Tesla to remove radar sensor in select models, moves to camera-based Autopilot system

Tesla will stop fitting radar on its Model 3 and Model Y cars in North America from this month as the company is shifting to a camera-based Autopilot system, the EV maker noted on a support page. Tesla vehicles use a range of sensors including radar to support its advanced driver assistance systems – Autopilot and Full-Self Driving – as well as certain active safety features. The transition to the camera-based system or ‘Tesla Vision’ is currently limited to those two models as they are the company’s “higher volume vehicles.” “Transitioning them to Tesla Vision first allows us to analyse a large volume of real-world data in a short amount of time, which ultimately speeds up the roll-out of features based on Tesla Vision,” the company noted. Furthermore, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which verifies and rates vehicles safety features based on its performance criteria, now does not display checkmarks against features such as forward collision warning, lane departure warning, crash imminent braking and dynamic brake support, for Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles produced on or after April 27, 2021. Tesla Vision includes eight surround cameras that provide 360 degrees of visibility around the car at up to 250 meters of range, in addition to twelve updated ultrasonic sensors that complement this vision, allowing for detection of both hard and soft objects at nearly twice the distance of the prior system, according to the EV maker.