Photo: Tesla
In a surprising move, Tesla has filed with the FCC to use a new radar in its future vehicles. It’s been a long time since Tesla has ditched radar sensors in its cars, saying that the camera-based vision is way better.
Tesla started big in the automotive world using a comprehensive sensor array for its vehicles. The goal was to achieve fully-autonomous driving, and no effort was spared. Then everybody was surprised when Tesla abruptly abandoned radar sensors and switched to a camera-based system. Tesla Vision was supposed to be better than the combination of radar and camera sensors, and subsequent certifications proved this claim.
Elon Musk figured that humans only use their eyes to see and the brain to process information for driving their vehicles. Just by replacing human eyes with cameras and the human brain with a neural network, Tesla vehicles should be able to drive safer than any human would. This was the main reason Tesla dropped radar sensors and transitioned to the camera-only Tesla Vision.
Another reason was that radar sensors were not good enough at the time, and Musk thought they only made things worse. Musk did not rule out radar sensors completely, though, as reported by Electrek. A “very high resolution radar” would help, but such a radar sensor did not exist at the time. Now, Tesla has found a better solution and is about to backtrack on the decision not to use radar sensors.
The EV maker recently filed with the FCC to use a new radar in its vehicles. Tesla hacker Green, who has followed Tesla’s efforts with radar development, says the new tech uses the same frequency as Tesla’s previous front-facing radar. This might indicate that it will have similar use. Tesla has experimented with higher resolution radar before, and a “4D imaging radar” was supposedly sourced from a company named Arbe Robotix.
Arbe’s radar was called “Phoenix,” and this is the same name used in the FCC filing. According to Green, this new radar could be used in the future HW4 sensor suite. This should have some Tesla customers extremely worried after paying for the Full Self-Driving suite and believing they have all the hardware required for autonomous driving.
Elon Musk figured that humans only use their eyes to see and the brain to process information for driving their vehicles. Just by replacing human eyes with cameras and the human brain with a neural network, Tesla vehicles should be able to drive safer than any human would. This was the main reason Tesla dropped radar sensors and transitioned to the camera-only Tesla Vision.
Another reason was that radar sensors were not good enough at the time, and Musk thought they only made things worse. Musk did not rule out radar sensors completely, though, as reported by Electrek. A “very high resolution radar” would help, but such a radar sensor did not exist at the time. Now, Tesla has found a better solution and is about to backtrack on the decision not to use radar sensors.
The EV maker recently filed with the FCC to use a new radar in its vehicles. Tesla hacker Green, who has followed Tesla’s efforts with radar development, says the new tech uses the same frequency as Tesla’s previous front-facing radar. This might indicate that it will have similar use. Tesla has experimented with higher resolution radar before, and a “4D imaging radar” was supposedly sourced from a company named Arbe Robotix.
Arbe’s radar was called “Phoenix,” and this is the same name used in the FCC filing. According to Green, this new radar could be used in the future HW4 sensor suite. This should have some Tesla customers extremely worried after paying for the Full Self-Driving suite and believing they have all the hardware required for autonomous driving.
Frequency in line with exterior radars from Bosch and Continental.
— green (@greentheonly) June 7, 2022
Imaging radar that we've been waiting for? https://t.co/EGxinBMvRA
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