This Week in Tesla: New OTA Update Provides Helpful Features, Autopilot Receives High Marks from Euro NCAP Report

New Software Update Provides Helpful Features -

New Tesla software update 2020.40 includes two small yet convenient features that will provide a new aspect of safety and convenience to Tesla owners. The first feature is that one can now assign a pin code to open the glovebox so that if one is lending the car to someone or even worse, the car is stolen, the glove box is locked without the pin. The other new feature enables owners to set a priority device for bluetooth. This means that when entering the car, the bluetooth system will automatically try to connect to the priority device before it connects to others. This is helpful when there are multiple people in the car who have connected in the past, and rather than connecting to any of their phones, it will just connect to the priority device if it can.

Autopilot Receives High Marks from Euro NCAP Report -

The European New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) recently tested all of the driver safety and driver assistance features in several cars, grading each on a scale of 0-100 in three categories. This video explains the new grading system. In summation of the video, the NCAP looks to find the best balance between reliable driving assistance features and maintaining driver alertness while the systems are engaged. As can be seen in the chart below, Tesla was the clear winner in both the categories for vehicle assistance, and safety backup. The vehicle assistance category grades cars on the reliability and functionality of the driver assistance systems, and the safety backup system category grades cars on the reliability and functionality of the systems meant to avoid an accident as a result of driver error (ie. automatic emergency braking, lane departure avoidance etc.). While Tesla dominated the vehicle assistance and safety backup categories, they were last by a large margin in the driver engagement category. This is likely a result of the fact that while autopilot is engaged, the driver only has to put their hands on the wheel every so often, as opposed to constantly as is the case in many other cars.

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