Tesla Releases Autopilot Features Available via Download
Electric car-maker releases self-driving features
Not content with breaking Consumer Reports’ rating system with the highest scoring car in history, Tesla has introduced self-driving features for its electric cars, available, of course, for wireless download.
On Thursday, Tesla released a software update for their cars that uses radar, ultrasonic sensors, cameras, and GPS already built into the vehicles to detect lanes and speed signs.
That means provided the conditions are right, you can literally take your hands off the steering wheel and let the car drive itself – sort of.
The car will steer itself on highways, change lanes at the push of a button, and manage throttle and breaking relative to other vehicles on the road — provided weather conditions aren’t too hairy.
But possibly the coolest feature, particularly for those of us challenged in these matters, is that it will scan for a space and parallel park on command. Valet parking features, we’re told, are in the pipeline.
While calling its Version 7 software “Autopilot,” Tesla stresses “the driver is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car.”
“While truly driverless cars are still a few years away, Tesla Autopilot functions like the systems that airplane pilots use when conditions are clear,” the automaker explained on their website.
Like all things Tesla, it doesn’t come cheap, with the download priced at $2,500.
But, like all things Tesla, which produces the fastest sedan ever built and just released the fastest SUV ever built, you get what you pay for.
