The electric vehicle major Tesla is reportedly going to roll out a new driver assistance feature called the Tesla Autopilot Drive on Navigation that had been delayed for testing. This has been described by the company as its most advanced driver assistance feature to date.
The feature was held back earlier this month when the automaker released the latest version of its in-car software, 9.0. According to the company, the feature would begin to roll out this week to U.S. customers who have purchased enhanced Autopilot or full self-driving capability.
Tesla has offered enhanced Autopilot and FSD capability as upgrades that cost, $5,000 and $3,000, respectively. Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system. Autopilot on Navigate is considered a step towards that still on-met full self-driving promise; albeit it’s a small one.
Navigate is an active guidance feature of the company’s Enhanced Autopilot system that is supposed to guide a car from a highway on-ramp to off-ramp, including navigating interchanges and making lane changes.
Once the driver enters a destination into the navigation, they can enable “Navigate on Autopilot” for that trip.
Tesla has placed some limitations on Navigate. For now, the feature makes a lane change suggestion that requires the driver to confirm by tapping the turn signal before it will proceed. In Musk’s view, the feature will require confirmation until safety “looks good after 10 million miles of driving, or so.”