Beta no more? Tesla Full Self-Driving v12 nears public release (2024)

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A new level of autonomy

The FSD v12 is the culmination of Tesla’s efforts to achieve full autonomy, or the ability to drive without human intervention, in its vehicles. The update will enable Tesla cars to handle complex scenarios such as traffic lights, roundabouts, intersections, city streets, and highway driving. The update will also allow Tesla owners to summon their cars from anywhere and potentially use them as robotaxis in the future.

The FSD v12 is based on a completely new architecture, which relies on a neural network that learns from millions of real-world video clips. Unlike the previous versions, which used human-written code to control the vehicle, the FSD v12 will use a “network-path-based” approach, which means that the car will follow the optimal path based on the network’s predictions. According to Musk, this will make the car safer and more efficient.

Full Self-Driving (Beta) v12.1.1 is now rolling out to Tesla employees for the first time.

— Teslascope (@teslascope) January 12, 2024

A long-awaited release

The FSD v12 has been in the works for a long time and has faced several delays and challenges. Musk first announced the update in April 2022 and said it would be ready by the end of the year. However, the update was pushed back several times as Tesla had to overcome technical hurdles and regulatory issues.

Yes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2023

In November 2023, Musk confirmed that the FSD v12 was rolling out to a small group of employees who were part of the “Wave1” program. The program, which consists of over 15,000 Tesla employee-owned vehicles, was designed to test the update and provide feedback. In December 2023, the FSD v12.1 was released to the Wave1 group, followed by the FSD v12.1.1 in January 2024. The latter version included bug fixes and improvements based on the team members testing.

Musk also said the FSD v12 would lose its beta label and become a stable release. However, the current versions still have the beta tag, indicating that the update must still be ready for the masses. Musk also said that the FSD v12 would undergo extra testing with team member builds before being released to the public.

https://t.co/VzTxpktH1q

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2023

Live demo by Musk

In August 2023, Musk shared a livestream demonstration of the FSD v12, showing how the car handled various situations on the road. The demo, which lasted for about 15 minutes, could have been more impressive, as the car made some mistakes and hesitations and required human intervention at some points. However, the demo also showed the potential of the FSD v12 and how far it has come since the previous versions.

Musk said that the demo was meant to show the “raw and uncensored” performance of the FSD v12 and that the update was still being developed. He also said that the demo was done with an early version of the FSD v12 and that the final version would be much better.