Photo: Jenny Ueberberg via Unsplash
In a surprise reply on Twitter, Elon Musk agreed to leverage Tesla’s big data and AI processing power to solve a mundane task like autoconfiguring the side mirrors based on driver’s characteristics. This is not even a problem, as most Tesla drivers would only need to do this once in a car’s life.
For most Tesla drivers, adjusting the side mirrors is a one-time affair. Even if several drivers use the same car, memorizing personalized settings is easy, thanks to driver profiles. And since Tesla promised to offer cloud syncing for these profiles, you will have your own settings roaming with you in all the Teslas you’ll ever drive. This is an incredibly convenient feature you can’t find in any other vehicle.
Yet, several people in the Tesla community thought it might be cool if the side mirrors (and everything that needs adjustments for a new driver) would autoconfigure themselves based on the driver’s characteristics like height, position, and possibly other criteria. With so much data that Tesla cars gather from their owners, it surely would not be hard to have a database with all Tesla drivers’ preferences.
Then, by leveraging AI, Tesla should “know” just what is the best, or at least preferred, position for the seat, mirrors, and steering wheel to suit just about anyone. This, without even needing to know the driver or their settings. This is obviously possible, so people thought it would do no harm to ask Elon Musk. As strange as this might seem, Tesla’s CEO agreed to solve the problem. However, he knows it is not only superfluous but also a waste of time.
“Hey, Elon Musk, will Teslas ever be able to automatically adjust the side mirror settings for new drivers (based on 3D position of the driver’s eyes + comparing against the fleet’s internal camera data & side mirror settings)?” asked James Stephenson on Twitter. Elon Musk replied with an elegant: “Yes, but side mirrors won’t be needed in a self-driving future.” After a bit of haggling, Musk added: “That said, we will add autoconfigure to side mirrors.”
For an entirely unnecessary thing, this seems like an incredible waste of resources. And yet, Elon Musk agreeing to take care of it sounds like Tesla has already solved all problems and is now going for the little things. Still, we might be wrong, and that’s why we’d love to hear from you if this is a good or bad idea.
Yet, several people in the Tesla community thought it might be cool if the side mirrors (and everything that needs adjustments for a new driver) would autoconfigure themselves based on the driver’s characteristics like height, position, and possibly other criteria. With so much data that Tesla cars gather from their owners, it surely would not be hard to have a database with all Tesla drivers’ preferences.
Then, by leveraging AI, Tesla should “know” just what is the best, or at least preferred, position for the seat, mirrors, and steering wheel to suit just about anyone. This, without even needing to know the driver or their settings. This is obviously possible, so people thought it would do no harm to ask Elon Musk. As strange as this might seem, Tesla’s CEO agreed to solve the problem. However, he knows it is not only superfluous but also a waste of time.
“Hey, Elon Musk, will Teslas ever be able to automatically adjust the side mirror settings for new drivers (based on 3D position of the driver’s eyes + comparing against the fleet’s internal camera data & side mirror settings)?” asked James Stephenson on Twitter. Elon Musk replied with an elegant: “Yes, but side mirrors won’t be needed in a self-driving future.” After a bit of haggling, Musk added: “That said, we will add autoconfigure to side mirrors.”
For an entirely unnecessary thing, this seems like an incredible waste of resources. And yet, Elon Musk agreeing to take care of it sounds like Tesla has already solved all problems and is now going for the little things. Still, we might be wrong, and that’s why we’d love to hear from you if this is a good or bad idea.
Yes, but side mirrors won’t be needed in a self-driving future
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2022
That said, we will add autoconfigure to side mirrors
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 18, 2022
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