Tesla Autopilot and animals in the street: the system reacted promptly to a group of bears

A few months ago we dealt with some cases that attracted attention
      on system performance Autopilot of Tesla about the accuracy in recognizing animals, or more generally obstacles, present on the roadway and
      act accordingly to avoid accidents and dangerous situations: some examples are those of the amateur video starring a rabbit or the more technical one of some geese and an analysis of what the
      system actually perceives.

In the present case the video proposed concerns a group of bears,
      mom and two puppies, on a street in Montana, United States, published by Andrew Whittle, owner of the Tesla Model 3 object of the video that at that time proceeded in Autopilot mode, the driver has so
      described the event:
"That evening I was driving my Model 3 Performance near Glacier National Park
        in Montana. Most of the trip from Utah to Montana has been carried out
        with Autopilot, including this time when you can see the
        car as it moves at cruising speed of 50 mph until it detects this
        bear family. Mom immediately jumped on the road to come between
        us and her puppies. Then he looked at us until we stepped back.
"For me this was an extraordinary demonstration of how much has been improved
        Autopilot function since I received the car. Not just the pilot
        automatic perceived the family of bears in the dark while the car went to 50
        miles per hour, but the Dashcam function recorded it all with great
        resolution! Thanks again Tesla! "

From what can be seen from the video the system reacted identifying an obstacle in the lane e
      stopping the car in a not too abrupt manner, perhaps like a more common generic condition of
      traffic or cars stopped in the queue: most probably the bears were detected by the onboard sensors even before they are immortalized in the video or in any case already at a distance such as to allow a fairly gradual braking intervention..

Although Tesla had announced interest in implementing more and more the
      Autopilot system with truthful examples of possible road obstacles, comes
      however reminded customers to pay attention at all times, and be
      ready to take control by avoiding absurd situations like that of driver and passenger
        fell asleep aboard his Tesla while the car proceeded at 90 km / h.
In any case, videos like these give hope for a continuous system
      implementation able to become more and more mature and efficient with the passage of time, all for the benefit of an autonomous guide but with higher safety standards than a person, even if alert and reactive, can offer.