Image credit: Kim Paquette
The latest version of Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) beta self-driving software upgrade has been labelled a “huge improvement”, although Tesla boss Elon Musk is still urging testers to be “super cautious”.
The latest version of Tesla’s “fully functioning” FSD software, 2020.44.10.2 was rolled out over the weekend, and videos of it in operation have quickly propagated throughout the internet.
The FSD beta now three weeks of operation under its belt thanks to a small number of hand-selected Tesla owners-turned-testers, and testers posting videos of their vehicle in self-driving mode have described the latest update as a “huge improvement”.
Musk responded to one such tester saying, “Cool, but please be super cautious. Expect two steps forward, one back. Lot of new code was merged.”
While official release notes have not been uploaded to the usual locations as yet, FSD beta tester Kristen Netten noted on Twitter that the latest upgrade mainly consists of navigation and UI (user interface) fixes.
These include improvements to the positioning and size of the speedometer, speed sign, battery and Autopilot steering.
Several testers have reported short, but largely uninterrupted, drives including through San Francisco city streets, and in residential areas.
Youtuber “Whole Mars Catalog” shows their Tesla Model 3 navigating narrow streets from San Francisco’s Chinatown to Coit Tower at night time, saying there were no disengagements for the entire drive.
“Very impressed by what happened in this video. This software will change the world as we know it,” the Youtuber said.
“I’m doing more and more consistent drives without any disengagements than I did before,” said the drier behind the “Tesla Owners Silicon Valley” account on Youtube.
“It’s pretty scary to be honest, just how much this is getting better every single time,” he said.
Both Kim Paquette, who posts her FSD beta test videos on Youtube, and Youtube “Dirty Tesla” both noted how the latest software can now recognise a parked truck as opposed to a moving truck, then indicate to drive around it.
She notes that the UI shows green for a moving vehicle, but then changes to red once it decides that the truck is in fact parked.
“Dirty Tesla” notes the same in a comprehensive video that shows a number of different manouevres, from the parked truck to navigating a roundabout to driving through a complicated intersection.
It does make one mistake at a left turn that has a three-way stop, but then navigates a fairly complex T-intersection.
“It’s not perfect … but is in insanely capable,” says “Dirty Tesla”.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.
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