morgantown

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How are those better than a simple plate? Is it worth paying $120 a year so that I don't have to put a sticker on my plate one time per year? Holy crap, a person could make a fortune there.

"Yes, ma'am. Our sticker technician will be there tomorrow between 8 and 12 to place your sticker. It's okay if you can't figure out how to open the envelope. Our technician will bring the necessary tools. There's no reason to be concerned."
"Oh, thank you. I didn't know what I was going to do. I mean, it's a sticker. Do people really know how to do these things for themselves?"
"Ma'am, it CAN be done by the vehicle owner but we offer a guarantee. Be thankful that you only pay us $100 to perform this life-altering service."

Seriously, you get a renewal notice in the mail. Go to the website, pay the fee, receive a sticker. Here's the tricky part: Peel the backing off the sticker and stick it on top of the previous sticker. Don't be fooled into trying to stick it on a tire or on a windshield wiper blade. That sticker goes right their on your plate(s).

Okay, this unnecessary item made me laugh... and then made me try to figure out why in the heck there's a subscription service... Luckily, we can always see where our Tesla's are and even what speed they are moving.

Too funny.
Never said the concept of a dital license plate was a smart one. I thought it was nuts when I read about it years ago, lol!
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morgantown

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Yes I know that (and even beyond California) but apart from the one on the company’s car I have never seen one and I think the reason is the huge price tag and the monthly fee. Who would pay that kind of money for something they get for free? Have you seen any from anyone but them? But if Tesla can get the displays and work with the Secretary of States office and the DMV then maybe it could be cost effective on the CT. That is all I am saying.
Never seen one and way too costly. My point was most are not too aware of digital plates for reasons you said yourself.
 

ldjessee

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I assume the dual camera on the license plate was mostly to get around something hooked to the hitch.
 

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Had an idea about these cameras this morning.

What if these are redundant cameras spaced for auxiliary rear/side view cameras in the event that the actual side view cameras fail? Obviously it's not perfect placement, but I wouldn't be surprised if the road commissions all require redundancy as a compromise for not having side view mirrors.

The idea of a stereoscopic rear view is neat, especially for trailer hooking up, but I can't imagine anything they put on this vehicle being single purpose. If the camera is angled correctly, it's a backup blind spot camera.
 

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And why do we still have to get it in the mail (rather than email, text msg, etc).
Good question. It's just a postcard with the link to renew your tag. I suppose they could email out notification... or a calendar notification would suffice for most here.
 


ajdelange

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if i read this document: https://www.berezin.com/3d/Tech/lens_separation_in_stereo_photog.htm
correctly - 1 ft separation of cameras is optimal for ~10 yds out.
I'm guessing that the cameras are there in order to facilitate hitching a trailer and that there are two in order that the system can actually measure the positions of objects in 2 dimensions for enhanced driver guidance displays. Naturally, such a system would be designed to measure distances close to the trailer best. For two cameras spaced a foot apart the 2DRMS DOP (RMS Geometric Dilution of Precision) is as shown in the contour plot below.

Tesla Cybertruck Dual rear cameras spotted on Cybertruck 2DRMS


All numbers are in units of camera separation. Thus the cameras are located at x = ± 0.5 but the contours for x < 0 are not shown as they are symmetrical with the ones for x > 0. If the cameras are a foot apart all the numbers on the plot are in feet and if, for example an object were measured to be about 1.6' to the left of centerline and 1.5 feet behind we would be on the contour labeled 10 which would correspond to 10 feet 2DRMS position uncertainty per radian angular measurement error. The camera measures the angle to an object within a particular pixel by taking the arctangent of distance of the pixel from the center of the CCD divided by the focal length of the lens. Supposing the CCD to measure 10 mm and to have 1992 pixels along that dimension the pixels would be 0.005 mm apart. Supposing, further a 10 mm focal length each pixel would correspond to about atan(.005/10) = 0.0005 or half a milliradian and we might expect angular error measurement errors of about 1 mrad. Thus, the contour labeled 10 corresponds to 2DRMS error of 0.01 foot or 0.12 inches. That means that the object is probably in a circle of radius 0.12" centered at the estimated coordinates if they are near x = 1.6' and y = 1.5'. Pretty good.

But they get better as you get the ball closer to the centerline of the vehicle. From the plot we see that at a foot and a half behind the trailer the accuracy is 3.7/10 times better (.12*3.7/10 = 0.04") than when off axis by a foot and a half. The "sweet spot" is indicated by the blob at x = 0, y = 0.352 where the 2DRMSE is 0.917 feet. At 10 yards for cameras spaced a foot the DOP would be about 1272 feet/rad so for that same camera angular measurement accuracy of 0.001 rad the position accuracy would be about 12.7 feet. Not too optimal for this purpose but when trying to align a trailer hitch we don't care about 30 feet back, We care about up close.

The conclusion is that, whatever their intendended purpose may be, two cameras a foot apart would be great for trailer attachment assistance.
 
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TyPope

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I'm guessing that the cameras are there in order to facilitate hitching a trailer and that there are two in order that the system can actually measure the positions of objects in 2 dimensions for enhanced driver guidance displays. Naturally, such a system would be designed to measure distances close to the trailer best. For two cameras spaced a foot apart the 2DRMS DOP (RMS Geometric Dilution of Precision) is as shown in the contour plot below.

2DRMS.jpg


All numbers are in units of camera separation. Thus the cameras are located at x = ± 0.5 but the contours for x < 0 are not shown as they are symmetrical with the ones for x > 0. If the cameras are a foot apart all the numbers on the plot are in feet and if, for example an object were measured to be about 1.6' to the left of centerline and 1.5 feet behind we would be on the contour labeled 10 which would correspond to 10 feet 2DRMS position uncertainty per radian angular measurement error. The camera measures the angle to an object within a particular pixel by taking the arctangent of distance of the pixel from the center of the CCD divided by the focal length of the lens. Supposing the CCD to measure 10 mm and to have 1992 pixels along that dimension the pixels would be 0.005 mm apart. Supposing, further a 10 mm focal length each pixel would correspond to about atan(.005/10) = 0.0005 or half a milliradian and we might expect angular error measurement errors of about 1 mrad. Thus, the contour labeled 10 corresponds to 2DRMS error of 0.01 foot or 0.12 inches. That means that the object is probably in a circle of radius 0.12" centered at the estimated coordinates if they are near x = 1.6' and y = 1.5'. Pretty good.

But they get better as you get the ball closer to the centerline of the vehicle. From the plot we see that at a foot and a half behind the trailer the accuracy is 3.7/10 times better (.12*3.7/10 = 0.04") than when off axis by a foot and a half. The "sweet spot" is indicated by the blob at x = 0, y = 0.352 where the 2DRMSE is 0.917 feet. At 10 yards for cameras spaced a foot the DOP would be about 1272 feet/rad so for that same camera angular measurement accuracy of 0.001 rad the position accuracy would be about 12.7 feet. Not too optimal for this purpose but when trying to align a trailer hitch we don't care about 30 feet back, We care about up close.

The conclusion is that, whatever their intendended purpose may be, two cameras a foot apart would be great for trailer attachment assistance.
Good analysis. While the F350 had a single camera that worked great for connecting trailers, it was mounted above the hitch about in the center of the tailgate. This allowed you to almost see from directly above the hitch making eyeballing it simple. I could see having a couple of cameras beside the license plate as necessary to make hitching up capable of being fully automated. Are we sure those are cameras and not some kind of radar or other distance finders?
 

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Are we sure those are cameras and not some kind of radar or other distance finders?
I don't think we're SURE about ANYTHING on the CT right now.... ;-)
 

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I'm sure there's also sensor/camera in the upper portion of the windshield also.



Tesla Cybertruck Dual rear cameras spotted on Cybertruck Cyber Truck windshield setu
 


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I was watching TFL's ride video yesterday and when the looked at the rearview mirror I noticed someone standing near the back. You can only see them from the waist down. So that should confirm that (at least on the prototype) the rearview mirror camera is located down by the plate.

See 1:20 - 1:24 in this video
 

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from the reveal

Tesla Cybertruck Dual rear cameras spotted on Cybertruck 1595272725170


I am betting those cameras are for the trailer docking.
 

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The digital license plate auto-updates over the air.

So no technician needed.

No, I think they're silly, too. But I think the idea that we use stickers and paper registration/insurance in this day and age when they can be canceled electronically at any time is silly as well.

-Crissa
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