Tesla vehicles use their cameras for everything from advanced driver assistance and automated driving to replacing parking sensors, and now the manufacturer has found one more use for them. As part of a recent update, the camera array will help the vehicle prepare for a crash and even deploy the airbags sooner when it detects that a collision can’t be avoided.
The automaker recently released a video explaining how this works and says that Teslas can now deploy their airbags up to 70 milliseconds earlier, which could make a difference in the event of a severe crash. Tesla contrasts this novel use of cameras with the limitations of accelerometer-based sensors, which must wait until a crash has started before determining whether and how much to inflate the airbags.
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