What is Tesla autopilot & how it works?

Tesla Autopilot

What is Tesla Autopilot Technology?

Tesla, the American electric car manufacturer, is making bold moves. Everyone in the auto industry is curious about Tesla’s moves. The most astonishing feature in every car of Tesla is the Tesla Autopilot function. With Tesla Autopilot, the car is almost autonomous.

Tesla Autopilot Image Processing
Tesla Autopilot Image Processing

Furthermore, Tesla auto-pilot will get updates automatically over the air. These updates will bring extra features. Thus, making the system more robust and accurate. The autopilot brings advance driver assistance systems. These systems include adaptive cruise control, automatic lane keeping and self-parking.

Tesla Autopilot components:

All Tesla cars are equipped with hardware that is capable of making the car self-driven. The hardware consists of mostly sensors and cameras. Eight cameras surrounding the car provide 3600 views around the car up to a distance of 250 meters. The twelve ultrasonic sensors provide more accurate data about surroundings. It helps the cameras to detect the hard and soft objects alike.

In addition, forward facing radar with enhanced processing power brings additional data. The radar also works in critical environments such as fog, rain, dust, and smog. As a result, the system provides redundancy and accuracy without compromising the safety of the car.

How does Tesla Autopilot work?

All the data generated by cameras, sensors, and radar is processed by an onboard computer. The new computer processes the data 40 times faster. Tesla develops its own neural net for vision, radar and sonar processing. The neural net has the ability to process data beyond human capabilities. So, the neural net can process all the data streams coming from almost every direction simultaneously.

Tesla Autopilot Sensors
Tesla Autopilot Sensors

Benefits of Tesla Autopilot:

The autopilot feature brings lots of advantages over traditional driving. The new autopilot can match the speed of traffic, automatically change lanes, make exits from the freeway and park the car on its own. Thus, it just drives on its own while you are busy reading a newspaper or sipping hot coffee.

Tesla Autopilot Vision
Tesla Autopilot Vision

When you get inside the car, you just have to say your destination. If you don’t say anything, the system will search for your calendar and take you to the destination as per the calendar entry. Furthermore, it will steer from the dense traffic, complex intersections and stop signs. Once you are at the destination, just step out from the car. The car will find the space for parking on its own so that you need not worry about it.

On just a tapping the screen, the autopilot will come live again to find you on its own. It all seems like a dream or Hollywood movie scene. However, it is real and happening around you. So, be ready as the cars of the future are here.

Note: All Images (Courtesy: Tesla)

Watch Tesla Autopilot in action here:

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Sushant Bal Avatar
Sushant is an entrepreneur, marketing consultant, and an auto-enthusiastic blogger. He regularly publishes specific articles on the latest happenings in automotive technology. When not writing a blog, he engages in his other ventures or goes on long-distance motorcycle rides. Follow me on Twitter.