Tesla replacing ultrasonic sensors with Tesla Vision

[Dewg]

Will i get the exact distance between the car and the yellow post? Only with cameras?

We don't know yet, but those with FSD Beta can attest that the visualizations showing distance to objects around the car is pretty accurate. When I'm close to a curb, my car shows close to the red curb line on screen. When a car pulls close to my car at an intersection, it shows that distance pretty well on screen. Not sure the resolution on it (1 inch resolution? 5 inch resolution?).

 

[eli_]

I'm hoping instead of the "colored arcs" for park assist, we'll get a 3D voxel map from the occupancy network. Color it with a heatmap depending on distance to collision. Bonus points if it can alert for overhead structures, like low ceilings or pipes.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

Completely different things.
Radar needed to work with and combine with vision.

USS can exist in their current form from a driver's informational point of view and be completely ignored by AP/FSD.

I can guarantee they'll disable them fairly soon to simplify parts inventory alone. Tesla doesn't want to hold special bumpers with holes drilled in them in inventory let alone the sensors. so yeah... another feature being deleted and the new feature will be "nearly as good" (kinda like AP going from 90mph with radar to 80mph and then 85mph with vision only. still inferior from speed limit perspective).

 

[electrifyme]

Oh gosh.. Why? Are they gonna disable the ones with it already? Like on my car? Can we opt out?

 

[DarkForest]

Completely different things.
Radar needed to work with and combine with vision.

USS can exist in their current form from a driver's informational point of view and be completely ignored by AP/FSD.

I don’t think that’s going to be true for long. Depending on what the Parking Lot Stack brings (mentioned at AI Day), display info from the USS could contradict what FSD is saying.

 

[mongo]

I can guarantee they'll disable them fairly soon to simplify parts inventory alone. Tesla doesn't want to hold special bumpers with holes drilled in them in inventory let alone the sensors. so yeah... another feature being deleted and the new feature will be "nearly as good" (kinda like AP going from 90mph with radar to 80mph and then 85mph with vision only. still inferior from speed limit perspective).

There's more bumpers with holes than nose cone Model Ss, but that's an interesting point.

 

[blackhawk]

It's hard to understand how a company can be so revolutionary and so boneheaded at the same time.

I use the ultrasonic sensors all the time, and I have exactly zero confidence that FSD will be able to deliver this functionality. Anyone following Elon's long history of FSD promises over the last six years knows what I'm talking about.

Rivian need to hurry up and announce the R1X so I can get my order in.

 

[cgell]

Oh gosh.. Why? Are they gonna disable the ones with it already? Like on my car? Can we opt out?

From Tesla’s announcement page - “At this time, we do not plan to remove the functionality of ultrasonic sensors in our existing fleet.” (link)

Take it with a grain of salt, but that’s their current story.

 

[DarkForest]

You don’t really sound like a shill anymore. Might want to update your signature haha

I’m still a shill for 10.69, though. It’s lol

From Tesla’s announcement page - “At this time, we do not plan to remove the functionality of ultrasonic sensors in our existing fleet.”

I 100% believe that at this time, they don’t plan on removing the functionality. I also 100% believe that it’ll be a last minute decision to remove the functionality some time next year when a pull request gets a little bit complicated and they decide to yeet the USS code.

 

[VT_EE]

Coming soon means 2026

I have no clue how those crapy camera (which are good for FSD and big stuff) will show distances in inches to smaller objects.

I am hoping that HW4 is now included with higher-res cameras. Not holding my breath though.

 

[2101Guy]

From Tesla’s announcement page - “At this time, we do not plan to remove the functionality of ultrasonic sensors in our existing fleet.” (link)

Take it with a grain of salt, but that’s their current story.

yeah, at this point, believing Elon and Tesla (who still has the doctored FSD video on their site) is like Charlie believing Lucy wouldnt yank the football away

Elon and Tesla's credibility via their statements and promises? Shot.

 

[2101Guy]

i also 100% believe horn functionality will be coming to the Yoke and that FSD will be "fully solved" by 12/31/2022

 

[OxBrew]

I think removing USS isn't such a big deal because it's only used for summon and autopark, and those features already have poor performance and huge blind spots because of the limitations of USS. I think it would be hard for vision to be worse than USS. If they retrofit anything it should be more/better cameras, not bring back ultrasonics.

I'm going to take bets though that vision-based summon has new limitations, like it loses the "tight clearance" setting that lets you go down to just a few inches of clearance.

I use USS almost every time I manually park and maneuver around parking lots and my driveway.

NBD, back to the old school park by braille I've been using forever. All those scuffs in your bumpers were me, sorry, city dwellers.

Bumpers should be soft black self healing rubber anyway, like my 78 Saab 99 EMS. 5-10 mph, no damage. Hit a new corvette in a parking lot once, no damage.

 

[brur]

interesting that the software/vision can extrapolate an object's position in space by the "interaction" with items in the background as the scene progresses. This really an amazing ability.
I do wonder if a room-sized picture of an empty garage would fool the camera. With the car driving into the picture after sensing that the back wall (picture) was at a distance

 

[Dewg]

interesting that the software/vision can extrapolate an object's position in space by the "interaction" with items in the background as the scene progresses. This really an amazing ability.
I do wonder if a room-sized picture of an empty garage would fool the camera. With the car driving into the picture after sensing that the back wall (picture) was at a distance

Reminds me of the back up rear camera prank where people tape a picture to the back of the car:

 

[VT_EE]

God I hope not. The phantom drain is already annoying (but manageable). This would basically make the car impossible to leave at an airport for a week or two, or even hard to leave unplugged for a long weekend if you arrive with lower SOC.

Something is going on with your car. I can leave my 3 for weeks and barely lose any charge.

 

[Rotarybuddy]

I have a MY incoming between 10/9-10/23 so I am right on the cusp of receiving a car maybe with sensors and maybe not. Where is the best place to keep an eye to see if they are producing without the sensors and determine if my incoming car has it when they assign a VIN. This is important because I have a lot of travel in October and would try a lot harder to get the car without delay if it has the sensors and won't later or alternatively would try to push to November for a 2023 if it didn't matter sensorwise.

 

[Mardak]

I use USS almost every time I manually park and maneuver around parking lots and my driveway

Are you concerned for recent buyers that they won't have functionality for some short amount of time or that you believe this functionality won't be available for a long time or ever?

Or maybe you think the new functionality will be too complex as Occupancy network would be able to show 3D proximity of nearby objects instead of a few colored arcs and distance numbers?

 

[mongo]

interesting that the software/vision can extrapolate an object's position in space by the "interaction" with items in the background as the scene progresses. This really an amazing ability.
I do wonder if a room-sized picture of an empty garage would fool the camera. With the car driving into the picture after sensing that the back wall (picture) was at a distance

If the system only used single frames, possibly.
However, the car NN uses multiple frames and the points on the flat image would move like points on a 2D surface, not like points distributed in 3D space.

 

[E90alex]

I have a MY incoming between 10/9-10/23 so I am right on the cusp of receiving a car maybe with sensors and maybe not. Where is the best place to keep an eye to see if they are producing without the sensors and determine if my incoming car has it when they assign a VIN. This is important because I have a lot of travel in October and would try a lot harder to get the car without delay if it has the sensors and won't later or alternatively would try to push to November for a 2023 if it didn't matter sensorwise.

They likely haven’t started production for Q4 yet. So likely all Q4 production from the date of the announcement (yesterday) will be no sensors moving forward.