Tesla Autopilot Driving Visuals Test Proves FSD's Vision-Based Approach

Recent Tesla Autopilot driving visualization tests have demonstrated how the electric car maker’s vision-based approach works in real-world settings. Based on these tests, it appears that Tesla’s vehicles primarily react to input from their suite of cameras, not according to saved map data. 

Interestingly enough, Tesla skeptics continue to insist that the electric car maker’s vehicles only recognize stop signs and stop lights today because the company is primarily using GPS map updates. This, of course, is untrue, as explained by Tesla executives such as Elon Musk and AI Director Andrej Karpathy.

Karpathy, for one, has described Tesla’s FSD strategy in a talk last February, and he emphasized how the company’s vision-based approach is a great way to develop autonomous driving solutions that will work anywhere. This is something that was emphasized by Tesla owner-enthusiast Gabriel R., who recently conducted a stop sign recognition test in his driveway.

I’ve received comments on TikTok about Tesla not being able to Recognize “New” stop signs until they update its maps because the only thing Tesla does is “Add them as a POi’s on its GPS”
So I went ahead and tested it to show them they were wrong. @elonmusk #autopilot #neuralnet pic.twitter.com/QHqzzLhLYs

— Gabriel R. (@tesla_addicted) May 14, 2020

The Model 3 owner noted that he has been receiving comments on popular video sharing platform TikTok arguing that Teslas won’t be able to recognize stop “new” stop signs until the company updates its “maps because the only thing Tesla does is ‘add them as POIs on its GPS.” The Tesla owner then decided to prove the skeptics wrong with a simple test.

Gabriel R. used a homemade stop sign and placed it on his driveway. Sure enough, the Model 3 immediately recognized the homemade sign, rendering it as a stop sign on its infotainment display. This effectively proved the skeptics wrong, as the homemade sign would not have been visible if Tesla was primarily using map data.

It’s pretty amazing how Tesla’s full self-driving strategy continues to attract skeptics who are all too willing to accuse the electric car maker of misrepresenting its technology. Fortunately, real-world tests from everyday owners have proven these skeptics wrong time and time again.

Tesla’s stop sign and stop light recognition is a vital part of the company’s rollout of its Full Self-Driving suite, which is expected to achieve a feature-complete state soon. Once this is achieved, Tesla could step closer to Elon Musk’s endgame for autonomous driving: the rollout of the electric car maker’s Robotaxi Network.

Featured Image Credit: (from L to R) whoishollysmith/Instagram, @tesla_addicted/Twitter