Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Telsa announced a major software upgrade that moves its cars a good deal closer toward the goal of being able to drive themselves.
The new package includes a host of "Autopilot" features, that, among other things keeps the car from drifting out of its lane or getting to close to a car in front of it. Press the turn signal, and the car will change lanes when it's safe to do so. The car will even search for an available parking spot, and when it finds one, maneuver the car into the space.
But most impressive, says our Wheel Thing guide, motor critic Susan Carpenter, is what she calls the "hive brain." All the Teslas in the fleet will record road information and send it back to a central server, where it will be analyzed and fed back to the fleet. So every individual Tesla will benefit from the knowledge of all its brothers and sisters.