Tesla reportedly said today that it will remove Ultrasonic Sensors from its vehicles and use only cameras in its safety and driver assistance features starting this month.

Tesla vehicles currently have 12 ultrasonic sensors mounted on the front and rear bumpers, short-range sound sensors used primarily for parking applications and detecting nearby objects.

In response, this will save them a few dollars," said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at research firm Guidehouse Insights. I mean, these things are pretty cheap. And, of course, it will save them some chips."

Last year, amid a chip shortage, Tesla began dropping radar sensors.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) had previously said that Tesla could achieve fully autonomous driving with just a camera. However, Musk had planned to launch a "robot cab" by 2024, but the plan has been postponed.

Meanwhile, Tesla is facing increasing regulation and legal and public scrutiny, as the Autopilot-assisted driving system has caused numerous crashes.

Tesla said it will remove ultrasonic sensors from the Model 3 and Model Y globally in the coming months, followed by the removal of ultrasonic sensors from the Model S and Model X in 2023. Tesla noted that this transition will temporarily limit the automatic parking feature, but will not affect the car's safety rating.

In response, Raj Rajkumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, said, "It remains to be seen whether this move is a step forward or a step backward."

Currently, self-driving technology companies and automakers, are using multiple sensors to implement self-driving features, such as expensive LIDAR; but Tesla relies only on cameras and artificial intelligence to help the vehicle identify its surroundings.

According to Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, "The question is to what extent the cameras can capture the environment around the car, which is sometimes limited."