Tesla hacker @greentheonly is back with more tidbits about the electric vehicle maker’s plan, and this time it involves 4D radar.
“On the more surprising front: the sensor types were extended. First, there’s new ultrasonics type Tesla – so they apparently go in-house with the new ones trying to address shortcomings of the existing ones? The other sensor that got options is radar,” says the hacker.
“Reportedly Tesla has been working on in-house radar sensors for a long time trying to meet Elon’s push for “higher resolution, 2x longer range”. Big radar vendors long product cycle times certainly did not help either so there’s nothing to buy from them [at the moment],” added @greentheonly.
“Anyway the in-house radar efforts appear to either be failing or too far behind the schedule/goals so Tesla apparently decided to buy a solution from an outside vendor again and their product certainly seems to be ticking all the requirement checkboxes,” explained @greentheonly on Twitter.
“The vendor appears to be Arbe Robotics and their website has a bunch of material that many of you would find resembling output of a sensor that Tesla cannot include due to perceived loss of face,” says @greentheonly.
The vendor appears to be Arbe Robotix and their website has a bunch of material that many of you would find resembling output of a sensor that Tesla cannot include due to perceived loss of face. https://t.co/364G43oXvJ pic.twitter.com/EtDFRzuxdj
— green (@greentheonly) October 22, 2020
Arbe Robotics is based out of Tel Aviv, Israel and was founded in 2015. It now appears Tesla is using the company’s 4D radar solution, as per @greentheonly.
Tesla released its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta yesterday for select owners, and so far it is quite impressive.
Back in August, Musk explained, “The FSD improvement will come as a quantum leap, because it’s a fundamental architectural rewrite, not an incremental tweak. I drive the bleeding edge alpha build in my car personally. Almost at zero interventions between home & work.”
The Autopilot software rewrite, as Musk had previously explained is going from 2.5D to 4D, as we see it today in its beta form.
This is what I meant by “4D” https://t.co/xpX7j5SnPy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2020
Tesla’s current radar system has a max range of 524 feet (160 meters). “With a wavelength that passes through fog, dust, rain, snow and under cars, radar plays an essential role in detecting and responding to forward objects,” explains Tesla’s website.
According to Arbe Robotics, its Phoenix radar has 984 feet of range (300 meters), which is nearly double Tesla’s existing radar setup. It remains unclear if and when Tesla will be using this new radar technology. But one thing is certain, it will surely help Tesla’s FSD efforts and the forthcoming Robotaxi network.
Earlier this afternoon, @greentheonly also revealed more goodies are coming to the Tesla Model Y, including a folding third row and HEPA filter with support for Bioweapon Defense Mode.
