Tesla fixes Steering Wheel Nag with new Vision based solution

Tesla customers have complaining about the unnecessary driver attention system warning for a long time and finally addressed steering wheel nag with a new Vision-based solution.

Steering wheel nag is a driver’s safety feature that ensures that the driver remains attentive and engaged to take over the steering wheel. After last year’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) safety recall, Tesla added several new safety measures to improve driver monitoring with strict implications. However, it led to more attention warnings, and in some scenarios with the least amount of driver movement.

New Solution

After FSD 12.4, the driver monitoring will primarily shift to the cabin camera. Tesla has been relying on its camera-based vision system since 2022. It replaced radar and ultrasonic sensors. and achieved fluency over these popularized car components.

Putting the cabin camera in first place could help the company improve driver attention monitoring with more accuracy than the existing system.

The vision-based driver attention monitoring will be available for vehicles with cabin cameras. Even with that, the camera must remain clean and meet other visibility parameters including:

• Camera must not be occluded
• Should be Sufficient cabin illuminate
• Driver should be looking forward
• Driver should not wear sunglasses
• Driver should not wear a hat with a low brim
• Driver should not cover eyes with any other object

Along with this vision-based system, Tesla keeps using the torque-based (steering wheel) detection system to detect driver attention. However, this new system doesn’t mean that FSD has removed the steering wheel warning completely.

The camera will still show a warning if the camera detects it to be inattentive. This warning can be dismissed to maintain posture and remain attentive to the driving route. If the warning persists the system will mark a Strikeout.

Tesla is rolling out a new vision-based attention monitoring system with Full Self Driving (FSD) version 12.3.4 but it’s currently limited to Tesla employees. Soon, the company will expand it to public FSD (Supervised) subscribers.