Some Tesla owners may already have seen it in their own car, but for the rest of the world one of them has now documented an interesting premiere with the autopilot system: His Model 3 Performance with the option FSD (full self-driving, i.e. autonomous Driving) rolls towards a red traffic light, displays a message on the screen – and then stops in time without another car standing in front of it.
Tesla Model 3 stops in time
So far, the Tesla autopilot system was able to recognize the current signal from traffic lights, but did not respond to it. This function was first introduced in the United States from the end of 2019 and referred to as a preview of truly independent driving of Tesla’s electric cars; the preview update has been distributed in Europe since the beginning of March.
Probably the first video with a Tesla that stops under autopilot in front of a red light without another vehicle in front of it, has now been published on Twitter by Out of Spec Motoring, a YouTube channel that tests Tesla and other cars; According to another video, the operator has a Model 3 performance. The autopilot system has also stopped at red lights so far, but only in response to other vehicles that came to a stop before it.
#Tesla #Autopilot stopping for red lights for the first time. pic.twitter.com/M0zkiqyypl
– Out of Spec Motoring (@Out_of_Spec) March 26, 2020
Before the new independent red stop, the Tesla passes several other traffic lights in the video. “Stop for traffic control in” is displayed on the screen together with a distance in feet, but as long as the traffic lights are green, these announcements are not implemented. It is different with the red one: the hint appears here too, but the foot count counts down instead of disappearing again as in the other cases. The screen shows a red stop line, the Model 3 brakes down in time to stop gently in front of it. The display changes to “stopped for traffic control” next to the symbol of a red traffic light.
Autopilot stops even with a stop sign
Initially, this innovation should only be available to Tesla’s “Early Access Program” for deserving customers – the YouTuber did not confirm that he belonged to this group, but said he should not comment on it; other Twitter users speculated that he might not even have been able to publish the video. The hacker @green had already pointed out in mid-March that he had found signs that Tesla will soon not only be able to recognize his traffic lights, but also observe them.
As the Twitter user added with the new video, his Model 3 now not only stops at red lights, but also at stop signs. The autopilot system had also recognized and displayed these since the FSD preview, but had not reacted to them.
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