In May last year Tesla announced all new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were no longer equipped with radar.
Instead the automaker was moving to Tesla Vision, relying on the car’s multiple cameras to drive its safety features and driver-assist software.
The decision was controversial for many reasons, one of which was that the plans did not include the flagship Model S and Model X.
The reasoning provided was that the Model 3/Y were their high-volume vehicles, and they could utilize the large amount of data from that part of the fleet to improve Tesla Vision.
It appears as though the vision-based software has improved enough to now be included on the Model S and Model X.
According to the “Transitioning to Tesla Vision” support page, all of Tesla’s cars are no longer equipped with radar as of mid-February. (h/t: @JeffTutorials)
As of mid-February 2022, all Model S and Model X built for the North American market utilize Tesla Vision. All Model S and Model X built for the North American market prior are equipped with radar.
Tesla does make the distinction that it is only impacts cars built for the North American market, however they have not completed any deliveries outside of North America since shutting down the production lines in December 2020 to retool them for the refresh design.
According to CEO Elon Musk, the decision to move away from using radar and instead rely on cameras only is based on the premise that humans drive using their eyes and a biological neural net (the brain), so that is the only way to solve self-driving.
Vision became so good that radar actually reduced SNR, so radar was turned off.
Humans drive with eyes & biological neural nets, so makes sense that cameras & silicon neural nets are only way to achieve generalized solution to self-driving.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2021
