Today’s Tesla Autopilot is a partial self-driving system with various driver assistance options. This autopilot has been in development since 2014. At the time of writing this material, there were 4 generations of autopilot equipment.
And in the summer of 2021, Tesla finally launched Full Self-Driving, an advanced package that should be the first step towards fully autonomous driving.
Let’s take a look at the history and see how different versions of Tesla’s self-driving hardware differed, and also touch on the Full Self-Driving package and its capabilities.
Autopilot 1.0 hardware
This generation operated from the fall of 2014 to the fall of 2016 and had the following autonomous driving capabilities:
- Automatic parallel parking;
- Automatic switching of low and high beam headlights;
- Collision Mitigation System with Driver Alert;
- Advanced cruise control that takes into account traffic traffic;
- Lane centering;
- GPS navigation with high resolution online map;
- Ultrasonic sensors with 360 degree coverage;
- Front camera and radar.
Already at this stage, Tesla was able to distinguish cars from other vehicles, as well as “recognize” pedestrians.
Autopilot 2.0 and 2.5 hardware
The next, second version of autonomous driving functioned from the fall of 2016 to the end of summer 2017. Tesla engineers implemented the following assistance systems:
- Advanced radar;
- 360 degree ultrasonic sensors, the number of which has increased to 12;
- 8 cameras with all-round visibility;
- Navigation;
GPS navigation, lane centering and other features from the previous version have been carried over to version 2.0. It meant full autonomous driving, when the driver could take his hands off the wheel and be distracted by his phone or compiling a track list in the audio system.
Enhanced Autopilot 2.5 was available from late summer 2017 to April 2019 and had all of the above features. It differed from the previous version in that it had a DVR and a more powerful computing unit.
Autopilot 3.0 hardware
The version, which operated from the beginning of 2019 until recently, was notable for the fact that this Tesla could read traffic lights and a STOP sign. So, if a red light came on in front of the car, it automatically braked, preventing traffic violations and creating an emergency situation. Also, the 3.0 hardware “learned” to distinguish between garbage cans and road markings.
FSD: what features it offers, how much it costs, how to order it
The expanded Full Self-Driving package was launched by Tesla in mid-July of this year.
Among other things, it offers the following features for drivers:
- independent acceleration and braking;
- changing lanes;
- calling a car – the driver can pick up a car if it is located in the distance. This is useful if, for example, you left the supermarket with huge bags and parked too far away.
And although FSD has autopilot functions, it cannot yet be called a full-fledged “autopilot”.
Let us remind you that the package was previously available to Tesla owners, but only for an additional fee of $10,000. Now it can be ordered as a monthly subscription. The price is $199 per month if you haven’t previously used EAP – and $99 if you’ve subscribed to Enhanced Autopilot.