Sorry, that’s incorrect! A Tesla’s sensors can actually see as far as 250m (about 820 feet). That’s nearly 56 car lengths (Autopilot, n.d.)!
The maximum range of the tesla sensors. (Click on the picture to enlarge it) <https://www.tesla.com/autopilot>
Self-Driving Cars with autopilot work by using ultrasonic sensors. Ultrasonic sensors send out sound waves that are too high for the human ear to hear, and those waves then bounce off of solid objects, notifying the car of objects in its way. Those sensors serve more as the eyes of the car, but when it comes to the brain of the car, a technique called machine learning is used. When a driver is not using the autopilot feature of a self-driving car, the car collects data on how that driver drives daily (Stilgoe, 2017). For example, it may find that Columbus roads are busier during certain times, and reduce its speed preemptively. Since every self driving car has this technology, the data from all self-driving cars on the road is complied in a database. However, before self-driving cars began to use this data, they were given an original set of information with basic rules of the road. Through the process of machine learning, the cars essentially learn more and more about how society drives as they are driven, even when autopilot is turned off (Stilgoe, 2017).