Tesla’s Autopilot hardware uses eight external cameras. Together, these cameras provide an almost 360-degree visual view around the vehicle and supply the computer-vision data used by Tesla’s driver-assistance features.
The eight-camera arrangement was introduced with Tesla’s second-generation Autopilot hardware in 2016. The layout included three forward-facing cameras, two cameras looking toward the front sides, two cameras covering the rear sides, and one rear-facing camera. This arrangement gave the system overlapping views for lane markings, vehicles, obstacles, and surrounding traffic.
The number refers to the vehicle’s exterior Autopilot camera suite, not every camera that may be fitted inside a Tesla. Some later Tesla vehicles also include an interior cabin camera for driver monitoring, which can lead to a different total if someone counts all cameras in the car.
Another common misunderstanding is assuming all eight cameras were fully used from the first software release. Early versions of the second-generation system initially relied on only a subset of the available cameras before later updates expanded their use.