At launch, the Tesla model S was already one of the smartest cars in the road but since then it's only gotten smarter thanks to a series of software updates.
Today, Tesla has unveiled one of the most advanced software updates yet.
Adding the wanted autopilot functionality that would let the car steer itself.
we're here in New York and we're gonna take it for a ride.
[MUSIC]
So we're in New York City traffic, which on one hand is a terrible place to drive, but on the other hand, is a pretty good place to test a car with some autonomy features.
Right now I'm gonna take my hands completely off the wheel and my feet are off the pedals as well, and as you can see, the car is moving along on its own.
There's a Volvo in front of us that's slowing down, and the car has recognized that.
There's a blue car here on the dashboard.
Which has been improved with the new 7.0 software.
And it basically is following the moves of that car ahead of me, so as it slows down, we will slow down and as it speeds up, we will too.
It's also detecting the lines in the road and being able to basically keep us in those lines and keep us going forward.
Now, I'm supposed to be keeping my hands on the wheel.
And I'm keeping them close to the wheel just in case I need to but the car can go ahead and drive autonomously without my hands on the wheel.
There is also a robotic dashboard that is included as part of the [UNKNOWN] release.
We've got a new [UNKNOWN] looking clock under there.
And also the individual tire pressures are displayed here in actual PSI to give you an actual Explicit reading on what's going on in every corner of the car.
Pretty good, if you're a track-junkie or an auto-crosser, for example.
But you still need to be paying attention when you're driving using this system, because the system won't look at things like traffic lights or even street signs, things like that.
So you are still very much in control of the car.
And even if you are able to take your hands off the wheel, It's important that you're always paying attention.
This isn't the kind of system where you can take out a book, or take out your smartphone or take a nap even when you're stuck in traffic like this.
So we're going to try a lane change here.
There's a car in my blind spot right now, so it won't do it.
The cars gone let's see if it will change now.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
There we go, as you can see it'll even change lanes, it's completely hands off.
Pretty nice.
No, this is not a fully autonomous Tesla, you still gotta wait a couple of years for that.
But this is a pretty big step forward.
It's probably the most advanced self steering system we've seen on a car yet, be able to change lanes alone.
It was pretty cool.
Now if you own a Tesla Model S that was built in October of 2014 through to today, or if you're lucky enough to have a Model X, the software update will be appearing on your car sometime within the next week.
If you have an older Model S, I'm sorry to say you're out of luck.
And if you don't have a Model S at all, what other excuse do you need?
