Tesla Autopilot 2.0 is coming this year, according to anonymous sources.
The headline feature is the addition of a second front-facing camera to enable the car to recognize and stop at stop signs and stoplights.
That’s pretty awesome, and is worth a lot all by itself.
But what really caught my eye is the fact that Tesla is, in fact, using data from customers’ cars to learn how to drive better, and even build maps.
The Autopilot learns from all the vehicles equipped with the hardware in Tesla’s fleet (~80,000 vehicles) by building high precision maps, which it refines with every passing of a vehicle, and then downloads the map sections aligned with the vehicle’s GPS to help the vehicle’s own Autopilot system navigating the location in real-time with cross-checks from the vehicle’s sensors, primarily its front-facing camera and radar.
There are privacy considerations there, which Tesla will presumably have to address, but overall I think this is a huge win for self-driving technology, and for Tesla in particular.
David Silver 