Yesterday we told you about the first video showing a Tesla Model 3 recognizing and responding to traffic lights, a hint that Autopilot working on city streets would be coming soon. Now more details about the upcoming feature have emerged, and (for now) it’s not good news for Canadian Tesla owners.
Tesla hacker @greentheonly found reference to the new “Stopping at Traffic Lights and Stop Signs” feature in a manual, and unfortunately it appears the feature will at first only be available in the US.
It could be a while until we see this new feature in Canada.In a statement to Drive Tesla, @greentheonly says it appears the feature will be limited to members of the Early Access Program (EAP). If it follows a similar pattern to the release of Smart Summon, it will stay in EAP for a while, then a wide release to US owners, and sometime later a release in Canada.
While this is disappointing, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise as Canada has lagged behind on several features, most recently the Full Self-Driving (FSD) visualization preview. That was released in late December last year, but Canada didn’t get it until earlier this month.
The manual goes into detail about how the feature works. Interestingly, the vehicle doesn’t have to be on Autopilot to recognize and respond to traffic lights. According to the manual, it will work when either Autopilot is engaged, or when Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) is active as well.
It also explains the feature “uses the vehicle’s forward-facing cameras, in addition to GPS data, to detect upcoming traffic lights, stop signs, and road markings.”
Another interesting find from the manual is that even if a traffic light is green, the vehicle will still slow down and a red line will appear on the screen showing where the vehicle will come to a complete stop. If you want to proceed through the intersection, you must press down on the gear lever (right stalk), or press down on the accelerator pedal.
The manual also details how the vehicle should typically respond in various situations, like on a yellow light, or when the light changes after confirmation from the driver. It also shows how the vehicle will respond to various intersection configurations.
Check out all the details below.
