This morning I received another software update for my Tesla Model 3. Today’s update was light on in the release notes, with the standard ‘Minor fixes’ being listed in the Release Notes. The reality is, this build is quite an advancement on previous builds.
The biggest noteworthy change is the ability to access all 9 cameras from around the car.
While Tesla allowed users you see the front, rear and left/right repeater cameras, more recently, they added support to view the interior camera in the car. There were however two cameras on the B-pillars of the car that we had never seen the vision and viewing angle of, but with today’s update, we can finally see all 9 cameras.
To access these, you need to be stopped, visit the Service Menu, and then select Camera Preview. Here’s where the big change lies in this release.
At the top of the Camera Preview screen, you’ll see buttons for all 9 cameras. The 9 cameras include the ability to access the 3 cameras in the front vision system mounted to the windshield. This provides great insight into the camera array we’d never seen before.
Tesla’s main camera is generally what we see in recordings from Dashcam, but we also see the Wide angle lens, which features a really wide view, almost the same as what you see from the driver’s seat and maybe a little beyond without the obstructions of the A-pillars.
The Narrow camera focuses further down the road, helpful in detecting oncoming objects early.
So what about these B-pillar cameras?
Finally getting to see from these cameras is exciting, as it tells us a lot about the view the car has, as it’s making important decisions about turns (in FSD beta) as well as adjacent cars when making lane changes.
I put together a quick hands-on video of the updated Camera Preview and took plenty of photos of each camera view.
