Tesla announced recently that it will fully switch to the Tesla Vision self-driving system, including in the high-end Model S and Model X, and will also bid farewell to in-vehicle radar.
Tesla said that starting in mid-February 2022, Model S and Model X produced in the North American market will have the Tesla Vision system enabled. In other words, these two high-end cars will no longer be equipped with radar.
Starting in May 2021, Tesla began to introduce Tesla Vision, an autonomous driving software that relies entirely on cameras and computer calculations, and does not require other sensors. The first models launched were the Model 3 and Model Y, and now high-end models will join the ranks.
In the process of autonomous driving development, automakers and software manufacturers around the world are divided into two camps. One is Tesla, who believes that computer vision can do all the work that the human eye can handle without the assistance of other sensors. In the other camp are other manufacturers who believe that computer operations are limited and must rely on lidar, radar, ultrasonic, infrared, and other sensors to assist in controlling speed, distance, and other factors, paired and with high-precision maps, in order to achieve true autonomous driving.
As of now, no manufacturer has achieved Level 5 fully autonomous driving, so it is too early to say which one will win, but Tesla Vision has passed safety verification amid many doubters. At the end of 2021, both IIHS and Consumer Reports gave Model Y the highest safety rating for the pure vision solution, proving that it can provide the same efficacy as radar and lidar with only cameras.
At present, only Model S and Model X in the North American market will use Tesla Vision, and there will still be radars sold in other regions, but if Tesla's history is any indication, Tesla's entire car series will soon bid farewell to radar.
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