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Adding another camera to the front bumper

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Has anyone DIYed a wide FOV camera to the nose of the car with a companion interior display?

After watching videos of Teslas with the FSD beta 9 trying to do unprotected left turns, it seems like the existing camera mix has issues in these situations. The B pillar cams are positioned just a bit too far back to safely display cross traffic on a busy highway. To compensate, the car tends to nose out as far as it can to get a better view.

This page has been posted here previously. If you scroll down, you get a schematic of the present Tesla sensor mix.

 
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Has anyone DIYed a wide FOV camera to the nose of the car with a companion interior display?

After watching videos of Teslas with the FSD beta 9 trying to do unprotected left turns, it seems like the existing camera mix has issues in these situations. The B pillar cams are positioned just a bit too far back to safely display cross traffic on a busy highway. To compensate, the car tends to nose out as far as it can to get a better view.

This page has been posted here previously. If you scroll down, you get a schematic of the present Tesla sensor mix.

I agree that an additional pair of cameras (at apex of front bumper, one left and one right-looking) will likely be needed for L4, for sure. The difficulty in blind intersections can logically be programmed to have the driver take over in those situations.
 
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Reactions: beachmiles
Has anyone DIYed a wide FOV camera to the nose of the car with a companion interior display?

After watching videos of Teslas with the FSD beta 9 trying to do unprotected left turns, it seems like the existing camera mix has issues in these situations. The B pillar cams are positioned just a bit too far back to safely display cross traffic on a busy highway. To compensate, the car tends to nose out as far as it can to get a better view.

This page has been posted here previously. If you scroll down, you get a schematic of the present Tesla sensor mix.

Yes, some of us have been discussing this on and off. I think it's a very significant question regarding the camera suite, i.e. the number of cameras and their placement ls.

See this recent post and the prior and subsequent replies. I could dig up a few earlier ones as well.

Post in thread 'FSD Beta Videos (and questions for FSD Beta drivers)' FSD Beta Videos (and questions for FSD Beta drivers)
 
I agree that an additional pair of cameras (at apex of front bumper, one left and one right-looking) will likely be needed for L4, for sure. The difficulty in blind intersections can logically be programmed to have the driver take over in those situations.
I disagree.
I still feel like the FSD beta is not running on the full 360 view (I know that FSD Beta v9 is pure vision - but not convinced it is a full 360 unified view)
Here is an example...

Watching so many video's (especially Chuck's unprotected turns bonanza) it seem (pure speculation on my part) that the car is running 2 sub-stacks -- one Forward facing view (3 cam + 2 B pillar cams = 5 cams all forward facing) and second Rear facing view (2 repeater cams plus reverse cam = 3 cams)

To me, it feels like these are separate stacks still. at the first right turn (@ 30 second mark) the car comes up, starts turning, slows down once repeater cam can see the lanes to the left and then goes again, as if deciding when to switch from using data from forward facing vs rear facing view.

Right now, in production builds this is the last gap of "vision/perception related" functionality that is still not smooth (as if images are not properly stitched together).
This has been improving greatly this year (last 4 months) as cars turning from cross traffic towards the Tesla are now rendered more consistently, but the jump from B-pillar to Repeater cams can still be easily observed on the MCU renderings.

The above, again, is just my speculation.
 
I see lots of discussion about the placement of the cameras and their effectiveness. It would be really interesting to learn why Tesla chose the locations they did. I would bet a large amount of money that it was not a simple oversight. I'm sure the idea of cameras at the corners was considered and dismissed many years ago.
 
I see lots of discussion about the placement of the cameras and their effectiveness. It would be really interesting to learn why Tesla chose the locations they did. I would bet a large amount of money that it was not a simple oversight. I'm sure the idea of cameras at the corners was considered and dismissed many years ago.
If I had to guess it's about keeping the cameras clean. Think how quick cameras at the bumper level facing forward or side would get dirty. I know there are ways to self-clean them but that costs money and adds complexity. If you put the forward-facing cameras up high, they are more likely to stay clean (like the B pillar cams), the rear-facing cameras have the bulge of the repeater to deflect spray from the road.
 
If I had to guess it's about keeping the cameras clean. Think how quick cameras at the bumper level facing forward or side would get dirty. I know there are ways to self-clean them but that costs money and adds complexity. If you put the forward-facing cameras up high, they are more likely to stay clean (like the B pillar cams), the rear-facing cameras have the bulge of the repeater to deflect spray from the road.
In the linked post I mentioned above, my suggestion was to incorporate front corner cameras into a redesigned headlight assembly. Not only does this provide the best-available angle of view for cross-traffic, it avoids a body-panel redesign and maximizes the possibility of retrofit to existing cars (subject to the wiring issues that are solvable though likely not trivial).

Headlight housings are already designed to stay as clean as possible through airflow, water shedding and surface-treatment methods, and it's well understood how to add washers if needed - though Tesla has clearly tried hard to avoid that complication.

...It would be really interesting to learn why Tesla chose the locations they did. I would bet a large amount of money that it was not a simple oversight. I'm sure the idea of cameras at the corners was considered and dismissed many years ago.
Yes, I also said that I don't like to second-guess other clearly competent designers - but still this decision is one of the hardest for me to understand. It does really seem, from a combination of geometry and demonstrated behavior of the FSD beta cars, that the system would really benefit from the far-forward cross-traffic aka corner cameras.