The next update to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) could arrive this weekend, as the long-awaited v12.4.2 is scheduled to enter an internal testing phase tomorrow.
Tesla first released version 12 of FSD in March, and it was a significant release because it was the first version that relied on end-to-end neural nets, instead of over 300,000 lines of hand-written code. With the switch, CEO Elon Musk said that each revision should result in significant improvements, saying that v12.4 should see a 5 to 10 times improvement in miles per intervention.
However, v12.4 was only released to a limited number of testers earlier this month, more than four weeks after Musk initially said it would be available, and it received a luke-warm response, with a number of bugs and erratic driving behaviours reported. As a result, it has yet to go to a wide release.
That wide release could finally happen this weekend, according to Musk, who said on Wednesday v12.4.2 is being released for internal testing with employees tomorrow, Thursday June 27, 2024.
If all goes well with testing, and Tesla sees “no safety regressions,” v12.4.2 could be released publicly this weekend, Musk added in a later post on X.
Yeah, we just need to confirm there are no safety regressions
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 26, 2024
Aside from expected improvements in driving behaviours, FSD v12.4.2 also brings with a big enhancement, the removal of the steering wheel nag.
The steering wheel nag is used to ensure drivers are paying attention and ready to take over at any time, but with the new Vision-Based Attention Monitoring, the cabin camera is used instead. However, this also adds a number of restrictions, like not being able to wear sunglasses or a low-brim hat that blocks or obscures your eyes. If that happens, the system reverts to the steering wheel nag.
