As it begins to measure yawns, blinks, and other behaviours to gauge the level of drowsiness in the driver, Tesla is speeding up its in-car driver monitoring.
Throughout decades, Tesla has come under fire for its advanced driver assistance capabilities included in the Automatic and full self-driving packages, which do not place a strong emphasis on driver monitoring.
For a long time, Tesla could only detect torque on the steering wheel; as a result, users had to rotate the wheel to signal the system that their hands were still on the wheel of their car.
Tesla has begun upgrading its driver tracking to a completely new level. Green, a Tesla hacker who is renowned for disclosing new features found in the automaker’s applications, recently discovered that the company is monitoring more behaviours, such as grumbles or blinks:
Looks like Tesla is planning a big boost to (camera based) driver monitoring.
They are now tracking additional things like how many yawns the driver had recently, how many blinks and how long they were, leaning. All this is to calculate how drowsy the driver is.— green (@greentheonly) May 13, 2023
It’s important to note that this occurs whenever FSD Beta or Autopilot are used. Green claims that Tesla tracks these parameters even when users are behind the wheel:
Additionally, it appears like they want to use this even while not on AP, which is a very smart move! by counting the number of recent lane maintain assist alerts and modifications, and also how steadily the driver is moving.
Green, however, was unable to locate any information on Tesla’s plans for using this data or what will happen when it reaches a particular level.
E Auto Arena’s Opinion
That is a fascinating innovation and undoubtedly a positive step.
“indicates how Tesla monitors these variables regardless of whether drivers are in possession of the vehicle themselves:”
They had better be getting consent before gathering that information.
Driver tracking is more beneficial for level two and three autonomy, and Tesla seemed unconcerned about it because the firm was always sure that it could swiftly deliver level 4 and 5 autonomy.
Evidently, this has not been the case, and Tesla is already making adjustments.
Although properly implemented driver tracking can increase safety, Tesla owners have been hoping for a reduction in the amount of “Autopilot nag” notifications that require them to press on the steering wheel.
Although it hasn’t happened yet, perhaps this new advancement will eventually result in less “nag.”
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