When Tesla expanded their Full Self-Driving (FSD) program in Canada in March, the software worked on all roads north of the border, with the exception of a small area in downtown Toronto.
Some of the early beta testers discovered this on the first night of testing the software, finding that when they entered the restricted area the screen would show the red steering wheel and ask the driver to take over control of the vehicle.
A review of the error logs showed a message saying “Full Self-Driving unavailable at current location.”
We later learned this geofence was due to Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) streetcars, which travel on rails in the middle of the road and operate very differently from regular vehicles, also frequently stopping to let off passengers, again in the middle of the road.
Nearly 7 months later and it looks like Tesla is close to being confident that their software can handle streetcars to the point where the can remove the geofence.
In a tweet on Wednesday night, Elon Musk said they might do it with the next FSD Beta release, version 10.69.3.
Maybe with .3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2022
We are not exactly sure what work Tesla has done to train the neural nets to better handle TTC streetcars.
Just days before FSD Beta expanded into Canada we received several reports of a Model Y with LiDAR and Tesla manufacturer plates being spotted in Ontario. At the time we speculated Tesla sent this car to Canada for some last minute validation and ground truthing before the release of the software.
We haven’t heard of any sightings of this car since then, so Tesla has likely been using some of their regular FSD Beta-equipped vehicles to travel through downtown Toronto in order to collect data on streetcar behaviour.
Musk didn’t say when 10.69.3 will be released. It was originally slated to be deployed a few days after AI Day 2, but there has been no sign of it yet. There is speculation it could arrive this weekend.
UPDATE 10:15am PT: Musk said on Twitter this morning that 10.69.3 will be released next week.
Next week
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2022
Tesla Model Y with LiDAR equipment spotted driving on Bay Area roads
