Bad road surface has always created problems both for drivers and for the cars themselves. In addition to reducing comfort, various pits, potholes, and similar troubles lead to unnecessary visits to the service station, because the car’s suspension also suffers from constant shocks. Tesla, as one of the “smartest” cars, can help fight this in its own way.

With the latest software update, Tesla began scanning roads for various trouble spots and adjusting suspension settings to minimize damage.

Two years ago, Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla’s autopilot should remember various bumps in the road and avoid them if possible. Under some conditions, such as limited visibility or bad weather, this can be difficult even for a human, so there was enough skepticism about such a feature. But Tesla already has a lot of users, and the company can collect a large amount of data, which all cars then receive.

And now in the description of the software update, there is an item Tesla Adaptive Suspension. Having received information about the condition of certain sections of the road, the car will be able to change the suspension settings accordingly, depending on the nature of the road surface problems.

The instrument panel will illuminate the indicator that the suspension has switched to Comfort mode. To enable the feature you’ll need the latest update 2022.20, then you tap Controls > Suspension > Adaptive Suspension Damping, and select the Comfort or Auto setting.

Of course, this feature is only available on the Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X, which have adaptive suspension.