Tesla is preparing to release a new update to the team of Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta testers with fundamental improvements and new areas of functionality.
The announcement came from CEO Elon Musk this morning on Twitter, calling the release “special”, adding that if all goes well a wider release of the beta software could be coming soon.
Next week’s release is special. Lot of fundamental improvements, both important bug fixes & entire new areas of functionality.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2020
If next week’s release looks good, we will widen beta
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2020
It was only last month that Tesla first released the FSD beta software. Since then it has shown off how it can already handle some difficult every-day, and not so every-day driving situations.
It is unclear what new areas of functionality Musk could be referring to. One possible new feature that Musk has said would be coming soon is reverse summon, where the car drops you off at a store and then drives off to find a parking spot.
The important part about this update for Canadians is the potential for a wider release if no major bugs are found. Earlier this month Musk revealed the next markets to get the beta software would be Canada and Norway, which would happen after the US gets out of early beta.
Whether Canada sees FSD beta soon all hinges on the CEO’s definition of “early beta”. Musk had originally hoped for a wider release to happen before the end of the year, so there is a good chance we could be getting a great Christmas present from Santa Elon. That gift would go along nicely with a holiday software update Musk teased yesterday that will be packed with features we didn’t even know we wanted.