Tesla began delivering the first cars without radar this week, opting to use only cameras for Autopilot with what the automaker is calling Tesla Vision.
Many Tesla fans expressed concern with the new approach, wondering how the self-driving and active safety features would work with just the cameras on the vehicle.
DaxM, a new Tesla owner in Ontario took his radar-less Model Y for a drive to test Autopilot on Canadian roads.
We first get to see the Autopilot settings screen. When Tesla announced the shift to Tesla Vision, it said Autosteer, Smart Summon, and Emergency Lane Departure will be either “temporarily limited or inactive.” As we can see in the video, all features are available except ‘Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance”. This setting is greyed out, with a caption that says the feature “will be enabled in a future software release.”
Dax’s Model Y does not have Full Self-Driving (FSD), so Smart Summon is not available.
He then takes the Model Y out on the road to test Autopilot. The big question that remains is how the cameras will perform in scenarios where the radar shined. One such scenario is being able to see the car two cars ahead and be able to tell if it is braking before the driver can see it, something which radar does with ease.
During the test he was behind a large garbage truck, showing that it would be nearly impossible for the cameras to see in front of the truck.
Overall the system worked well. It detected and stayed within the lanes and slowed down when vehicles in front slowed down. For obvious reasons he wasn’t able to test some of the other active safety features like emergency collision avoidance.
We will no doubt see more tests as more owners receive vehicles without radar.
Be sure to check out the full video below for all the details.
