Lifestyle
Who knew, Tesla Autopilot has a human collision avoidance system
Tesla released arguably one of the biggest over-the-air software updates in its company history when it introduced Version 8.0 with updated Autopilot in September. Not to be confused with the more recent announcement that new Model S and Model X vehicles are equipped with next generation “hardware 2” capable of Full Self-Driving, Autopilot under Version 8.0 leveraged two-year-old hardware to issue enhancements in drivability and safety through advancements in radar signal processing.
By placing more emphasis on input from the vehicle’s forward-facing radar, Tesla Autopilot was able to detect vehicle activity from two cars ahead and better react to sudden emergency braking events. A recent test using a Model X while trailing two vehicles – the furthest vehicle would simulate an emergency braking situation – demonstrated that Autopilot was able to automatically react to activity beyond what its human driver could see.
But how does v8.0 Autopilot fare against activity from a non-vehicle – let’s say, a human obstacle? Previous tests put together by Tesla owner and YouTuber KmanAuto attempted to see just that. Using a very trusting friend, Kman was able to demonstrate Autopilot’s lack of ability to account for pedestrians when it comes to emergency braking under version 7.0.
Back at it again, and with the same friend Mike Anthony, the duo staged seven separate tests to see how the latest Version 8.0 Autopilot, using radar-based technology supplemented by the front-facing camera, was able to handle situations involving a human obstacle.
Tesla Autopilot under Version 8.0 vs. Human (Mike)
Before we jump into the results of the various tests, we’d like to note that Teslarati in no way endorses or recommends this type of stunt, or any activity of similar nature.
We’ve provided the full video here with outcome of the results summarized below. Be sure to also check out the video from Mike’s perspective.
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Test 1 – Tesla @ 20 mph vs. Human in middle of lane
Description: Vehicle was able to detect Mike and gradually come to a complete stop on its own with no driver input. Display did not show an object. No human collision warning appeared.
Video of Test 1 (open link in new window to jump to test)
Test 2 – Tesla @ 20 mph vs. Human walking in front of the car
Description: Vehicle was able to detect Mike walking into the car’s path of travel and bring itself to a complete stop. As Mike walked backwards and away from the vehicle, Autopilot Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) was able to keep its distance to Mike and proceed forward as Mike inched backwards.
Test 3 – Tesla @ 20 mph vs. Human walking from side of road in front of car and then off the road again
Description: Vehicle was able to detect Mike walking into the car’s path of travel and bring itself to a complete stop. As Mike walked off to the side of the road, TACC resumed.
Test 4 – Tesla @ 20 mph vs. Human walking in front of the car
Description: Same as Test 2.
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Test 5 – Tesla @ 30 mph vs. Human jogging across all lanes in front of vehicle
Description: This is the first sighting of a human collision warning indicator. Vehicle detects Mike and attempts to hard brake. “In the interest of safety I helped [brake] it, the car gave me a collision alert and it also applied the brakes.”, says Kman.
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- Tesla Autopilot detects human entering from side of road and begins to Autosteer while applying brakes
Kman indicates that the vehicle likely would not have stopped in time to prevent hitting Mike but it would have severely lessened the force of impact and possibly lessened the severity of human injury.
Test 6 – Tesla @ 25 mph vs. Human walking in front of the car
Description: Vehicle was able to detect Mike walking into the car’s path of travel and bring itself to a sudden stop and avoid impact.
Test 7 – Tesla @ 35 mph vs. Human standing directly in front of moving car
Description: Vehicle was able to detect Mike standing before the car and bring itself to a quick stop though no visual warning was seen on the display. It would appear the human collision warning only appears with objects that are non-stationary and enter the vehicle’s path of travel.
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Conclusion
The test demonstrates Tesla’s remarkable ability to continuously improve upon its Autopilot suite of features through changes to its set of algorithms driven largely by data collected through the company’s fleet learning program. The test is also significant in that Tesla was able to dramatically improve the safety on its vehicles – now capable of performing emergency braking events when a human is detected – purely over-the-air and with no hardware improvements whatsoever.
With Autopilot 2.0 consisting of seven more cameras and enhanced long range sonar sensors fed from billions of miles worth of driving data, it’s not a question of if Tesla can reach full Level 5 autonomy, but one of when.
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
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It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
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Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
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