Tesla recently announced that it will convert the Model S and Model X from radar to Pure Vision, and its autopilot and fully autonomous driving kits will also use a camera-based approach.
In fact, in May 2021, Tesla announced that all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered from that month will no longer be equipped with radar, and these vehicles after the removal of radar will use Tesla's "Pure Vision" method, that is, use its eight external cameras to perform semi-autonomous driving functions. As for why Tesla did not announce the transition of model S and Model X vehicles to pure vision, but chose the Model 3 and Model Y, we speculated at the time that the Model 3 and Model Y are models that are more popular in the mass market, and if the Pure Vision solution is used on these two models, Tesla will be able to obtain a lot of data in a short period of time.
However, Tesla officially announced on its "Transition to Tesla Vision" webpage last night that all Model S and Model X vehicles produced from mid-February will only be equipped with Pure Vision and will no longer use any radar to perform its functions. Tesla later said: "Vehicles using Pure Vision may not be able to use certain features, Autosteer will be limited to a top speed of 128km and will have a longer following distance than usual, in the next few weeks, Tesla will begin to restore these functions through a series of over-the-air software updates, and all other available Autopilot and fully autonomous driving functions will be enabled at the time of delivery, depending on the order configuration." ”
Tesla has been implementing a shift to a vision-based approach for some time, and in last year's first quarter 2021 earnings call, Musk said that Tesla vehicles can not need radar because humans can only use vision to drive, Musk believes that vehicles can also rely only on vision: "Pure vision (Pure Vision) scheme can drive better than some excellent people, because when you are working, you will use different cameras to expand the field of view, like in your back spoon, With eyes on his head, Musk said a purer vision solution could allow Tesla to create a safer transportation solution than the average person can drive. ”