Last week, it was discovered that Tesla had started upgrading the cameras on its vehicles, specifically seen on a 2023 Model 3 without ultrasonic sensors in the front and rear bumpers.
New side repeater cameras were seen, along with a slightly modified B-Pillar camera as well. Many suspect these camera upgrades are the next step in the continuous improvement of Tesla’s Autopilot system and Full Self-Driving beta.
Now, we’re seeing an interior cabin camera upgrade as well in the Model Y. According to Tesla North reader @MateenOmair, the cabin camera has changed in the 2022 Model Y, compared to his 2021 Model Y.
Below is the picture of the cabin camera in the 2021 Model Y:
…and here’s the cabin camera in the 2022 Model Y. @MateenOmair tells us their 2022 Model Y was delivered back in May of this year.
What’s the purpose of the cabin camera? Tesla says, “The cabin camera can determine driver inattentiveness and provide you with audible alerts, to remind you to keep your eyes on the road when Autopilot is engaged.”
“By default, images and video from the camera do not leave the vehicle itself and are not transmitted to anyone, including Tesla, unless you enable data sharing. If you enable data sharing and a safety critical event occurs (such as a collision), Model Y shares short cabin camera video clips with Tesla to help us develop future safety enhancements and continuously improve the intelligence of features that rely on the cabin camera,” explains Tesla’s Model Y manual. “Data may also be shared if diagnostics are required on cabin camera functionality. Cabin camera does not perform facial recognition or any other method of identity verification. To protect your privacy, cabin camera data is not associated with your vehicle identification number.”
On Thursday, Tesla China follower Chris Zheng shared on Twitter, “Tesla’s tier 2 supplier Lianchuang Electronics said on the investor platform in China that the mass production and delivery of the HW4.0 platform camera has begun. @elonmusk Can you confirm it?”.
https://twitter.com/ChrisZheng001/status/1583014125290283008
Earlier this year, it was reported by the Korean Economic Daily that Samsung had won a multi-billion dollar camera module deal from Tesla, to supply cameras for Model S/X, Model 3/Y, Cybertruck and Semi, said unnamed sources. These cameras would be Samsung’s version 4.0 cameras with 5 million pixels, with images five times clearer than its predecessors.
Update: Looks like this new camera is also within the 2022 Model X, according to @cdadamek:
The larger one is the same as in my September build 22 Model X.
— Chris Adamek (@cdadamek) October 21, 2022
Tesla Vision Autopilot now relies solely on cameras and no longer needs ultrasonic sensors, with the latter first being removed in the Model 3/Y and in 2023 for Model S/X.
