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Hacker finds Tesla is working on a neighborhood-friendly Autopilot

Tesla’s Autopilot suite of semiautonomous technology is a work in progress, and the company is putting a lot of effort into making it better and smarter every year. Autopilot-equipped Tesla models are about to learn how to recognize stop signs and traffic lights, according to a hacker known as Green who cracks open the automaker’s secret files as a hobby.

Posting on Twitter, Green explained Tesla expanded its repertoire of 3D assets with a stop sign on a pole, and several traffic lights. If you need a brief refresher course, the 3D assets are used to show the driver what the car is doing while it’s traveling on Autopilot mode. For example, if your Model S is in a construction zone, the hardware that powers the system detects traffic cones, and the software displays them on the instrument cluster. The technology shows lane markings, too.

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The 3D renderings are ways for Tesla to quell anxiety surrounding the use of semi-autonomous technology, like Autopilot. By seeing their surroundings on a screen, motorists know the car is perfectly aware of the environment it’s operating in, and it will behave accordingly. The software is capable of telling the difference between a pedestrian and an Audi RS 5.

While Tesla hasn’t commented on the report, Green’s findings suggest engineers are adding more functions to Autopilot in a bid to improve how it navigates urban environments. Making semiautonomous technology for highway use is relatively easy; the car needs to stay in its lane, it needs to maintain a constant speed, and it needs to brake when the vehicle in front of it slows down. It’s like combining lane-keeping assist, cruise control, and collision avoidance. Making it suitable for urban environments is more difficult, however, because intersections can be tricky to navigate, and a number of other factors come into play, like kids running across the road. Waymo has mostly figured it out, but it’s ahead of the pack.

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Ronan Glon
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
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