Tesla Transitions Older Radar Vehicles To Vision Only Autopilot

Last year, Tesla Inc. TSLA began shipping Model 3 and Model Y without radar units, which had previously been a major piece of hardware used in Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) software packages.

The new vehicles came with "Tesla Vision," Tesla's camera-only driver assist technology. While initially inferior to the radar-based system with a lower top speed and greater minimum following distance, the system has come much closer in its capability in recent software updates.

Currently, all Tesla vehicles are delivered without radar.

Tesla Vision system demonstrated in rainy weather.

And now, as shared by Drive Tesla Canada, the Elon Musk-led company is sending software updates to older radar-equipped vehicles to disable the sensor and switch those vehicles over to Tesla Vision.

Tesla's safety data shows the radarless driver assist system is superior to the older system that still relied on radar. The 2022.20.9 software version is making the change for owners and is described below.

Your vehicle is now running Tesla Vision! It will rely on camera vision coupled with neural net processing to deliver certain Autopilot and active safety features. Vehicles using Tesla Vision have received top safety ratings, and fleet data shows that it provides overall enhanced safety for our customers. Note that, with Tesla Vision, available following distance settings are from 2-7 and Autosteer top speed is 85mph (140km/h). 

Owners will receive this update for free from Tesla over the air. 

Photo courtesy of Tesla