Tesla's new Autopilot emphasises role of radar to guide cars

San Francisco

A FRESH version of Autopilot software that Tesla Motors Inc unveiled on Sunday emphasises radar over cameras to guide semi-autonomous cars and potentially could have saved the life of a driver in May, chief executive officer Elon Musk said.

Tesla has been under fire since Joshua Brown, a former Navy SEAL, was killed when his all-electric Tesla Model S sedan drove under a semi trailer that was crossing a Florida highway. There's no evidence that either Mr Brown or the Autopilot system noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a bright sky and the brakes were never applied.

The biggest change in Autopilot version 8.0 is a new starring role for radar, which since October 2014 has only been used to supplement camera sensors, Mr Musk said in a blog post on Sunday. The enhanced radar and a GPS database might have had a shot at…