Tesla recently released an update to the hardware configuration of the new car. It will use the TeslaVision driver assistance system based entirely on the camera instead of the ultrasonic sensor (USS) in the sensor kit. Industry experts pointed out to reporters that the ultrasonic sensor in the field of autonomous driving is an ultrasonic radar. Tesla's move is a major change, completely replacing the radar with a pure vision solution, which means that only the camera is left in the vehicle sensing hardware. However,101On the evening of October 6, relevant persons of Tesla China replied to the reporter of Shanghai Securities Journal that Tesla China had not received the notice of change of ultrasonic radar.
Tesla's whole car radar is completely cleared.
According to Tesla's plan, the first batch of areas and time when ultrasonic sensors are no longer equipped are: from the first ten days of 2022 10, all Model3 and ModelY manufactured by Tesla for users in North America, Europe, the Middle East and other regions will no longer use ultrasonic sensors, and rely entirely on pure vision to provide FSD (fully automatic driving), EAP (enhanced automatic assisted driving), AP (automatic assisted driving) and active safety functions. Starting from 2023, Tesla will remove the ultrasonic sensors on ModelS and ModelX.
After canceling the ultrasonic radar, some functions of Tesla-related models will be temporarily limited or unavailable, such as parking assistance (front/rear radar), automatic parking, and summoning (moving the vehicle forward or backward through Tesla App). In the future, the pure vision scheme will be enabled, and the information input of ultrasonic radar will be replaced by OTA online upgrade.
"We haven't received the notice of the change of the ultrasonic radar, and there is no official information to change the configuration. Tesla China will update the configuration information in the first time. " A person from Tesla China told reporters. In this regard, some auto industry analysts pointed out that in China, the dismantling of auto-related hardware generally needs to be reported for approval and approved by the regulatory authorities, so this time Tesla did not give the specific time for China Tesla to dismantle the ultrasonic radar.
It is worth noting that in 202 1 year, Tesla began to transition to a purely visual solution. First, the millimeter-wave radar on Model3/ModelY was cancelled, and then the millimeter-wave radar on ModelS and ModelX was cancelled in 2022. At present, the front and rear bumpers of Model3/ModelY are equipped with 12 ultrasonic radar, and the short-range acoustic radar is mainly used for parking and detecting close-range objects.
The battle of automatic driving route between radar and camera
After the new energy of automobiles, smart cars represented by autonomous driving have become a hot spot in the market. Qiu Bin, an associate researcher at Tsinghua University Vehicle and Transportation Research Institute, said that in the traditional driving mode, people rely on human eyes and brains to collect and process information, and then adjust the state of the vehicle according to the information, while automatic driving actually relies on machines to collect information and make decisions. At present, the most difficult thing is whether the machine can accurately collect and identify various scenes. In the automatic driving scene, cameras, lidar, millimeter-wave radar and ultrasonic radar can all be the choices of car companies.
Among them, Tesla is a typical car company that chooses cameras. Tesla CEO Musk has publicly stated that any enterprise that relies on lidar is doomed to have no future. Roads are designed for people who use "eyes" and "brains". It is best for cars to use cameras and artificial neural networks to reproduce this behavior pattern. "Lidar is like a bunch of appendices on people."
But at the same time, China automobile companies, including many listed companies, are keen to use radar to improve vehicle performance. 2022 is even called the first year of lidar. So far this year, China has announced nearly 20 new models equipped with lidar. Huaxi Securities Research Report proposes that the installed capacity of passenger car lidar in China will exceed 80,000 units in 2022, and the compound growth rate of passenger car lidar market in China will exceed 200% in the next three years, which will benefit relevant industrial chain companies.
In terms of vehicle enterprises, Weilai's new car ES7 is equipped with 1550nm lidar Falcon provided by InnoVusion. The new HI version of Arctic Fox Alpha S jointly launched by Beiqi Blue Valley and Huawei is equipped with 3 lidar and 34 sensors. Tucki's new car G9 is equipped with two laser radars and five millimeter-wave radars. The starting price of Gaohe HiPhiZ is 600,000 yuan, and 32 driving assistance sensors are standard, including: 1 lidar, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radar. Baidu's 6th generation unmanned vehicle RT6 is equipped with 38 sensors, including up to 8 lidar.
In addition, in order to further improve the function of autonomous driving, many domestic car companies are improving the number and performance of sensors, such as developing 4D millimeter-wave radar to promote the mass production of lidar.
In the first three quarters of 2022, the cumulative sales volume of Tesla's new cars has reached 908,000, ranking second among global new energy automobile companies. Tesla's complete abandonment undoubtedly poured a cold water on the autopilot radar. However, Wu Hao, a partner of roland berger, told reporters that different technical routes have their own advantages and disadvantages, and a complete camera route will also face challenges in an environment with limited perception, which requires high physical performance of the camera. However, without radar, the cost of the whole vehicle can indeed be reduced. After all, laser radar and other equipment are expensive.