Source code in Tesla’s latest software update hints that stop light and stop sign recognition and action may be just around the corner

Last year Tesla CEO Elon Musk was hopeful that “feature complete” Full Self-Driving (FSD) was going to be released before the end of 2019. Unfortunately that deadline was missed, but a recent dive into the source code of the latest software update reveals it may be coming soon.

One of the features listed under “coming later this year” section for FSD includes stop light and stop sign recognition.

Well known Tesla hacker @greentheonly took a closer look at Tesla’s latest 2020.12 software update, and at first everything seemed the same as the previousl 2020.8.1 release, until he found some new icons buried in the code.

oh, forgot to add the icons

these are apparently aimed for display when the stopping will be activated? pic.twitter.com/jZMSOl1vEm

— green (@greentheonly) March 13, 2020

The new icons are believed to represent what the car will display when it encounters and reacts to a stop light and a stop sign, and a possible a warning to the driver. The inclusion of these icons could mean that we are that much closer to feature complete FSD.

The hacker also found reference to older Tesla vehicles with MCU1 being able to display the new FSD visualizations. This is important because it was believed that owners of Tesla vehicles with the older MCU1 unit would have to pay $2,500 to upgrade to the new MCU2 unit (not in Canada yet) in order to use FSD. But now it appears they will be able to stick with the MCU1 and still be able to enjoy the FSD visualizations.