During his latest tweetstorm, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said as an ultimate safety measure, the Tesla Autopilot will intervene and act accordingly if the system determines the crash probability is 100% and the driver is unable to respond to the situation.
Elon Musk stated this in response to a question from our favorite writer at CleanTechnica, Johnna Crider — she asked if a driver goes unconscious behind the steering wheel, how the safety systems of a Tesla would respond?
The following video is a perfect example of how Tesla Autopilot is able to respond in situations where the human response time is clearly not as fast as a Tesla Supercomputer supported by 8 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and a forward radar.
The Tesla Model 3 in this video applied full brakes using the Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB part of Autopilot) feature to avoid an otherwise certain collision.
The above example video is from 2018 and the Tesla Autopilot software has come a long way with free over-the-air updates since then, and the Silicon Valley-based automaker is dedicated to pushing the limits and isn’t willing to slow down the pace of innovation at any front, be it design, engineering, software, or finding new ways to speed up the production processes.
Just last year, active Tesla community member Marc Benton reported that Tesla Autopilot just took the right decision on the right time when a pickup truck driver decided to cross two lanes in a single go ahead of his Model 3 — his car swerved to the right to avoid the truck and save the day.
Another Tesla Model 3 owner (@DirtyTesla) also observed his car taking necessary precaution to avoid getting hit by a pickup truck coming from behind on the highway, the Autopilot system took the car out of the harm’s way by pushing the vehicle towards the left to create space for the truck to pass by.
Additionally, Elon Musk just confirmed that the in one of the next software updates, the center touchscreen will show how many miles the car has been driven on Autopilot, this will help owners and drivers help evaluate their own driving habits and in case of renting or lending the car, will be able to see how many miles the car was engaged on Autopilot by the other driver/user — a nice piece of additional information for pre-owned Tesla buyers as well.
