Tesla wants to physically disable Front Radar in my 2022 Model S for Tesla Vision

[black knight 3]

Looks like they just added a new service bulletin (proactive “upgrades”, usually for reliability) for my 2022 Model S VIN. Reason is as follows:

“In 2021 - 2022 Model S vehicles running firmware version 2022.20.9 or later, Autopilot and Active Safety Features that were using front radar sensor data transitioned to using camera data (Tesla Vision), making the front radar sensor unnecessary.”

In short, radar is now redundant and engineering is requesting to physically disable front radar sensor.

I asked the question to Tesla: Why is this needed?

and got this response:
"Bulletins are proactive fixes. The service document does not show exactly why but my bet is that the radar will consume energy despite it not being used if we do not disconnect. You may see increased range should we disconnect it, observable or not is not clear. The vehicle will use Tesla vision for all autopilot and active safety features"

Geez, I don't get it with these guys. I literally just got done with replacing the front radar due to a service bulletin about water intrusion. and then 2 weeks later they want to remove again? Tesla, is the left hand actually talking to the right hand? Engineering and services must not be in sync over there.

They would have to remove the front bumber fascia all over again to do this. any thoughts folks? should I do it?

 

[black knight 3]

also tesla says: "Service bulletins are sent to batches of VINs. This service bulletin is for 2021 - 2022 Model S vehicles running firmware version 2022.20.9 or later." I would think this would be news and affect a lot of cars. So far I haven't heard of a single instance of anyone being notifified about this.

 

[Tam]

...should I do it?

You do realize that despite eating up the range, Tesla is bringing back the radar for HW4, don't you?

First look at Tesla's Hardware 4 radar unit

Tesla describes its new radar as "a non-pulsed Automotive Radar which operates in the 76-77 GHz spectrum and supports 3 sensing modes."

www.teslarati.com

Tesla said radar removal would eliminate phantom brakes but not in my experience.

If it was me, I would not remove the radar.

 

[black knight 3]

You do realize that despite eating up the range, Tesla is bringing back the radar for HW4, don't you?

First look at Tesla's Hardware 4 radar unit

Tesla describes its new radar as "a non-pulsed Automotive Radar which operates in the 76-77 GHz spectrum and supports 3 sensing modes."

www.teslarati.com

Tesla said radar removal would eliminate phantom brakes but not in my experience.

If it was me, I would not remove the radar

 

[black knight 3]

well, the radar won‘t be used anyways because tesla vision is used or that’s their official line at least. The only reason they could give me for disabling radar is 2-3 mile range improvement. Something seems off with this story. Why would they issue a service bulletin for certain VINs on FSD beta for the benefit of 2-3 mile range improvement? There must be more to the story…

 

[RTPEV]

The only other thing I can think of is that if there is an actual fault with the unit (admittedly exceedingly rare probability), it may cause electrical problems elsewhere in the car. So the thought process is if it's not going to be used anyway, completely disable it so it can't have any possibility of causing other issues.

As to whether or not you should do it, if there's no cost to you (including your time), then I can't think of any harm coming from it. But I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to have it done. I seriously doubt you would see even a half mile of effect to your range.

 

[KArnold]

Do you get the radar back? Or does Tesla have an unwritten agenda?

 

[zoomer0056]

“In 2021 - 2022 Model S vehicles running firmware version 2022.20.9 or later, Autopilot and Active Safety Features that were using front radar sensor data transitioned to using camera data (Tesla Vision), making the front radar sensor unnecessary.”

Where can we see this bulletin?

 

[Tam]

There must be more to the story…

Agreed!

Do they plan to physically remove all radars from the rest of more than 300,000 FSD beta owners?

Tesla's practice on radar is evolving. Radar is bad in today's bulletin doesn't guarantee that Tesla won't reactivate it in the future.

 

[JohnB007]

Is radar used by the software at all right now on any generation cars?

 

[momoz74]

FYI. The HW4 cars that have the new phoenix radar are getting “rework” to unplug and cap the new radar before delivery. If you have access to the service manuals it’s in the last week of march updates.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Is radar used by the software at all right now on any generation cars?

I don't believe so, as long as the car is running a fairly recent build. I don't remember which build switched to Tesla Vision, but it was months ago.

 

[JohnB007]

I don't believe so, as long as the car is running a fairly recent build. I don't remember which build switched to Tesla Vision, but it was months ago.

So why do they bother to disconnect the sensors physically? I must be missing something...

 

[MP3Mike]

So why do they bother to disconnect the sensors physically? I must be missing something...

The service procedure doesn't say anything about what vehicles it will be done on, or why they are doing it.

Do you get the radar back?

They aren't removing it, just disconnecting it and changing the vehicle configuration so it knows it doesn't have it.

 

[sundaydrive]

I don't believe so, as long as the car is running a fairly recent build. I don't remember which build switched to Tesla Vision, but it was months ago.

If driving on 2022.20.8 and prior, it still utilizes radar. Myself and few others are still holding out without problems.

 

[E90alex]

The radar is unused already due to Tesla
vision, but if it’s connected still the car might throw errors if there is a hardware malfunction (like the water intrusion problem).

So I guess Tesla is physically disconnecting them and programming the car to say it doesn’t have radar at all to prevent from having to spend money to replace faulty radar modules that is not being used anyways.

 

[Tam]

Is radar used by the software at all right now on any generation cars?

Not all Tesla radars are disabled.

FSD beta disabled my 2018 Model 3 radar.

FSD does not disable my 2017 Model X.

You know whether the radar is disabled if your car can use Autopilot at the maximum speed of 85 MPH (radar=90MPH), and more phantom brakes, and your TACC cannot work without headlights at night (In my 2017 Model X, once the Autopilot is on at night, I can turn off the headlights and although the Autosteer is off without the headlights the TACC keeps on working. I use the same trick with radar to drive in the thick fog with TACC).

 

[APotatoGod]

If they're not using the radar anyway due to software, I'd love if they could remove it and give it to me, I could tinker and try to find another use for it for a robotics project or something!

 

[lowtek]

FYI. The HW4 cars that have the new phoenix radar are getting “rework” to unplug and cap the new radar before delivery. If you have access to the service manuals it’s in the last week of march updates.

Can you post evidence of this? Perhaps an image of the Service Manual update you're referring to?

 

[MP3Mike]

Can you post evidence of this? Perhaps an image of the Service Manual update you're referring to?

I posted a link to the procedure: https://service.tesla.com/docs/Mode...UID-BEC4B8DB-1300-40C2-BD9E-ECAA030578CF.html

But it doesn't say which vehicles it should be applied to.