The Tesla hacker has revealed what Tesla’s driver-facing camera is looking for in Model 3 and Model Y – hinting at a driver monitoring feature.
When Tesla launched the Model 3, it equipped the vehicle with a standard cabin-facing camera located in the rearview mirror.
At the time, the automaker said the camera was not active and would be used in the future.
CEO Elon Musk said it would be used to prevent people from smashing cars when Tesla’s next self-driving robotaxi network is automatically operated.
Cameras were not used in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles until almost a year ago, when Tesla first activated the Miro.
The company began collecting images and clips for research purposes with the consent of the drivers:
“Help Tesla continue to develop safer vehicles by sharing camera data from your vehicle. This update will allow you to enable the built-in cabin camera above the rearview mirror. If enabled, Tesla will automatically receive images and a short video clip before a collision or safety event to help engineers develop safety features and enhancements in the future. As always, you can adjust your data sharing preferences by tapping Controls> Security & Security> Data Sharing> Camera Analytics. “
Tesla is not actively using the camera to keep an eye on the driver’s attention and instead, the automaker says it uses the same data for existing features and future improvements without connecting to specific drivers.
It is believed by some that Tesla could eventually work on freeing up active driver monitoring features.
Now Tesla Hacker ‘Green‘, Known for revealing many features in Tesla’s software software, has discovered what events TomTom is trying to detect with a driver-facing camera:
- Blended
- Dark
- EYES_CLOSED
- Ans_Down
- EYES_NOMINAL
- EYES_UP
- Head_down
- Head_transy
- LOOKING_LEFT
- LOOKING_RIGHT
- PHONE_USE
- SUNGLASSES_EYES_LIKELY_NOMINAL
- SUNGLASSES_LIKELY_EYES_DOWN
Tesla’s only active driver monitoring feature remains to find out when torque is being applied to the wheel while the op topilot is engaged.
Many other driver-assistance systems, such as GM’s Supercris, use cabin-facing cameras to make sure drivers are watching the road.
Take the electric
In the past, Elon talked about driver-monitoring based on gaze tracking, but that seems to be what Tesla is doing.
However, this does not mean that Tesla will release such a driver monitoring feature.
They can research to see if it is possible to make someone useful with an existing camera.
Anyway, I’m glad they’re actively working towards better driver monitoring because that’s currently the biggest weakness of Tesla’s op topilot in my opinion.
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