Tesla 2022.20 update enables prediction of rough roads ahead to adjust air suspension, Tesla Vision allows new seat belt behavior, more

Tesla has started rolling out the over-the-air (OTA) software update version 2022.20 to its entire fleet of cars. This update introduces 4 new features, Seat Belt System Enhancement, Green Traffic Light Chime, Tire Configuration, and Tesla Adaptive Suspension (Model S/X only, release notes below).

The Model S and Model X vehicles equipped with the Air Suspension will have an interesting feature added to their vehicles — the car will automatically adjust the smart suspension to rough road conditions (potholes, damaged road, etc.).

The 2022.20 Tesla update just started rolling out during the weekend and looking at the data by TeslaFi.com, it looks like a slow rollout. Let’s explore the official release notes to get to know the new features in detail.

Tesla OTA Update 2022.20 Release Notes

Seat Belt System Enhancement

This enhancement builds upon your vehicle’s superior crash protection — based upon regulatory and industry-standard crash testing — by now using Tesla Vision to help offer some of the most cutting-edge seat belt pre-tensioner performance in the event of a frontal crash. Your seat belts will now begin to tighten and protect properly restrained occupants earlier in a wider array of frontal crashes.
Tesla firmware version 2022.20 release notes

In May last year, Tesla decided to remove the forward-facing radar from vehicles produced onwards because the automaker changed its Autopilot/Full Self-Driving algorithms and AI to work with vision only.

Tesla Autopilot still works in shadow mode in Tesla vehicles that did not buy the Full Self-Driving (FSD) package. Tesla does this to provide every Tesla owner with the most cutting-edge safety, and it reflects in this newly-introduced feature discussed above, seat belts will now act on Tesla Vision to pre-emptively react to a potential accident.

Tesla’s predictive (vision-based) seat belt tensioning mechanism. Credits: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc. (Q2 2022 Shareholder Deck).

Green Traffic Light Chime

A chime will play when the traffic light you are waiting for turns green. If you are waiting behind another vehicle, the chime will play once the vehicle advances unless Traffic-Aware Cruise Control or Autosteer is active.

Note: The chime is only designed as a notification. it is the driver’s responsibility to observe their environment and make decisions accordingly.
Tesla firmware version 2022.20 release notes

Traffic Green Light Chime feature added in Tesla firmware update version 2022.20. Credits: u/BBB4000 via TMC.

Tire Rotation

Reset the learned tire settings directly after a tire rotation, swap, or replacement to improve your driving experience. To reset, tap Controls > Service > Wheel & Tire Configuration > Tires
Tesla firmware version 2022.20 release notes

Tesla Adaptive Suspension (Model S/X only)

Tesla Adaptive Suspension will now adjust ride height for an upcoming rough road section. This adjustment may occur at various locations, subject to availability, as the vehicle downloads rough road map data generated by Tesla cars. The instrument cluster will continue to indicate when the suspension is raised for comfort. To enable this feature, tap Controls > Suspension > Adaptive Suspension Damping, and select Comfort or Auto setting.

Tesla started asking its customers to share vehicle camera and sensor data back in 2018. Now after about 4 years, the automaker has huge amounts of data points to create maps with both large and tiny details like rough road conditions maps data used in deploying the automatic adaptive suspension feature.

The huge amount of Tesla Autopilot road data is coming in handy for rolling out other features like this one, and in the future, it will be more and more useful for both Tesla as a company and its customers.

Tesla Model S smart air suspension is already used for customizing the suspension settings for Track Mode and Cheetah Stance in drag racing. The Cheetah Stance lowers the suspension of the Model S Performance and Model S Plaid as the vehicle prepares for a launch in Drag Strip Mode.

Note: No variant of the Tesla Model Y or Model 3 has the smart air suspension installed from the factory.

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