A software update at Tesla allows vehicles to scan for potholes, damaged pavement, and other defects, Electrek reports.
The scan data is used to generate “rough road map data”, and makes the vehicle activate the adaptive suspension to adjust the height for a more comfortable driving experience.
Elon Musk tweeted the feature back in 2020 and this seems to be the first step. “This adjustment may occur at various locations, subject to availability, as the vehicle downloads rough road map data generated by Tesla cars,” the release notes state.
The road scanning capability only works for Tesla Model S and Model X with adaptive suspension, notes Elektrek. It’s unclear if the feature is also present for the Model 3 or Y, even if they don’t have adaptive suspension to take advantage of the data.
Users who wish to enable the feature must perform the latest update 2022.20, then you tap “Controls > Suspension > Adaptive Suspension Damper, and select the Comfort or Automatic setting,” Tesla notes, adding that “the instrument cluster will continue to indicate when the suspension is raised for comfort.”
In addition to Tesla, other manufacturers such as Ford have proposed a feature that even detects individual holes and instantly dampens the suspension.
Tesla’s system could be much more practical, simply by softening the ride parameters over known rough road patches.
