Photo: Not a Tesla App | Edited
Tesla removed the ultrasonic sensors from the recently-built cars in a move many framed as a cost-cutting measure. Without them, some parking features and distance measurements to obstacles around the vehicle were disabled. Nevertheless, a prospective buyer who drove-test a 2023 Tesla Model 3 in Poland noticed the car would still display the distances, even without ultrasonic sensors.
Tesla started removing features from its cars last year, and many believe it did so to cut costs. Indeed, according to calculations done by teardown veteran Sandy Munro, Tesla might have saved $150 per vehicle just by removing the ultrasonic sensors. Several features were impacted, including Autopark, Park Assist, and Summon functions, although Tesla promised to bring them back via Tesla Vision. It was similar to the radar sensor removal a year ago when Tesla took a while before restoring Autopilot functions on radar-less cars to match the radar-equipped vehicles.
Nevertheless, people who bought a Tesla recently were annoyed that Tesla would give up such basic functionality, which is offered on even the cheapest car models on the market. Many complained to the NHTSA about the missing feature. Next to the phantom braking issue, this is one of the problems people complain about the most. Some even took to forums to ask whether installing aftermarket sensors would be a proper solution.
The good news is that Tesla decided to reinstate distance measurement on cars built without ultrasonic sensors. We’ve previously seen anecdotal evidence that Tesla can offer distance measurements to objects around the vehicle using vision only, but that was mostly experimental. The first indication that Tesla would use Autopilot features and Tesla Vision to detect obstacles and estimate distances that way was discovered by Tesla hacker Green (@greentheonly) in November last year.
While Green hasn’t seen the system working on an actual car, he inferred from the Tesla firmware that the feature would be launched with the 2022.40.4 software update. Nevertheless, it might have some server-side functionality, too, because Tesla owner and EV mechanic Occupy Mars (@TESLA_winston) demonstrated the feature on a salvaged Tesla Model 3 running an older software version from September 2022. To ensure the car only used cameras to estimate distances, Occupy Mars disconnected the ultrasonic sensors and the radar on the 2018 Model 3.
According to Not a Tesla App, Tesla finally decided to offer vision-based distance measurement to cars without ultrasonic sensors. A prospective Tesla owner who test-drove a 2023 Model Y in Poland noticed the car would detect distances, so they snapped a picture of the screen. This is not yet live to regular Tesla owners just yet, but the demo vehicle having it points to an imminent release.
If you’re wondering how Tesla can estimate distances to surrounding objects without ultrasonic sensors, there’s a simple explanation. It seems the car processes information gathered by the cameras and uses a memory system, just like humans, to “remember” those objects even when they are no longer in the camera’s view. Thanks to video cameras, Tesla could potentially have a 360-degree map of the vehicle’s surroundings, which ultrasonic sensors cannot do.
Nevertheless, people who bought a Tesla recently were annoyed that Tesla would give up such basic functionality, which is offered on even the cheapest car models on the market. Many complained to the NHTSA about the missing feature. Next to the phantom braking issue, this is one of the problems people complain about the most. Some even took to forums to ask whether installing aftermarket sensors would be a proper solution.
The good news is that Tesla decided to reinstate distance measurement on cars built without ultrasonic sensors. We’ve previously seen anecdotal evidence that Tesla can offer distance measurements to objects around the vehicle using vision only, but that was mostly experimental. The first indication that Tesla would use Autopilot features and Tesla Vision to detect obstacles and estimate distances that way was discovered by Tesla hacker Green (@greentheonly) in November last year.
While Green hasn’t seen the system working on an actual car, he inferred from the Tesla firmware that the feature would be launched with the 2022.40.4 software update. Nevertheless, it might have some server-side functionality, too, because Tesla owner and EV mechanic Occupy Mars (@TESLA_winston) demonstrated the feature on a salvaged Tesla Model 3 running an older software version from September 2022. To ensure the car only used cameras to estimate distances, Occupy Mars disconnected the ultrasonic sensors and the radar on the 2018 Model 3.
According to Not a Tesla App, Tesla finally decided to offer vision-based distance measurement to cars without ultrasonic sensors. A prospective Tesla owner who test-drove a 2023 Model Y in Poland noticed the car would detect distances, so they snapped a picture of the screen. This is not yet live to regular Tesla owners just yet, but the demo vehicle having it points to an imminent release.
If you’re wondering how Tesla can estimate distances to surrounding objects without ultrasonic sensors, there’s a simple explanation. It seems the car processes information gathered by the cameras and uses a memory system, just like humans, to “remember” those objects even when they are no longer in the camera’s view. Thanks to video cameras, Tesla could potentially have a 360-degree map of the vehicle’s surroundings, which ultrasonic sensors cannot do.
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