The New Year has brought some new features for a select group of Tesla owners. About 1,000 cars have received a new Tesla autopilot software update that the company has called HW2.
This hardware 2 Tesla Autopilot upgrade is currently only being loaded on newer Model S and Model X vehicles produced after October. These cars have a newer suite of sensors like radar, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors. The limited release is meant to iron out any glitches before the full release to Tesla’s full lineup.
Elon Musk originally announced the version 8.1 update on New Year’s Eve. He followed with a tweet stating that Tesla would monitor the update and, barring any field issues, the rest of the fleet would receive the upload in the coming week.
HW2 Autopilot software uploading to 1000 cars this eve. Will then hold to verify no field issues and upload to rest of fleet next week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 31, 2016
The updates are still in beta and some require the driver to remain attentive and gripping the steering wheel. Included in the HW2 update is forward collision warning with a user programmable safety distance, traffic-aware cruise control, and an auto-steering system for low speed traffic. The new features are aimed at commuting through monotonous traffic and not a complete origin to destination system. That means no naps or Netflix sessions on the way to work, at least not yet.
Recent dashcam footage shows the a Tesla Model S using Autopilot 2.0 (pre-HW2) warning the driver of a crash before it even happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyaihf4-j08&feature=youtu.be
