Ultrasonic Rear Sensor

[C Cyber T]

There are lots of third party solutions for parking sensors.

-Crissa

Sure, but when the cheap cars have it standard and this vehicle which is substantially larger doesn't, it is wrong. I am asking what can be done reasonably. I think everyone here in the group with a CT should be a bit frustrated. If you aren't, wait until you have a collision that should have been avoidable. Honestly, I would rather no one has to find out hard way like I found out.

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[REM]

Hey C Cyber T, welcome to the group.

I feel the same way. Lack of a "closeness" sensor would be my only issue with the CT. The shape of the front end makes it a challenge to tell how close I am when parking. The front camera does help, but I'm used to a tone signal with the other cars I drive. My current "pull in until you feel the bump" approach to parking in my garage isn't the best. Hopefully this will be added in a software update.

Cheers!

Pro tip: get your parking position then hang a tennis ball from your ceiling so that it barely touches your windscreen on the driver's side.

Pull in until the tennis ball taps the glass. Done.

 

[REM]

I went into reverse, checked the camera, and went backwards, the truck did not send any kind of warning that a car just behind me was on my butt.

/QUOTE]

I'm not understanding this explanation, can you clarify?

Did you check the camera and then switch your focus/vision to somewhere else?

 

[Ivessm]

Hi all. This is my first post here. I have owned my amazing truck for almost 1 month now. I am pretty sure I have seen almost every video and post out there, but there seems to me a serious problem with the truck which I haven't seen posted, and unfortunately it caused me an accident already.

Cars that are 30K and under have ultrasonic sensors in the front and rear of the vehicle so you can see how close you are to a collision. I went into reverse, checked the camera, and went backwards, the truck did not send any kind of warning that a car just behind me was on my butt. I did not hit it hard, but not having a warning, or indicator that someone was there, was really horrible especially considering how expensive the vehicle is.

Saying that Tesla wants to save money by not adding in some sensors that would keep its drivers safer, seems like a poor excuse. To me, it would be ideal to switch out the useless mirror and put in an always active rear camera there with distance to object information visible. I looked for after market products and did not find anything.

My question is, what other features are seriously lacking in our trucks, and what can we do about it to improve it?

Thanks for your time.

Just curious, if you checked the rear camera view didn't you see the car back there behind you? I don't have a CT yet, just curious.

 

[Tecyber1]

There is an alternative and it lies in using your eyes and attentiveness!

You may be young and don’t remember driving without backup cameras and USS but as it is, you have to be attentive at all times and not rely on technology.

Tesla vision is awful compared to USS and it’s kept me from upgrading but with the Cybertruck it’s a known variable going in so I plan to do some parking tests to find and gauge distance based on my eyes and the bumper location.

 

[HaulingAss]

Thank you for the good response. I just wish there was a good alternative for us. I would really like to avoid accidents, damage to my CT and insurance increases.

Based upon my observations, I would be willing to bet that people back into things more often now that many cars have ultrasonic sensors than they did back in the day, before we had sensors. People took responsibility for their direct actions.

If you want to avoid accidents, don't back up until you know the coast is clear. The Internet is full of warnings by people not to trust your ultrasonic sensors, from people that learned the hard way. Sensors can miss a lot of very real hazards while simultaneously sounding off in a loud annoying manner at things that are not a hazard, like a shrub. They are far from ideal or reliable.

Tesla Vision is already bettter at many tasks, and it will come to Cybertrucks shortly. In the interim, I suggest using your head and not doing dumb things.

 

[rbalkun]

I still don’t understand how it got to a point where adding a crutch gave an excuse for people not knowing how to drive

 

[jameskk]

I find the cameras sufficient for parking in any space even in my right garage, especially the front camera. Whenever I am pulling into a public space, I always press the camera button on the steering wheel to activate the front camera and then I am able to know how far to pull up. That said, I will be happy when Tesla updates the software to include their faux proximity sensors.

 

[C Cyber T]

Do you guys not use the cameras that make you able to see everywhere around the truck?

Lol. Of course I do, or I would damage the CT on a daily basis. Still, if tech is there that could make the vehicle safer, we should have it standard at this price point. The CT happily beeps and brakes if it sees a vehicle cut out in front. The CT should happily beep and brake if it gets close to a vehicle from behind too.

Just curious, if you checked the rear camera view didn't you see the car back there behind you? I don't have a CT yet, just curious.

Yes, the vehicle has really good visibility with the cameras. The incident I had was maybe a rare situation. But I feel I could have avoided the accident entirely with better tech on a tech heavy truck.
I love the CT very much despite this huge short coming, IMO.

 

[C Cyber T]

There have been a few responses back indicating that I don't know how to drive safely.
I reviewed the video footage and I definitely think that I did the best I could given the circumstances.
There was huge wide load in front of me. It hit something. It seemed as if it would reverse onto me, probably destroying my CT.
I backed up slowly, knowing there was a car behind, but unable to tell how far it was. If you look at the rear camera live, it is very misleading how far things are. It is a wide camera lens. Things seem much further than they are. Much further. I barely hit the other vehicle.
My point is that I was watching and attentive and I was trying to avoid a disaster. I was just unable to correctly judge the distance on the CT. Other brand cars give warning indicators when close. The CT does have vehicle collision detection but in the front. Collision detection was not helpful or did not exist in this case. There aren't even good indicators on CT when you are too close to a car.
I am not relying on tech as a crutch. But you do need it to drive safely. If it is on cheaper cars, there isn't any good reason not to have it on this.

 

[SCTesla]

There have been a few responses back indicating that I don't know how to drive safely.
I reviewed the video footage and I definitely think that I did the best I could given the circumstances.
There was huge wide load in front of me. It hit something. It seemed as if it would reverse onto me, probably destroying my CT.
I backed up slowly, knowing there was a car behind, but unable to tell how far it was. If you look at the rear camera live, it is very misleading how far things are. It is a wide camera lens. Things seem much further than they are. Much further. I barely hit the other vehicle.
My point is that I was watching and attentive and I was trying to avoid a disaster. I was just unable to correctly judge the distance on the CT. Other brand cars give warning indicators when close. The CT does have vehicle collision detection but in the front. Collision detection was not helpful or did not exist in this case. There aren't even good indicators on CT when you are too close to a car.
I am not relying on tech as a crutch. But you do need it to drive safely. If it is on cheaper cars, there isn't any good reason not to have it on this.

It will be available when it's ready (with FSD), but you purchased a brand new car and knew when it was being delivered that some tech features wouldn't be available. You had mirrors and a cam...you made a mistake, it's not the fault of the truck. We all back our CTs up every day...for me mostly extremely tight spaces and we work through it and most of don't hit anything.

 

[REM]

There have been a few responses back indicating that I don't know how to drive safely.
I reviewed the video footage and I definitely think that I did the best I could given the circumstances.
There was huge wide load in front of me. It hit something. It seemed as if it would reverse onto me, probably destroying my CT.
I backed up slowly, knowing there was a car behind, but unable to tell how far it was. If you look at the rear camera live, it is very misleading how far things are. It is a wide camera lens. Things seem much further than they are. Much further. I barely hit the other vehicle.
My point is that I was watching and attentive and I was trying to avoid a disaster. I was just unable to correctly judge the distance on the CT. Other brand cars give warning indicators when close. The CT does have vehicle collision detection but in the front. Collision detection was not helpful or did not exist in this case. There aren't even good indicators on CT when you are too close to a car.
I am not relying on tech as a crutch. But you do need it to drive safely. If it is on cheaper cars, there isn't any good reason not to have it on this.

I'm sorry dude, but this explanation still doesn't make sense. It sounds to me like you simply backed into someone because you were in a panic and assumed you had more distance. An ultrasonic sensor wouldn't have saved you here anyway. Perhaps you could upload the footage here to clear the confusion?

I have been driving my Model 3 for several years, and never use my side view mirrors (and rarely my rearview) because the rear and repeater cameras are so good. We don't need ultrasonic sensors; they are redundant.

 

[C Cyber T]

Hi. Some of the responses here are kind of off track. The idea is not to justify why someone made a mistake and try to understand it.
The idea is to ask what tech should be available to us, already included in the very high price of the vehicle, because it just makes sense.
Imagine that instead of stating that we need collision detection system working in the rear that we need a GPS so we don't get lost. All newer cars have GPS or your cell phone does. However the comments here are sometimes along the lines of, oh you just need to read a map and follow the signs. Of course we need to be safe drivers. Of course relying on a GPS sometimes will cause us to drive where we shouldn't end up if we just trust it blindly.
I am a tech guy. I know technology makes mistakes. I know people make mistakes. Having something called a redundant system is key to operating more complex systems. It has been the cornerstone of all NASA engineering. Always have a redundant system.
What happens if the FSD fails to work, well we are supposed to be paying attention and take over. What happens when the visual clues that we have don't indicate how close we really are, well somehow we have to know how to judge the distance properly, but when we could have things that accurately tell us the actual distance then we use it.
Imagine also if your battery indicator / fuel gage was not reliable. I hope the point is clear.

 

[Deleted member 17810]

Unfortunately the ideology of musk @ tesla is that FSD/ai will negate measurement sensors.

It's combination of cost cutting and grand aspirations. Which is ironic since they use lidar to validate FSD when testing inhouse. ?

Maybe in ten more years.

 

[REM]

Unfortunately the ideology of musk @ tesla is that FSD/ai will negate measurement sensors.

It's combination of cost cutting and grand aspirations. Which is ironic since they use lidar to validate FSD when testing inhouse. ?

Maybe in ten more years.

using lidar to confirm accuracy isn't ironic; you use other well known instrumentation and methods to validate. this is normal practice.

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