Tesla will use video footage of its cars to improve autopilot

Tesla has asked drivers of its cars to grant permission to collect short video clips taken with the external cameras on the cars. Elon Musk’s company wants to use the images to improve the autopilot.

In a message, Tesla asked drivers to approve a change in its data collection policy. In it, Tesla says it is working hard to improve safety in autonomous driving as soon as possible and to make self-driving cars a reality. To do this, the company needs short video clips shot with external cameras attached to the Tesla cars. That writes the website Electrek.

Tesla wants to use the images to improve the autopilot so that elements such as road lines, traffic signs and the locations of traffic lights can be better recognized. In the message, Tesla indicates that the collected video images are not linked to the license plate number of the car and that other steps have also been taken to prevent Tesla from searching its system for images of a particular car.

Launched in October 2016, the second generation of Tesla’s autopilot features a total of eight cameras, only two of which are still in use. Of these eight cameras, three are facing directly forward. The other cameras capture the side and rear of the car. In this way, a 360-degree image can be created, which is very important for fully autonomous driving cars.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently said at the TED conference that the Tesla Model 3 will likely go into production in July and will have an autopilot that uses only cameras and GPS; lidar or a radar system is not used. In fact, a passive system is applied that corresponds to what a person sees.

Musk said it should be possible by the end of this year to drive a Tesla Model 3 completely autonomously from Los Angeles to New York, without the need for a single human intervention. The CEO thinks it will take another two years before the technology for self-driving cars has advanced to the point where we can fall asleep at the wheel.