Tesla's free Autopilot 8.0 update shifts focus to radar to avoid car crashes

Tesla is rolling out a software update to its Autopilot feature designed to prevent accidents like the one that resulted in the death of Tesla owner Joshua Brown in May. The new update will employ radar as a primary signal processing component in addition to visual image recognition via the car's cameras. Brown died when his car, running on Autopilot, collided with a tractor trailer. In that event, the car's autonomous cruise control systems failed to properly identify the obstacle. This reportedly happened due to the trailer's color blending with the bright sky.