Tesla CEO Elon Musk has in fact rolled out some much needed Autopilot restrictions in Firmware 7.1 to prevent people from doing “crazy things”. This comes in response to several videos showing people performing stunts while using Autosteer after the much anticipated suite of Autopilot features were released late last year.
We were first tipped off about the upcoming Autopilot restrictions last year when a Beta tester sent us photos of his Model S being limited on its auto-steering capabilities depending on the type of road being traveled on.
Last night’s wide roll out of Firmware 7.1 confirms these updates. According to Tesla’s release notes:
Tesla Firmware 7.1
Autosteer is now restricted on residential roads and roads without a center divider. When Autosteer is engaged on a restricted road, Model S’s speed will be limited to the speed limit of the road plus an additional 5 mph. When entering such a restricted road, Model S will reduce its speed if necessary and will do so even if you increase the cruise control set speed.
Firmware 7.1 release notes [Source: TMC]
Along with the Autopilot restriction, Firmware 7.1 also introduced the Summon feature which allows the owner to park the car from outside of the vehicle. This feature came as a pleasant surprise to many since there hasn’t been much discussion around it ever since Elon first announced this vision back in late 2014 at the Tesla ‘D event‘.
Stay tuned as we do our hands-on review of the latest Firmware 7.1 Autopilot updates in a series of upcoming stories honed in on Summon, Autosteer, and Autopark.
Check back with us here at Teslarati for firmware feature demonstrations. News also available on demand through our iOS and Android app.
Tesla v7.1 News
- Release Notes: Firmware 7.1 features and enhancements
- Video review of new Tesla ‘summoning’ feature
- Step by step guide on how to summon your Tesla
- Testing v7.1 Autosteer speed limit restrictions (Video)
