Parking Assist Returns
Tesla’s latest software release for their vehicle systems has begun to roll out to users - and aside from the new FSD Beta update, the patch includes the new Tesla Vision Park Assist!
The original park assist was based on ultrasonic sensors, which were phased out of newer Tesla vehicles in October of 2022 - for the Model Y and Model 3 at the start, and then the Model S and X afterwards.
Ultrasonic sensors (USS) use soundwaves to judge distance between objects - and they’re pretty good at what they do, but Tesla has been building towards a full camera-based system for awhile now, and it looks like they’ve gathered enough data to pass the system to testers who have the right equipment installed in their vehicles.
Reportedly, users with older models that still have USS equipped sensors are still able to use the original park assist, so no worries if you haven’t gotten the new Tesla Vision system.
For those who do, though, you will get to enjoy a 360 degree parking assist, which reportedly approximates the same input the USS hardware used to provide - but using the vehicles cameras and occupancy network to predict an outline to help you park.
Occupancy networks use sensors and cameras to build volumetric data based on objects around the vehicle - but it’s not just camera data, because that’s too slow. Occupancy networks use algorithms to predict the rough forms of the things around you, without needing to fully map them. This saves time and memory, making it much faster - in theory.
Current reporting seems to be showing that the new system is not as fast or reliable as the ultrasonic systems, but that will definitely change as users help train the system to better identify shapes.
Parking Assist is one of those very useful features that visibly helps drivers keep safe, so it’s good to see it coming back to the Tesla software. Not to mention giving those new algorithms a workout - we can’t improve them without training them in the wild after all.