Tesla cabin camera will watch over drivers for road attention and issue Autopilot Strikeouts for a week

Despite being investigated for such promises by the NHTSA before, Elon Musk recently said that Tesla will "soon" have a solution for the rather annoying steering wheel "nag" that it uses to mark the driver's attention during self-driving sessions.

Since the NHTSA closed its probe over deadly Autopilot accidents with the recommendation for more such nags and warnings, Tesla delivered a murky recall that increased their scope and frequency, making for a rather annoying self-driving experience.

Instead of the constant steering wheel touching that reports to the car that drivers are paying attention, Tesla will now use a literal hands-off approach to check on them.

In the 2024.9.5 software update version there is a changelog section titled "Vision-Based Attention Monitoring" and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Tesla has been expanding the cabin camera use case scenarios to Zoom calls and the like, and it has now tasked it with removing the steering wheel nag while driving on Autopilot or FSD.

"The driver monitoring system now primarily relies on the cabin camera to determine driver attentiveness," says Tesla, unless the vehicle doesn't have one, or the drivers are wearing sunglasses and low brim hats, or there simply isn't enough visibility in the car.

In those cases, Tesla will again rely on the "torque-based" driver monitoring system of simply touching the steering wheel now and then.

The Vision-based monitoring will still result in warnings and even Autopilot Strikeouts if the driver is not attentive, but the nags will be way less frequent if they keep their eyes on the road.

"One Autopilot Strikeout will be forgiven for each 7-day period in which you do not receive any Strikeouts," says Tesla, adding that FSD (Supervised) will be unavailable for use in that timeframe, too.

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