Imagine upgrading your car like you upgrade the operating system of your mobile device – through an over-the-air download. Last night, Tesla did such a thing, making tens of thousands of cars already sold to customers way better but offering a semi-autonomous update.

According to Wired, there are two major aspects to this improvement from Tesla. First off, this is the biggest change to the actual interface of the OS dashboard:

There are new instrument panels, app windows are larger and take up more of the 17-inch touchscreen. Drivers will now get more information about what their cars are doing when in Autopilot, they can lock and unlock their car from the status bar. There’s a new clock!

The second, is that the Autopilot is being pushed onto customers via download.

Before you get too excited about an autonomous, hands-free present, you need to know that you can’t nap in the back, chauffeured around in beautiful, electric silence.

Even in Autopilot, you keep your hands on the steering wheel. Well… you don’t have to keep your hands on the steering wheel. You can rest them on your knees (resting on knees, palms up, fingertips touching the wheel is advised), or keep one pinky on the wheel. And okay, you can take your hands off altogether for a moment. But after a few seconds, your car will give you a little message, asking you to touch the wheel in some capacity.

If you happen to grab the wheel out of sheer nervousness at any point, the autopilot will turn off and you will be left in control. Elon Musk explains why:

We tell drivers to keep their hands on the wheel just in case, to exercise caution in the beginning. Over time, long term, you won’t have to keep your hands on the wheel—we explicitly describe this as beta.

Regulators need to see clear evidence that the reliability is there. It works almost to the point where you can take your hands off, but we won’t say that. Almost.

But what does the car actually do?

Autosteer uses real-time feedback features and a suite of sensors – a front-facing radar, a camera with image recognition capability, and 360-degree ultrasonic sonar – to read lane lines and detect other vehicles. Based on that info, the car steers itself and maintains a safe speed.

Just check out the video to see how cool it is – it changes lanes, puts on its indicators and even stops at red lights – all the while maintaining a safe distance from the car in front.

Also, the software won’t work everywhere you go – only when your speed is more than 30km/h and you’re on the highway or freeway. Here, conditions are predictable and situations aren’t too complicated.

More confusing things, like construction, cyclists, garbage cans, errant pets, and traffic lights will still require human piloting to navigate. But long stretches of uneventful road can be relatively hands-off (except for the fact that they are technically hands on).

As Tesla’s CEO points out,

I think this is going to be quite a profound experience for people. I think it’s going to change people’s perceptions of the future, quite rightly.

Excited much?

[source: wired]