by Veserv | 2025-04-06 21:17:33+00:00
But Tesla Vision is, currently, legally below minimum human vision requirements and has historically been sold despite being nearly legally blind.

Driving requirements in many states demand 20/40 vision in at least one eye [1]. 20/20 visual acuity is a arc-resolution of approximately 1 arc-minute [2] thus 20/40 vision is approximately a arc-resolution of 2 arc-minutes or 30 pixels per degree of field of view. Legally blind is usually cited as approximately 20/200 which is approximately 10 arc-minutes or 6 pixels per degree of field of view.

Tesla Vision HW3 contains 3 adjacent forward cameras at different focal lengths and Tesla Vision HW4 contains 2 adjacent forward cameras of different focal lengths and as such those cameras can not be used in conjunction to establish binocular vision [3]. As such, we should view each camera is a zero-redundancy single-sensor and is thus a "single-eye" case.

We observe that Tesla Vision HW3 has a 35 degree camera for 250m, 50 degree camera for 150m, and 120 degree camera for 60m [4]. The Tesla Vision HW4 has a 50 degree camera for 150m, and 120 degree camera for 60m [4]. A speed of 100 km/h corresponds to ~28 m/s as such the cameras trailing times of ~10s, ~6s, ~2s. Standard safe driving practices dictates a 2-3 second follow, so most maneuvers would be dictated by the 60m camera and predictive maneuvers would be dictated by the 150m camera.

We observe that the HW3 forward cameras have a horizontal resolution of 1280 pixels resulting in a arc-resolution of ~25.6 pixels per degree for the 150m camera and ~11 pixels per degree for the 60m camera, the camera used for the majority of actions. Both values are below minimum vision requirements for driving with most states with the wide angle view within a factor of two of being considered legally blind.

We observe that the HW4 forward cameras have a horizontal resolution of 2896 pixels resulting in a arc-resolution of ~58 pixels per degree for the 150m camera and ~24 pixels per degree for the 60m camera. The 60m camera, which should be the primary camera for most maneuvers, fails to meet minimum vision requirements in most states.

It is important to note that there are literally hundreds of thousands if not millions of HW3 vehicles on the road using sensors that fail to meet minimum vision requirements. Tesla determined that a product that fails to meet minimum vision requirements is fit for use and sold it for their own enrichment. The same company that convinced customers to purchase systems when they promised: "We are excited to announce that, as of today, all Tesla vehicles produced in our factory – including Model 3 – will have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver."[5] in 2016 when they were delivering HW2. Despite the systems being delivered clearly not reaching even minimum vision requirements and, in fact, being nearly legally blind.

[1] https://eyewiki.org/Driving_Restrictions_per_State

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Autopilot_hardware

[4] https://www.blogordie.com/2023/09/hw4-tesla-new-self-driving...

[5] https://web.archive.org/web/20240730071548/https://tesla.com...