The launch of Tesla’s Robotaxi network on Sunday brought with it a wave of impressive demonstrations, along with some new FSD abilities.
One of these new abilities is for the vehicle to help clean its front-facing cameras.
How It Cleans
The Tesla Robotaxi cleaning its front cameras by continuously wiping just the area in front of the cameras.
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The Robotaxi can now clean its primary pair of forward-facing cameras on the fly. This new feature was initially hinted at in the FSD V13 release notes as the “improved camera cleaning” feature, but the way it’s implemented is quite clever.
It uses a unique wiper and spray sequence that directs washer fluid squarely onto the portion of the windshield where the camera enclosure is. This effectively keeps the two most important cameras on board the Model Y clean - the ones responsible for the entire forward arc of vision. All of this is done to ensure that the vehicle’s vision remains unobstructed by dirt, bugs, or road grime during a trip.
Since the cameras are right up against the glass, the windshield portion that the cameras need to be cleaned is extremely small, just about 6 inches by 4 inches. The sequence focuses on spraying and wiping this area, repeatedly, which technically is all it needs cleaned. The rest of the windshield is just for the passengers’ benefit.
While older HW3 vehicles include three front-facing cameras, HW4 cars only utilize two. One wide-angle lens to have a wider view, and another camera that focuses on the road ahead. Due to the higher resolution of HW4, the primary camera is used for shorter and farther distances.
The small area outlined in yellow is all the vehicle needs to see properly out of its front-facing cameras.
What About the Sides and Rear?
While the forward-facing cameras are covered, including the currently unused-for-FSD bumper camera, that leaves the majority of the other cameras exposed to the elements and unable to be easily cleaned. The side repeater cameras on the fenders, as well as the B-pillar cameras, are crucial for cross-traffic and side visibility, while the rearview camera provides rearward visibility.
While the front camera is the most important, Tesla recently explained that the updated door design on the new Model 3 and Model Y includes an extended indent for the fender cameras to create a little vortex that helps remove water from the repeater cameras. While this is helpful, it may not keep the cameras completely clear.
For a true autonomous system in varying weather conditions, keeping all cameras clean is important. A dirty repeater camera could prevent a safe lane change, and an obscured rearview camera makes autonomous parking or reversing maneuvers difficult, if not impossible.
The question is - how does Tesla plan to address these?
The Cleaning Bot
The answer likely lies outside the vehicle. Just as with human-operated vehicles, a third party will be responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of these cameras. Tesla has previously demonstrated its Robotaxi cleaning robot in action on the interiors of the Cybercab, but the same robot, equipped with a multi-function manipulator arm, can likely also wash the exterior cameras.
This hub-based robot is probably the other half of Tesla’s future cleaning strategy. When a Robotaxi returns to the hub for charging, the robot could perform a full exterior sensor sweep, precisely cleaning the side, pillar, and rear camera lenses.
That’s a fairly comprehensive cleaning solution — clear the front-facing cameras on the go as they get dirty, and send the vehicle back for a more thorough cleaning if any others are obstructed.
What About Today?
Of course, as Tesla is still in the pilot stages now, that cleaning robot likely isn’t in that equation quite yet. Humans are still plugging in the Model Y Robotaxis at the end of the day to charge, and likely cleaning them as well, for the duration of the pilot stage.
As Tesla scales its fleet, these autonomous cleaning methods will become necessary, and we’ll eventually learn more about how they intend to address this in the future.
