Tesla: update that makes Autopilot safer will be released on Wednesday

Tesla has announced that the promised update for the Autopilot self-driving system should be released on Wednesday. It concerns version 8.0 of the software, which is mainly intended to increase security. Tesla has recently come under fire for its self-driving features.

That left Tesla CEO Elon Musk know on Twitter, after a question from a fellow user of the social network. The intention is to ship version 8.0 of Autopilot over-the-air to Tesla’s cars on Wednesday. Musk does make the comment that a final check is being made for possible problems, so that the release can still be postponed.

The 8.0 update was announced earlier this week, with the intention of improving the safety of the self-driving software. After implementing the update, the car should mainly use the radar to map the environment, which previously mainly relied on the camera. It should also become more difficult for drivers to ignore warnings from the system.

Tesla has recently received a lot of criticism for the self-driving functions in its car, after it turned out that a number of accidents have taken place with Autopilot switched on. One example is an accident in the United States where the system was unable to distinguish a white truck from the ‘background’. Authorities are still investigating this accident, which left one person dead.