Tesla announced Wednesday evening that all of its 2018 models—the Model X, Model S, and Model 3—will come equipped with standard self-driving hardware.
These AutoPilot features open the door for fully autonomous cars and are intended to build a bridge to this future. According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, these cars will be able to drive themselves completely.
The hardware itself means adaptive cruise control, collision warning, automatic emergency breaking, and lane assistance. Each Tesla will boast eight cameras, 12 sensors, a forward-facing radar, and a newly revamped onboard computer capable of proverbially taking the wheel and driving.
But the 2018 models will not fully enable self-driving, and these bells and whistles will be initially intended to assist in driver safety.
In July, the world’s first death was reported in an autonomous vehicle—also a Tesla. As the Daily Dot reported, the accident was caused when its driver and the Autopilot feature on his Model S failed to see “the white side of a commercial tractor trailer against a bright sky; the trailer was turning perpendicular in front of the vehicle, Tesla said. The Model S drove under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer shearing the roof off the Tesla.”
H/T Tesla