Incredible footage of a Tesla vehicle utilizing its autopilot mode in order to avoid a car crash mere seconds before it happened has gone viral, showcasing how the autonomous technology can dramatically improve road safety.
The video was captured by a Dutch Tesla car owner’s dashcam, showing how the feature’s version 8.0 update worked to prevent the vehicle from becoming embroiled in a nasty accident. This new update allows Tesla vehicles to see two cars ahead of them on the road, meaning that they can now sense oncoming dangers that would have previously been obstructed by other cars. Hans Noordsij, who reported upon the accident, wrote that “no one could predict the accident but the radar did,” adding: “[It] acted by emergency braking.”
Watch the video below:
Original video, authorisation from the owner. Essential, no one could predict the accident but the radar did and acted by emergency braking. pic.twitter.com/70MySRiHGR
— Hans Noordsij (@HansNoordsij) December 27, 2016
The Autopilot mode was released as an over-the-air software update for the Tesla Model S and X, with it having been consistently improved by Elon Musk’s automotive company since its initial rollout. While it doesn’t make the cars fully autonomous, with it still being required that the driver is available to take control of the wheel at any moment, it is at least a major step forward towards there eventually being self-driving Tesla vehicles on our roads.
Tesla has come under fire in the past over suspicions regarding the safety of Autopilot, with the Model S being involved in a fatality in Florida earlier this year when 45-year-old Joshua Brown’s Tesla car went under the trailer of an 18-wheeler. Tesla CEO Musk released a statement following the tragic crash, offering his condolences but reasserting that this was an anomaly considering the 200 million Tesla cars currently utilizing Autopilot, and that due to the damage inflicted on the vehicle it was impossible to determine whether or not the driver had activated Autopilot Mode prior to the crash. According to Noordsij’s report, everyone was “OK” following the car crash seen in the above video.
