A brand new acronym could also be added to the Tesla playbook — RTA, which stands for Radio Traffic Announcements.
In Tesla’s latest software update, 2022.40.1, we discovered a picture for an unannounced feature called Radio Traffic Announcements.
The feature looks prefer it was originally destined for update 2022.40, nevertheless it could have been removed to permit additional time for development.
Radio Traffic Announcements are utilized by a handful of auto manufacturers, BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen, to call a number of. It ensures the driving force will get local traffic reports no matter what they hearken to on the entertainment system.
Nonetheless, given the variety of enhancements Tesla has discussed, RTA might be far more than simply radio traffic.
The feature by itself is useful. If you happen to prefer to hearken to music, podcasts or books as an alternative of local radio, you’ll have encountered a number of traffic hiccups that might’ve been avoided had you heard the traffic report. The entertainment system detects when there’s a traffic report, mutes your entertainment and activates the announcement. If it doesn’t impact your drive, otherwise you don’t need to hear it, the feature is well stopped to get back to your tunes.
Tesla could advance the system much further, given some recent statements. Firstly, the corporate announced that it might implement a brand new hazard light system. Emergency Safety Solutions created the Hazard Enhancement Location Protocol (HELP), which not only changes how brilliant and fast hazard lights flash but in addition sends out a signal to alert drivers in the realm of a disabled vehicle. That system uses in-car or phone navigation, but perhaps Tesla could also utilize HELP with RTA.
Secondly, Elon Musk openly mused about Tesla-to-Tesla communications, one other feature that might be used with RTA. On the shareholder meeting in August, he said, “there might be some merits for Teslas to speak [with] one another,” in response to a matter on the topic. “That won’t be needed for Full Self-Driving in any respect, but for a very long time the overwhelming majority of cars might be manually driven, so the worth of Tesla-to-Tesla communication just isn’t that prime, aside from, perhaps, communicating traffic issues, accidents, potholes, and road closures. A Tesla ahead of you has seen a road closure, and also you get that real-time update to your automobile, so that you don’t get stuck within the road closure situation. That’s the stuff that we’re working on without delay.”
When Tesla just isn’t making a latest feature, it’s improving existing components and programs (the corporate bettered the seatbelt). While other manufacturers have made RTA available, HELP and Tesla-to-Tesla communication would further enhance this already useful announcement system.
We expect Radio Traffic Announcements to be released within the near future, possibly as soon as update 2022.44 or 2022.48.