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In October of 2022, Tesla switched from ultrasonic parking assist sensors to vision-based sensors. The goal: to help you park without hitting anything — and, presumably from Telsa’s side, save a few dollars on component and assembly costs by using an existing vision system for a new purpose. Unfortunately, the reviews continue to be poor on Tesla’s vision park assist feature.
Including from those with prior ultrasonic experience.
“My Model Y with USS [ultrasonic sensors] was totaled and fortunately I was able to get a ‘23 Model Y as a replacement without USS,” a Reddit user recently posted. “I am remarkably impressed how bad park assist it is. 1) takes significant amount of time to load 2) it is exceptionally inaccurate 3) system is randomly too conservative or too aggressive, i.e, can’t map out the surrounding correctly.”
Another Tesla owner, responding to a different post about the vision park update, was less descriptive but more evocative:
“Lines pop up but I trust it as much as I trust R Kelly at a youth group.”
Ultimately, the theory driving consolidation of systems is sound: Teslas have multiple cameras covering virtually all angles: the front, the sides, and the rear of the vehicle. All are essential parts of Tesla’s autopilot system, safety systems, and its full self driving product. Using the existing hardware and applying complex math to translate it into all-round proximity sensors seems to make sense.
For whatever reason, however, Tesla hasn’t yet been able to make it work.
Perimeter scanning using multiple cameras to achieve a bird’s eye view of your car is nothing new. Toyota explained the concept and execution in a 2017 blog post. Four camera views are stitched together, the article explains, to create a seamless panoramic image on-screen. Tesla owners have been asking for this for year, though it has yet to arrive.
But vision park assist doesn’t provide this view: it simply warns with red lines and beeping when it determines that objects are too close. Unfortunately, the software isn’t great — at least not yet — at doing that job. Parking on an incline can make painted street lines appear as walls. Puddles reflecting light give the system trouble, and tight spaces (exactly what you need parking assist systems for) are problematic.
One Tesla owner curbed his wheel and was notified about the curb’s proximity … five seconds later. Another says they’ve figured it out: the system always says stop when there’s still 12 inches of space left, so they can roll forward a bit more. Yet another says they’ve given up and are just “learning to manage without it.”
A major challenge: parking in the dark when the side cameras can’t see anything.
“You’ve, uhh, heard of nighttime, right?” another Redditor says. “’Camera blocked’ just as you turn into the car park, and you know full well that you’re not going to be able to see a damn thing from the side cameras.”
There is speculation that Tesla is fixing the problem with better camera placement in new models, but it’s unclear how that’s going to help existing owners who lack the original ultrasonic hardware. Other Tesla owners compare the existing challenges to first iterations of autopilot, which took several software updates to get reasonably good.
One doesn’t hold out much hope:
“Is it really that surprising?” Bevo_expat says. “My screen still shows an 18-wheeler every time I pull into my garage.”
As a Model Y owner myself (2021 model, so equipped with good old-fashioned and reliable ultrasonic sensors), I can relate. Every time I pull into my garage, my Tesla’s screen also shows a phantom semi truck alongside and essentially on top of my car as the visual sensors struggle to understand a wall.
Tesla itself remains confident all will work out, however.
“Safety is at the core of our design and engineering decisions,” the company said when it made the change. “Given the incremental improvements already achieved with Tesla Vision, and our roadmap of future Autopilot improvements and abilities, we are confident that this is the best strategy for the future of Autopilot and the safety of our customers.”
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