Tesla has launched a brand new characteristic that goals to offer Mannequin S and Mannequin X drivers a a lot smoother journey. 

Courtesy of the most recent Tesla software program replace (opens in new tab), each fashions can now scan for potholes and different highway defects to generate “tough highway map knowledge” and regulate suspension accordingly. 

Fairly than adjusting journey top in response to particular pot holes, although, Tesla says that region-wide knowledge gathered by different Tesla automobiles will inform the areas wherein its Mannequin S and Mannequin X electrical automobiles (EVs) routinely make these suspension modifications.

In different phrases, Tesla is making use of a blanket method to the automobiles’ suspension settings by plotting a map of high-risk highway networks and giving drivers the choice of enabling an automatically-adjusted journey. 

Firm CEO Elon Musk first hinted on the thought again in 2020, responding within the affirmative to a tweet asking concerning the potential of a Tesla “micro map”:

Is it potential that Tesla will be capable of create a “micro map” of each highway with all the small print (cease signal, pot holes, and so forth.) that can be utilized by different Teslas after they drive alongside the identical highway?February 3, 2020

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Tesla drivers hoping to learn from the brand new characteristic can go to Controls > Suspension > Adaptive Suspension Damping and choose the Consolation or Auto setting of their Mannequin S or Mannequin X car – although the most recent software program replace might want to have been put in for the choice to look.

Mannequin Three and Mannequin Y homeowners will not be capable of make the most of the brand new characteristic, because of the lack of adaptive suspension in these automobiles.

Is Ford doing it higher?

Since human drivers are sometimes unable to react in time to potholes and different hard-to-spot highway defects, Tesla’s newest characteristic is a welcome one. This new system is, nevertheless, additionally reliant on knowledge gathered by different Teslas to perform successfully. 

If, for example, your Tesla car is the primary to return throughout a rogue pothole on an in any other case clean nation highway, your journey top will not be routinely adjusted till you encounter that pothole a second time (or so Tesla’s restricted wording on the characteristic suggests). 

Ford, however, has applied a proprietary Pothole Detection System (opens in new tab) in its newest Ford Focus mannequin that senses when a wheel is falling right into a pothole and adjusts suspension in real-time. 

The system screens the automotive’s suspension, physique, steering and braking inputs, adjusting journey top each two milliseconds to mitigate the affect of potholes as quickly as they seem.

Granted, Ford’s suspension answer is proscribed to the Focus’ elective (and costly) Repeatedly Managed Damping package deal (the place Tesla’s equal is accessible to all Mannequin S and Mannequin X homeowners), but it surely’s value remembering that Musk’s EV model is not precisely a trailblazer on this specific regard.

For extra on the most recent electrical automobiles, take a look at our breakdown of the all-electric DeLorean DMC, our evaluation of the Mercedes EQXX’s mind-boggling new vary report and our ideas on Hyundai’s upcoming Ioniq 5 SUV.