Tesla to implement new hazards light pattern that drastically improves safety
Emergency Safety Solutions/YouTube
A small, four-year-old company in Houston, Texas, has been using a Tesla Model 3 to demonstrate its revolutionary hazard warning system. Now, their system will be in millions of Teslas.
Emergency Safety Solutions, Inc. (ESS), is the creator of HELP, which stands for Hazard Enhanced Location Protocol. The company claims its system significantly improves driver safety. Tesla, which usually develops its systems, and rarely uses external programs, will be the first automaker to implement HELP in its vehicles.
ESS says that every seven minutes, there is a crash involving a disabled vehicle on American roadways. These crashes kill or injure 15,000 people annually. The company also states the main factor in those crashes is an ineffective hazard light system that is not getting the attention of drivers. The hazard light system was created more than 70 years ago and hasn't been improved since.
According to ESS, HELP will: "provide advanced lighting alerts and digital location-based alerts to greatly improve advance warning communications to drivers." Virginia Tech Transportation Institute studied several lighting combinations and found that 4hz to 6Hz flash frequencies greatly improved drivers' attention. The current system is 1.5Hz.
Researchers then took the 5Hz system to the street and found that drivers responded 12 seconds earlier. They also discovered that drivers moved over 360 meters or nearly four football fields away from the disabled car. In addition, drivers moving to the left of a disabled car jumped from 30 percent with the current system to 87 percent with HELP.
The flashing lights will undoubtedly improve safety, but the system also sends a digital signal to alert drivers using in-car or phone navigation that there is a hazard ahead. The early warning will allow drivers to be warned much sooner than just the visual blinking lights system. Additionally, the HELP system can be manually activated or it will automatically turn on if a collision is detected or an airbag is deployed.
Tom Metzger, CEO of ESS, said, "Tesla is a leader in bringing first-time innovation to passenger vehicles and is leading the way by implementing HELP technology on potentially millions of Tesla vehicles worldwide. It's a monumental step in the effort to overcome the troubling safety issue of crashes into disabled and vulnerable vehicles, which tragically injure or kill tens of thousands around the world each year."
New Hazard Light Pattern on a Model 3
Tesla will implement these changes to these existing vehicles through a software update. It's a rare step for Tesla, which usually creates its own systems and improves traditional programs (Tesla recently improved the seatbelt).
This time Tesla found a company that has done everything necessary to improve this aspect of vehicle safety, so why recreate the wheel?
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Last night, Tesla released software update 2024.45.25.15, which includes FSD V12.6.1. This update adds support for all HW3 vehicles, including the Model 3 and Model Y. We’re excited to see the continued support for HW3 owners.
FSD V12.6.1
V12.6.1 is now going wide, according to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI. This update is going to the Model 3 and Model Y for the first time - as only the Model S and Model X were included in FSD V12.6.
V12.6 is a big step forward for HW3 - it includes End-to-End on Highway, Improved City Streets Behavior, and Smoother and More Accurate Tracking - all contributing towards a better, smoother, and more comfortable build of FSD. You can read our comparison between FSD V12.6 and V13.2.2 here.
In short, FSD V12.6 performs considerably closer to V13 than V12.5.4.2 - which is a massive improvement. It performs as well as the Cybertruck version of FSD V13, which is still missing a few features when compared to other HW4 vehicles, but it’s a great sign for HW3. A lot of the improvements can be pointed to in the improvements to lane selection and decision-making - the vehicle tends to hesitate far less on V12.6, meaning the ride is a lot smoother. Many early V12.6 testers mentioned that it felt more like V13-mini than anything else.
Legacy Model S & X
We haven’t seen this update hit any legacy Model S and Model X vehicles just yet. We’re not sure whether Ashok’s statement of “generally” applies here - but it should. If you do get the update, please let us know.
Legacy Model S and Model X vehicles are still on an older FSD build and potentially won’t see another FSD update for a little while longer. While they do have the same FSD hardware as other vehicles, there are enough hardware differences that require a build specifically for these vehicles.
FSD V12.6.1 is going out now to the redesigned Model S and X with HW3 and all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with HW3. The initial wave went out last night, and we expect to see more later today or tomorrow. If this release ends up going “wide,” we should see much larger waves go out next week.
Tesla has issued a recall for some vehicles due to issues linked to a revision of the Hardware 4 (HW4) computer that was introduced this past November. This recall affects all vehicles with the revised hardware except for the Cybertruck, as it uses a slightly modified version of the HW4 system.
Many vehicle owners have reported a complete failure of their Autopilot computer, which not only leaves the vehicle without FSD and Autopilot but also disables many of the active safety features that make a Tesla what it is.
Let’s take a look at this recall - because the recall is partially physical and partially a software recall.
HW4 Failure
Tesla has identified the failure and flagged it to the U.S. NHTSA (but not Transport Canada or Euro NCAP at the time of publishing) as a recall.
Tesla mentions that the vehicle’s FSD computer circuit board may short circuit, resulting in the loss of the rearview camera image. The recall itself is focused on the rearview camera - as not having a functional rearview camera breaks a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. However, it does impact more than just the rearview camera.
As previously mentioned, users have experienced the full loss of Autopilot and FSD on these vehicles, as well as reduced traction control and removal of safety features such as automatic emergency braking, collision avoidance assist, and forward collision warnings.
While the vehicle remains driveable, it is not necessarily a good idea to drive the vehicle with many of these features, especially with the reduced traction control noted by many people. We’ve already noted that while Tesla has been sending tow trucks to pick up some vehicles, it is also prompting owners to drive the vehicle to their service center in some cases.
Remedy
Unlike most of Tesla’s recalls, this one isn’t entirely an OTA recall, owing to the fact that people have already experienced circuit board shorts and are already waiting for replacements.
The software portion of the recall has already been mostly completed for any vehicles with Tesla software update 2024.45.25.3 or greater. However, a significant portion of the tracked fleet remains on update 2024.44.25.2 (approximately 20%), so we recommend updating your HW4 vehicle whenever you receive the notification.
On the hardware side, Tesla is immediately identifying and replacing hardware that has had circuit board failure. Tesla is also reaching out to customers who have expressed intermittent issues with Autopilot features, active safety features, or vehicle cameras that don't display correctly. If you have experienced any of these issues in a late 2024 vehicle, we recommend submitting a service ticket with Tesla to ensure that your vehicle isn’t affected by this recall.
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