Elon Musk revealed the Model 3 in
March, revealing details of the $35,000 base model including a sub-six
second 0-60 time and a minimum 215 mile range. The basic picture of the
Model 3 inspired a pre-order frenzy unlike anything seen previously in
the car world, but now Musk has dropped what he referred to earlier as
Part 2 of the Model 3 unveiling after a lengthy pause, as promised, and
it’s a doozy.
Musk announced that all Tesla cars being produced as of today, including the Model 3, will have everything they need onboard to achieve full Level 5 self-driving in the future.
The news means that every Tesla vehicle, including the Model S and X as
well as Model 3 cars made after today will eventually be able to
achieve full autonomous driving, with what Tesla refers to as “a safety
level substantially greater than that of a human driver” via nothing
more than a software update at some point in the future.
The hardware required to make this possible includes a sensor loadout
complete with eight surround optical cameras, which can see up to 250
meters out from the vehicle on all sides, and a dozen ultrasonic sensors
to assist the optical system. These are capable of twice the range of
previous hardware, and can detect both “hard and soft objects” according
to the company. Also included is the radar hardware that provides
forward-facing detection of hazards even through potentially obfuscating
conditions.
The biggest change might be the new onboard computer that provides
over 40 times the processing power of the existing Tesla hardware, which
actually runs the in-house neural net the car maker has developed in
order to handle processing of data inbound from the vision, sonar and
radar systems. Musk said on call discussing the most recent update to
the existing driver assistance Autopilot software that it basically
stretched computing power to the limit, which is why the upgraded CPU is
required for full Level 5 autonomy. The new GPU is the Nvidia Titan,
Musk said on the call, though it was a “tight call” between Nvidia and
AMD.
The validation required for full autonomy will still take some more
time, but Musk said on a call that it’s actually already looking like
it’ll be at least two times as safe as human driving based on existing
testing.
While it’s being developed, the self-driving system will operate in
the background in “shadow mode,” essentially working virtually behind
the scenes in order to demonstrate where it would’ve been able to avoid
accidents that a person driving could not.
While the hardware will be included in all Tesla cars made from now
on, which includes the Model 3, it will be an $8,000 add-on for vehicles
to enable the software.
The reason for building in full autonomy capability across the
lineup, according to Musk, is entirely to increase driving safety and
reduce traffic-related accidents. Musk spoke passionately about this aim
going so far as to admonish broad media coverage of Autopilot-related
accidents, while the ongoing and persistent issue of human-fault car
deaths receives far less attention from press.
In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported
sharp increases in traffic deaths in both 2015 and 2016, and asked for
help parsing the data to determine the causes of the rise. And when the
Department of Transportation released its federal guidelines for
autonomous driving technology, it also strongly indicated that the
government believes autonomy in vehicles will ultimately lead to safer
roads.
Musk said in a conference call in August regarding Tesla’s
advancements in creating a car with Level 4 autonomous capability that
“what we’ve got will blow people’s minds, it blows my mind,” and added
that “it’ll come sooner than people think.” He’s certainly delivered
with today’s announcement.
