Elon Musk says Tesla’s new autopilot could have saved driver’s life

SAN FRANCISCO: A fresh version of Autopilot software that Tesla Motors unveiled on Sunday emphasises radar over cameras to guide semi-autonomous cars and potentially could have saved the life of a driver in May, CEO Elon Musk said.

Tesla has been under fire since Joshua Brown, a former Navy SEAL, was killed when his allelectric Tesla Model S sedan drove under a semi trailer that was crossing a Florida highway. There’s no evidence that either Brown or the Autopilot system noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a bright sky and the brakes were never applied.

The biggest change in Autopilot version 8.0 is a new starring role for radar, which since October 2014 has only been used to supplement camera sensors, Musk said in a blog post on Sunday. The enhanced radar and a GPS database might have had a shot at saving Brown’s life, Musk said in response to a question on conference call with reporters.

"We believe it would have seen a large metal object across the road," Musk said, referring to the tractor trailer. Attorneys for the family of Brown, who lived in Ohio, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment on Sunday.