Tesla stops including radar in the new Model S and X

The American manufacturer has just officially confirmed that the Model S and X units are already coming off the assembly line They lack radar as part of their equipmentThe company is thus following the path it started previously with the Model 3 and Model Y, in which it also eliminated the radar to focus on its technology. Tesla Vision, which exclusively uses the eight cameras surrounding the vehicle to support its AutoPilot autonomous driving system.

Tesla's decision to do away with radar in the Model 3 and Model Y, taken last may, then raised some skepticism among the media and many of its customers. Many of them doubted that this technology would be able to detect obstacles with the same precision as a radar. However, Elon Musk has remained firm in his idea, assuring that if a human driver is able to control a vehicle using only his two eyes, How could it not be a system based not on two, but on eight cameras in total?.

The elimination of the radar also in the Model S and X therefore confirms that the American manufacturer is convinced that technology Tesla Vision It is the right way to move forward in the development of autonomous driving.

No radar, no LiDAR… just cameras

The company has already updated its website to indicate this change in the equipment of the Model S and X, adding the following message:

«Starting in mid-2022, all Model S and Model X models manufactured for the North American market will use Tesla Vision technology. Models produced before then do have radar.»

It is also important to note that in the new Model S and X that no longer include radar, the use of Autopilot is limited to 80 miles per hour on the highway and, on the other hand, the minimum distance that the vehicle will maintain with the one in front It will be greater than in those models that do have radar.It is to be expected, however, that these limitations will disappear over time with successive software updates that the manufacturer will release.

Something similar also happened when Tesla removed the radar from the Model 3 and Model Y. At that time the function Smart Summons temporarily stopped working and the maximum speed at which the vehicle could travel with Autopilot activated was even lower, just 75 miles per hour.