Elon Musk unveiled the Autopilot v7.0 software in a press conference on Wednesday. Forget the "auto" in the name, though, because no Tesla Model S driver will actually be able to take their hands off the steering wheel and take a quick nap on their way to work. Not yet. However, there is something about this recent enhancement worth $2,500 you may want to check out.
This Autopilot tale appeared about a year ago, when Tesla started equipping their sedan with hardware that would allow for the eventual introduction of self-driving technology. We’re talking about a forward radar, a forward-looking camera, 12 long-range ultrasonic sensors positioned to sense 16 feet around the car in every direction at all speeds, and a high-precision digitally-controlled electric assist braking system. Good. Now take a deep breath.
All these gizmos we’re sure most of you like were not that great without the recently released software version, considering numero sete (which is seven in Italian) allows those tools to deliver a range of new active safety and convenience features. These are designed to work in conjunction with the automated driving capabilities already offered in the Model S.
So far, so good. We’re not here to detail this enhancement, though, since we find something else quite appealing. Not that all these things are not cool and all, but they’re not that different from what other carmakers currently investing money in autonomous car technology are offering. What we find pretty interesting is that Elon Musk says the way the system works is what makes it better.
“The whole Tesla fleet operates as a network. When one car learns something, the whole fleet learns something,” he said in the conference you can listen below (if you can pass the mere audio quality, that is). The network is “uploading data to the central server, where it can be collected, do system analysis, and then feed that back into the cars. That’s the next level - and far beyond where other car companies are. Any car company that doesn’t do this will not be able to have an autonomous driving system,” said Musk.
You think this is amazing? What if we told you that updates would happen regularly and that each EV would improve every week? You can look at this thing in two ways: Matrix or a big Google Maps competitor. Either way, it’s a hell of a gig Tesla pulled off.
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