In late April, Tesla released its traffic light and stop sign feature for Autopilot in the U.S., enhancing more self-driving features for owners of its electric vehicles.
There was no confirmation from Tesla on when this new Autopilot feature was coming to Canada, but the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, confirmed on Twitter yesterday it was “a few weeks away.”
A few weeks away
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2020
The Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control feature is currently in beta and according to Tesla, “is designed to recognize and respond to traffic lights and stop signs, slowing your car to a stop when using Traffic-Aware Cruise Control or Autosteer. This feature will slow the car for all detected traffic lights, including green, blinking yellow, and off lights.”
“As your car approaches an intersection, your car will indicate the intention to slow down via a notification, slow down, and stop at the red line shown on the driving visualization,” further adds the feature’s release notes.
In order to keep going through a stop line, Tesla owners need to push down the gear selector once or lightly press the accelerator pedal to confirm it is safe to keep going. Tesla says drivers need to maintain full control of the car like with all Autopilot features and over time, as machine learning soaks up data from vehicles, “the feature will control more naturally,” says the company.
Tesla eventually aims to have its vehicles such as the Model 3 work as part of a ‘robotaxi’ fleet, allowing owners to make money from their cars working as self-driving taxis. The timeline for this to happen still appears to be far off, based on the current status of self-driving features within Autopilot.
