Tesla’s driver monitoring just got more strict and robust, and it’s not just for Autopilot

May 14, 2023 by admin 31 Comments

By Joey Klender

Posted on May 13, 2023

Tesla is making its driver monitoring more strict and robust in an effort to track driver behaviors while the car is in operation, and it will even track the vehicles’ operators while it is not operating on Autopilot.

Tesla has utilized a number of strategies in an effort to end distracted driving, and one of the biggest was the introduction of the cabin-facing camera, which will capture things like drivers sleeping by tracking their eye movements. It can also tell when a driver is distracted by a phone.

All of the efforts are tracked by Tesla’s cabin-facing camera, which was installed near the rearview mirror on models several years ago. Since then, Tesla has made various improvements to its driver tracking, including stepping up the penalties for distracted driving by disabling the use of Autopilot for those who may be taking advantage of it.

Tesla activates its camera-based driver monitoring system

Distracted driving causes accidents frequently, but when it comes to Tesla, it is a little different. Because of the company’s development of driver assistance packages like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, when accidents occur, media articles are quick to suggest the features are responsible for the crashes. Tesla has been cleared of wrongdoing in several recent cases.

However, it appears Tesla is going to start tracking more driver behaviors, according to hacker Greentheonly.

Tesla is upgrading the driver-monitoring system by tracking how many times the driver has yawned during a trip, how many times they blinked and for how long, and driver posture, all in an effort to calculate how drowsy they might be.

The changes are also making their way to non-AP-using drivers, intending to keep an eye on those who are driving the car under their complete control.

But it also looks like they are planning to apply this even when not on AP (which is a very right move!) by seeing how well centered the driving is, how many lane keep assist warnings and corrections happened lately.

— green (@greentheonly) May 13, 2023

Greentheonly said code is being added, but Tesla has not propagated anything to the UI as of yet, so the changes have not taken effect as of the writing of this article.

The delay in making the code active could have to do with several things. Green notes that Tesla may be aiming to determine the number or frequency of behaviors that would deem a driver unfit to operate a vehicle while not using Autopilot.

The upgrades, when applied, will be just one of several safety features Tesla has made in recent memory, including changes to the Automatic Emergency Braking system.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla’s driver monitoring just got more strict and robust, and it’s not just for Autopilot