Tesla cars on Autopilot will soon be able to change lanes without command

Tesla is updating the Autopilot navigation option, which will allow the cars to change lanes on their own initiative. Previously, the driver still had to give permission for this via the direction indicator or the steering wheel. The update will be released first in America.

Tesla indicates that the new feature will be broken down under three options in the settings menu. The first option, Enable at Start or Every Trip, allows drivers to choose to have the Autopilot navigation option enabled automatically when the driver enters a navigation route. Once that option is on and the car has navigated to the highway, Autopilot will turn on.

The second option, Require Lane Change Confirmation, deals with lane changes. If a user selects No with that setting, the car will automatically change lanes. In that case, the driver does not have to confirm the action with the steering wheel or the direction indicator, as is now the case.

With Lane Change Notification, users can choose whether they want to be notified when the car decides to do this and what kind of notification that should be. The default setting is a visual sign. Users can also opt for a sound notification; cars made after August 2017 can also vibrate the steering wheel.

Tesla emphasizes that the new feature does not make the cars autonomous and drivers are responsible for what the car does at all times. The car therefore only changes lanes if the driver keeps his hands on the steering wheel. The automatic lane change can be stopped by moving the steering wheel yourself, operating the direction indicator of the car or by canceling the operation via the notification on the touchscreen.

With these options, Tesla wants to provide a “more seamless” experience to the Autopilot navigation option. The feature has been tested internally and through the Early Access Program. In their own words, cars have driven more than eight hundred thousand kilometers with the lane change notification turned off. According to Tesla, the option offers “a comparable level of safety” to the previous Autopilot version.

The new option is only available to customers who have purchased a Tesla vehicle with the Enhanced Autopilot or Full Self-Driving Capability package. The software update is now being distributed to US customers; other countries will receive the update after it has been approved by the relevant governments.

It also became clear on Wednesday that Tesla delivered 63,000 cars to customers in the past quarter. That is 31 percent less than in the previous quarter. This decrease was already expected. Tesla says many shipments have been pushed to Q2 2019 due to many “challenges” posed by increased demand in Europe and China. For example, with the Model 3 there was much more time between production and delivery, because the cars had to be transported to the rest of the world via cargo ships. The American company sticks to its earlier statement of 360,000 to 400,000 car deliveries throughout 2019.