Tesla has widened the speed range of its Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) system in the newest 2023.12 software update that also fixed its erratic auto wipers. AEB engages the brakes for the driver when it senses a potential for collision, in order to slow down the Tesla vehicle and at least diminish the crash damage if not avoid it outright.
Heretofore, Tesla's Automatic Emergency Braking became active at speeds above 3 miles per hour and below 90 miles per hour. In the new AEB manual, however, the top speed threshold has been moved to the whopping 200km/h, or about 124 miles per hour. It remains to be seen how automatic braking would work at such high speeds, but Tesla didn't stop here and added another useful feature to the driver-assist safety system.
The updated AEB manual says that Automatic Emergency Braking is now scheduled to work in reverse, too, while previously it was only able to cushion frontal collisions. "Automatic Emergency Braking is designed to reduce the impact of frontal and reverse collisions with limited functionality while in Reverse," says the updated section.
While AEB is operational by default when starting a Tesla, it can either be switched off from the Controls -> Autopilot -> Automatic Emergency Braking settings menu, or will disengage automatically in the following scenarios, says Tesla:
- Turning the steering wheel sharply
- Pressing and releasing the brake pedal while AEB is applying the brakes
- Accelerating hard while AEB is applying the brakes
- The detected vehicle, motorcycle, bicycle, or pedestrian is no longer ahead