Tesla Begins Moving Model S and Model X to 'Tesla Vision'

author: Vineeth Joel Patel   

Last May, Tesla removed the radar sensors from the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUVs for the North American market. Now, it's doing something similar for its largest electric vehicles, the Model S sedan and Model X SUV.

All Tesla Get Tesla Vision

The reason behind removing the sensors is that Tesla is moving all of its vehicles to have Tesla Vision. The automaker announced on its website that Model S and Model X electric vehicles produced for the North American market would be moving to utilize Tesla Vision in the middle of February.

Tesla Vision is an advanced driver-assist system that only relies on cameras. It does everything Tesla's old radar-based system does, except without the need for any radars. According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, camera-based systems are the way forward for automakers and companies looking to come out with fully autonomous vehicles, which don't exist yet. Tesla Vision takes the visual data that it receives from the cameras and then puts it through neural net processing to give Tesla's Full-Self Driving capability, advanced safety features, and Autopilot.

Tesla claims that there will be a "short period during this transition" as its vehicles move from having radars to cameras. During this transition, cars with Tesla Vision will have a limited top speed of 80 mph for the Autosteer system. Additionally, the electric vehicles will require to have a longer following distance when adaptive cruise control is engaged.

NHTSA Investigating Tesla Vision

The news to switch all of its vehicles to Tesla Vision comes at a bad time for the automaker. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating "phantom braking" that Tesla owners are having with their vehicles with Tesla Vision.

The organization has received approximately 350 complaints over a nine-month span about Teslas applying the brakes for no reason when operating in Autopilot. The NHTSA's investigation is looking into over 416,000 Model 3 and Model Y EVs because of the phantom braking problem.

Since the NHTSA investigation only involves the Model 3 and Model Y, it's fair to say that Tesla Vision has a few issues that Tesla needs to work on. With the automaker set to switch the Model S and Model X over to using Tesla Vision, it will be interesting to see if drivers have the same problems as those in the brand's smaller vehicles.

Vineeth Joel Patel

Joel Patel has been covering all aspects of the automotive industry for four years as an editor and freelance writer for various websites. When it comes to cars, he enjoys covering the merger between technology and cars. In his spare time, Joel likes to watch baseball, work on his car, and try new foods