In a recent update to their Autopilot mode, Tesla announced that they will now be relying more on radar to detect objects that might be in the path of the car, whereas before it seemed to rely more on the car’s cameras. This means that it has a better chance of detecting objects than before, or at least in theory.
Putting that theory to the test is YouTuber KmanAuto who teamed up with Mike Anthony from Mike Anthony Autosports, both of whom decided that they would test out the new avoidance system and see if it truly lived up to the hype. They tested out the system at various speeds with one of them walking in front of the car to see if it would be smart enough to brake on time.
Now obviously this is rather dangerous but the good news is that for the most part, the was able to stop on time way before it comes close to hitting the object. However in the fifth test, it seems that this is where the radar did not work as well as intended. It alerted the driver of a potential collision, it braked, and it also seemed to swerve a little off road, but as you can see in the video above, it stops way past where the pedestrian was standing.
This means that if this was real life, it is possible that the person would have been hit, although maybe by doing what it did, the impact would not have been so great. Clearly there still needs some work to be done, and as Tesla has reminded us again and again, autopilot is not a self-driving feature, meaning that regardless of all the safety features, you as a driver would still need to pay attention.
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