practically indispensable due to their long range".
Tesla has a zigzag course behind it in autonomous driving: At the introduction of the autopilot in 2015, the hardware of the supplier Mobileye was used, which included cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors. After a fatal accident in 2016, the Israeli company withdrew from the partnership on the grounds that Tesla had abused the system.
With the autopilot version 2 from October 2016, Tesla introduced its own system, which included eight cameras, a long-range radar and twelve low-resolution ultrasonic sensors, which are mainly used for parking. At the beginning of 2021, the company removed the radar sensor, then also the ultrasonic devices in 2022. To date, some parking functions no longer work.
Tesla was able to save money through various technologies
Tesla officially justified the removal of the radar by the fact that it did not really help. However, it can be assumed that the chip shortage played a significant role," says analyst Abuelsamid. By cancelling, Tesla saved around 40 dollars per vehicle - a lot of money in the narrowly calculated car industry. The resolution of the radar was also only low. By abolishing the ultrasonic devices, Tesla has saved another around 100 dollars per vehicle, according to the analyst's bill.
However, the new technology should not help existing customers who have paid up to $15,000 for the FSD beta package. A retrofitting of the radar sensor and the necessary on-board computer makes "neither technical nor financial sense" for Tesla, says Abuelsamid.
For many owners, this should be annoying in view of the full-bodied announcements. "The vehicles sold so far will not perform nearly as well in autopilot as those with the new hardware. However, Musk has told all buyers from 2016 that they have all the necessary hardware for autonomous driving at level 5," says the analyst. Now Musk can't deliver what he promised. "Tesla has maneuvered herself into a real dead end."
First publication: 03/24/2023, 04:00 a.m.