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TeslaPatent applicationCars & transportInterest 6/10

Tesla patents AI that reads road surface texture from camera feeds

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Tesla describes a system that uses cameras on a vehicle to feed images into an AI model. The AI predicts specific characteristics of surfaces around the car, such as the road or sidewalk, and creates a dataset of these findings.

Why it mattersThis could help self-driving systems better understand grip and terrain conditions without needing extra sensors.

In the filing’s own words

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for using artificial intelligence modeling techniques to train and execute an artificial intelligence model to analyze camera feed received from an ego to predict surface data for various surfaces surrounding the ego. A method comprises inputting, using one or more cameras of an ego object, image data of a space around the ego object into an artificial intelligence model; predicting, by executing the artificial intelligence model, a surface attribute of one or more surfaces of the space around the ego object; and generating a dataset based on the one or more surfaces and their corresponding surface attribute.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method comprising: inputting, by a processor using one or more cameras of an ego object, image data of a space around the ego object into an artificial intelligence model; predicting, by the processor executing the artificial intelligence model, a surface attribute of one or more surfaces of the space around the ego object; and generating, by the processor, a dataset based on the one or more surfaces and their corresponding surface attribute.

Facts

Company
Tesla (Tesla, Inc.)
Official title
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MODELING TECHNIQUES FOR VISION-BASED SURFACE DETERMINATION
Publication number
US20260330841A1
Application number
19115719
Filed
Sep 28, 2023
Published
Oct 22, 2026
Inventors
6
Claims
20

Classified under

G06V 20/58 Physics & computingB60W 60/0011 Operations & transportG06V 10/82 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.