[Update: June 30] Tesla Model Y (no radar) issues with vision-only autopilot at night & flashing hi-beam in the rain come to light

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…

Original story (published on May 31, 2021) follows:

Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built on or after April 27, 2021 no longer come with radar. That has instead been replaced with Tesla Vision – a driver-assist system that relies almost completely on the car’s cameras.

Tesla had earlier justified this move by saying that this is a major step towards level 5 autonomy. However, the newly introduced tech does come with a set of caveats.

Firstly, Smart Summon and Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance have been disabled completely. This is combined with a reduction in the top speed of the Autosteer (which helps the car stay centered in its lane) from 90 mph to 75 mph.

The company has promised that these issues will be fixed with future OTA updates though, so you shouldn’t be missing out on Full Self-Driving Capability for long.

However, peeps with newly purchased Tesla Model Ys have been skeptical with the change and have hence been discussing and reviewing it for assurance’s sakes across social media.

Take this owner for example, that got a prompt notifying of a speed reduction on autopilot mode due to inclement weather. However, the ‘inclement weather’ in question was actually just a drizzle.

Seems like the loss of radar is harming one of the best features of the vehicle. What a shame. We’ll see how the software works moving forward, but there’s a reason the model S and X still have radar.
Source

If tesla is removing front radars to only rely on cameras for auto pilot, what happens if its poor weather and most cameras are covered? Is it actually possible that this is a better move or is there a chance radars get put back into Teslas?
Source

The problems did not end there as the owner reported a gradual reduction in speed to around 55 mph – which was dangerously slow for a parkway.

Due to this, the owner had to not only disengage autopilot but also couldn’t enable cruise control as it only allows TaCC.

All this is just another card in the deck of Tesla’s newlyfound love for cameras and the resultant ditching of sensors for the same job.

Another Tesla Model Y owner reported that the Autopilot now requires Auto High Beam to be turned on all the time in order to function.

Now, high beam doesn’t seem to be much of a problem in the US. However, in the EU, it has been reported as unusable in several cases due to stringent road rules, because of which autopilot cannot be easily turned on.

Nonetheless, if issues like these are acting as a cause of bother for you, then it will be ‘comforting’ to know that they’re quite expected, given the fact the camera tech is still fairly new.

As already mentioned, Tesla has promised that they’ll be making improvements with future OTA updates so we will surely be seeing enhancements in the tech with time.

Who knows, maybe the new camera tech will eventually end up being far more efficient than the old radar one ever was. After all, it is yet another step towards the fully autonomous ‘driving’ experience.

05:17 pm (IST): The latest update for the Tesla Model Y carrying the version number 2021.4.18.10 just went live. It removes the 75 mph speed limit and restores smart summon and lane departure assistance.

PiunikaWeb started purely as an investigative tech journalism website with a main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Fox News, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, MacRumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.