Image: Tesla
Tesla is pushing out a software update that could make its cars meaningfully safer in a crash, and owners won’t have to do anything to get it.
The update uses Tesla Vision, the camera system already built into the vehicle, to help deploy airbags up to 70 milliseconds faster when a collision is unavoidable. That might not sound like much, but Tesla engineers say it can be the difference between walking away from a crash and a serious injury.
The way it works is fairly straightforward. The cameras around the car watch for approaching vehicles and can determine when contact is going to happen and how hard the hit will be. That information gets sent to the airbag controller before impact, giving it a head start that the physical impact sensors alone can’t provide. Those sensors are still doing their job, Tesla is just adding more information to help them decide faster.
Check out the video below:
The whole thing arrives as an over-the-air update, so existing Tesla owners will simply wake up one morning with a car that is safer than it was the night before. No service appointment, no new hardware. Tesla says the improvement goes beyond what a standard five-star safety rating even measures.
One thing worth noting: it’s not yet clear whether this update applies to all Tesla vehicles or only newer models equipped with a front bumper camera. Tesla’s video repeatedly highlights that camera specifically, which suggests it may play a key role in how the system works.
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