Auto Pilot on older Model S (looking at used Model S), which model year to get?

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stockae92

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I have been looking at used Model S (from Tesla with warranty), but I am a little confused on which model year to get?

I think Tesla did update on the auto pilot (and other things) through out the Model S model years, what are the differences between model year? Which one to get?

Thanks
 
This is the best I can find
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Autopilot

Based on this, you need a car manufactured after October 2016. Those between 2014 and 2016 are not up-gradable. The more recent that you can get the better. If you have HW 2.5, you might be able to get an upgrade HW 3.0 Others more informed may want to chip in.

Hardware 1
Vehicles manufactured after late September 2014 are equipped with a camera mounted at the top of the windshield, forward looking radar (supplied by Bosch)[50][51] in the lower grille and ultrasonic acoustic location sensors in the front and rear bumpers that provide a 360-degree view around the car. The computer is the Mobileye EyeQ3.[52] This equipment allows Model S to detect road signs, lane markings, obstacles, and other vehicles. Upgrading from Hardware 1 to Hardware 2 is not offered as it would require substantial work and cost.[53]


Hardware 2

Tesla HW2 camera & radar coverage as shown by the company's website.

Hardware 2, included in all vehicles manufactured after October 2016, includes an Nvidia Drive PX 2[54] GPU for CUDA based GPGPU computation.[55][56] Tesla claimed that Hardware 2 provided the necessary equipment to allow full self-driving capability at SAE Level 5. The hardware includes eight surround cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors, in addition to forward-facing radar with enhanced processing capabilities.[23] The Autopilot computer is replaceable to allow for future upgrades.[57] The radar is claimed to be able to observe beneath and ahead of the vehicle in front of the Tesla; the radar can see vehicles through heavy rain, fog or dust.[58] Tesla claimed that the hardware was capable of processing 200 frames per second.[59]

When "Enhanced Autopilot" was enabled in February 2017 by the v8.0(17.5.36) software update, testing showed the system was limited to using one of the eight onboard cameras, the main forward-facing camera[60] The v8.1 software update released a month later enabled a second camera, the narrow-angle forward-facing camera.[61]


Hardware 2.5
In August of 2017 it was announched that HW 2.5 included a secondary node to provide more computing power, additional wiring redundancy to slightly improve reliability, which enabled dashcam and sentry mode capabilities.[62] [27][63]

Hardware 3 (FSD)
According to Tesla's director of AI Andrej Karpathy, as of Q3 2018, there have been large neural networks developed for Autopilot that cannot be used due to the lack of computational resources in current Tesla hardware. The next version of the hardware (3.0) will provide the resources to allow for improved accuracy in predictions.[64]

HW 3.0 includes a custom Tesla-designed processor using application-specific integrated-circuit (ASIC) chips. Tesla claimed that the new system would process 2,300 frames per second, which is a 21x improvement in image processing compared to hardware 2.5 which is capable of 110 fps.[65][66] The firm described it as a "neural network accelerator".[59] The company claimed that 3.0 was necessary for "full self-driving", but not for "enhanced Autopilot" functions.[67]

In October 2018, Tesla estimated first availability of Hardware 3 to be April 2019.[68] Elon Musk stated that customers who purchased the Full Self-Driving (FSD) package will be eligible for an upgrade to HW 3.0 without cost
 
Thank you so much guys! that definitely helps.

Its Tesla's web site making it confusing, calling them "Autopilot with convenience features ..."
 
stockae92 said:
I have been looking at used Model S (from Tesla with warranty), but I am a little confused on which model year to get?

I think Tesla did update on the auto pilot (and other things) through out the Model S model years, what are the differences between model year? Which one to get?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I knew that Tesla didn't want to do "model years" but it became more relevant when buying an S made in Dec of '13, which would normally be a '14 model year - like the salesman told me - but no, it's a '13 to Tesla, and subject to a higher finance rate, shorter term, etc. Still a great deal on a great car so I did it anyway.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
My understanding is the earliest Model S used "MagicEye" which our BMW i3-REx uses. "MagicEye" makes dynamic cruise control quite fun, better than our former Toyota Prius Prime. It has the advantage of reading speed signs but is blind to stop signs and traffic lights. It also has 'phantom' events.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson
 
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