In May of this year Tesla decided to retire the frontal radar of the Model 3 and Model Y in the United States to replace it with the “Pure Vision” system exclusively based on cameras. The lost score at that time is back.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the United States plays a role in advice to consumers in the country with their crash tests and safety evaluations. It’s like Euro NCAP, an organization independent of manufacturers and the US Government.
When Tesla withdrew the front-facing radar from its two lower-priced models, not only did the IIHS see it with reservations, so did the NHTSA, under the US government, and so did the independent Consumer Reports. Safety scores dropped for all three entities, bad news for Tesla.
Of these three, the IIHS grants an award that every manufacturer would like for itself, the “Top Safety Pick +”, which we can translate as “the safest option on the market”, and for this it is necessary to obtain very high scores in both electronic assistance and passive safety.
In passive safety there are no changes
According to the IIHS, both 2021-2022 Model 3 What 2021-2022 Model Y they already meet the criteria to obtain the aforementioned award. After having performed tests in the simulation of vehicle against vehicle, and vehicle against pedestrian, the cameras supported by neural networks achieved the score “Higher”.
Interestingly, that score is higher than that of its predecessors, which were equipped with a frontal radar with an effective range of 160 meters. That system stayed in «Advanced». In his day, Tesla defended that the eight cameras allow a vision of 250 meters, further than the radar of yore.
It’s more, According to the manufacturer, artificial vision cameras can collect more information of the world around the vehicle, thanks to the enhanced image processing capabilities. The cameras had not improved more than in a technical nuance on the capture of luminosity and colors.
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Tesla called this system “Pure Vision”, which went into production at the same time as the beta 9.0 system “Full Self-Driving” or FSD. Far from being an autonomous system, it is still an SAE Level 2 Driver Assistance. Therefore, the driver must remain aware of the road even if he takes his hands off the wheel.
For Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, the company’s effort was focused on improving safetyConsidering then that the radar was more in the way than helping. In fact, with frontal radar the phenomenon of “phantom braking” could occur, when something that is not an obstacle, such as a bridge over a highway, is perceived as an obstacle.
According to the IIHS scoring system, it is possible to obtain the TSP + with both a score «Advanced» What “Higher” with regard to automatic braking systems, and in addition there must be a minimum of “Good” in passive safety tests.
In short, for practical purposes the IIHS considers the 2021 and 2021-2022 models of Model 3 / Y equally safe, agreeing with the manufacturer. NHTSA still won’t, giving the highest safety score to models produced on or before April 27, 2021, marked as “Early Release”.
There is still a technological pulse between manufacturers who believe there must be various sensors sensing the exterior of the vehicle, including radar and LiDAR, and Tesla, who do not believe it is necessary. The models in discord “only” have eight TV cameras covering 360 degrees and 12 ultrasound sensors.
Tesla prefers to play the token of the “software” advanced as a way to dispense with these sensors. His reasoning is simple, human drivers have neither radar nor LiDAR, we perceive more than 90% of the information only through our eyes, and that with enough cameras and real-time processing power, no more is needed.