Elon Musk Reveals Tesla Has Fixed the Last 2% of Shortcomings in the Vision Only Active Safety System

Last year the Tesla Model Y received a leading score of 98% in Euro NCAP's automatic emergency braking test despite the vehicle not being equipped with radar. And now, Elon Musk has said Tesla has made the last 2% of improvements that will allow the company's vehicles to receive a perfect score.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that the EV maker has improved the last 2% of the automatic emergency functionality of the company's vehicles. The announcement came in response to a Twitter video showcasing cars undergoing automatic emergency braking tests by the European regulatory agency, Euro NCAP.

In the video, the Tesla Model Y outperformed all other tested vehicles, receiving an incredible 98% score. However, Musk stated that the vehicle will now score a perfect 100% after the EV maker has made the last 2% improvement in the company’s automatic emergency software.

The automatic emergency braking system (AEB) is a safety feature that helps prevent accidents by automatically applying the brakes when the vehicle detects an imminent collision. Most systems use a slew of sensors to detect obstacles in the vehicle's path and apply the brakes if the driver does not respond in time.

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Tesla has been at the forefront of developing advanced safety features for its vehicles, including automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control. The company's vehicles have consistently received high safety ratings from regulatory agencies around the world.

And what makes Tesla’s achievement even more impressive is that the automaker has been able to produce the safest automatic emergency braking system using only cameras and the company’s vision neural nets.

This is in stark contrast to the standard with other automakers, which use a combination of cameras, radar, LiDAR, and ultrasonic sensors.

Musk has not detailed exactly what improvements Tesla has made to enable the EV maker to close the gap in the last 2% of automatic emergency braking scenarios. However, we can assume that the improvements have to do with a new Tesla software upgrade released this week.

In this update, Tesla has made several improvements to the automatic emergency braking functionality. And the three main improvements are first, Tesla has increased the speed limit that AEB works from 90Mph to 124MPh, Second, now the AEB works not just to avoid crashes in front of the car but also from the side, and finally, the functionality now also works in reverse.

In addition to automatic emergency braking, the new Model Y also received the highest safety score in the Euro NCAP’s Adult Occupant Protection test and the highest overall safety score of all tested safety scenarios.

Model Y’s performance on the Euro NCAP’s new protocol is a testament to Tesla’s commitment to safety. However, despite the all-electric crossover receiving the highest safety point of all vehicles tested in its category, Tesla still says “Our team is dedicated to improving driving safety. Achieving some of the highest safety scores ever awarded doesn’t give us pause—it motivates us to make some of the world’s safest vehicles even safer.”

Currently, it is not exactly clear in what ways Tesla plans to make the company’s vehicles even safer. However, we will be sure to keep you posted as Tesla makes those changes. Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Are you excited that the Model Y could score the highest auto emergency braking score despite not being equipped with a radar? Also, what do you think this says from the perspective of Tesla achieving level 5 autonomy using only cameras? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

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Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.