Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided a new timeline for the public release of Full Self-Driving (FSD) v12.4.1, a big update that is supposed to include substantial improvements and the removal of the steering wheel nag.
Tesla first released FSD v12 in March, switching from handwritten code to a system based on end-to-end neural nets. The feedback from owners since that release has been overwhelmingly positive, and with it being just the first release using end-to-end neural nets, showed a viable path to the company achieving Full Self-Driving.
It is not perfect however, and future versions are expected to see significant improvements with each update. According to Musk, v12.4 was supposed to see a 5 to 10 times improvements in miles per intervention. Initially v12.4 was supposed to see a limited public release in mid-May, but that timeline passed without a rollout of the new software.
Now according to Musk, Tesla has made enough changes to move to 12.4.1, and this version is going out to employees today. If all goes well with internal testing, unlike last time, Musk says a limited public release could happen this weekend.
As for how many changes are included in 12.4, Musk said it is a “massive” amount, so much so that he says it should be called v13.
Setting the stage for the future, Musk added that FSD is getting close to the point where someone should be able to go a full year without needing to intervene and take over from the software, once known bugs are addressed and fixed.
FSD 12.4.1 releases today to Tesla employees. If that goes well, then it will be released to a limited number of external customers this weekend.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2024
There are a massive number of changes to this build. It should arguably be called v13, but we’re sticking to 12 😂
Two other…
As we noted, v12.4.1 is not only expected to be a significant improvement, but it will also have a significant improvement in terms of how easy it is to use. With this version Tesla is moving to a vision-based attention monitoring system which will allow it to get rid of the steering wheel nag, in which drivers are continuously prompted to apply pressure to the steering wheel to confirm their attentiveness.
However, it is not permanently removed, as there will still be scenarios where the vision-based system will be insufficient, such as when the camera is blocked, it is too dark, or when the driver is wearing sunglasses or a low-brim hat.
