The recent Tesla autopilot update will reportedly help prevent crashes from the company's self-driving car.

A long blog post on the company's website explained the significance of the Tesla autopilot update, particularly on using the radar at the forefront of the safety features rather than being treated as a supplementary sensor.

One of the problems with using radar is the distortion. For example, a small soda can reflect light to the sensor and appears much larger than it is. When that happens, a self-driving car might start braking. Another case is when it encounters a plastic object, which may appear translucent and might not be picked up by the radar at all.

The Tesla autopilot update reportedly worked around that issue.

"The first part of solving that problem is having a more detailed point cloud. Software 8.0 unlocks access to six times as many radar objects with the same hardware with a lot more information per object," it said.

Another solution is to map the environment to give the Tesla car a real time 3D snapshot, which allows the radar to behave sensibly when braking. An AI integrated into the computer will allow the Tesla autopilot car to learn the roads, bridges, road signs and any other obstacles.

However, Jason Torchinsky wrote for Jalopnik about his doubts on whether or not the Tesla autopilot update will really be able to save the life of car occupants in case of an accident. He said there's a huge blindspot in the vehicle from the driver's waist up based on previous crashes involving the self-driving car.

He said the problem seems to be hardware-related, meaning the Tesla autopilot update wouldn't have possibly addressed this.