Image: Riz Akhtar
Tesla has rolled out the latest version of it’s full self driving (FSD) software which now allows Tesla vehicles to drive to a supercharger and back itself into a vacant charging bay.
In a video shared on X by an avid Tesla FSD user, aidriver, the car – with the latest version 13 of the software – is initially seen turning into a carpark on its way to the supercharger site with 6 spare stalls
With no human input, the car was navigating through a carpark before arriving at the supercharger bays.
It then found a spare charging bay before automatically shifting to reverse and reversing into the bay, ready for the charging cable to be plugged into the vehicle to initiate the session.
“Game-changer!” gushed one social media reader. “This used to be my only last mile intervention while on a road trip!”
“This is awesome!” added another. There was no hesitation once it sorted out the slot whatsoever in that reverse 🫡.”
For many years, Tesla team has been working on the FSD software to allow autonomous operation of its fleet.
In recent times, the Tesla AI team has had multiple breakthroughs, including the use of end to end neural networks that allows the system to learn at a much faster pace.
Tesla FSD making left turn through intersection. Source: Whole Mars Catalog
This helps the car deal with typically unfamiliar situations such as supercharger stops in a more conventional way, the way a driver behind the wheel would.
From the shared footage, it’s easy to see that the FSD system is making great progress, using just the cameras around the car to navigate to desired destinations. It’s also reducing the number of human interventions needed to get there, making it safer with each release.
It’s still unclear when there will be a release of the system in Australia but it could be as early as 2025 if required approvals are received.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
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"It’s still unclear when there will be a release of the system in Australia but it could be as early as 2025 if required approvals are received."
Sorry, but that is a completely meaningless statement. It could be 2026, or 2028 or 2030. We don't know. All we do know is that 1) Musk has been promising FSD every year since, I think, 2017 and it is still not here. 2) In spite of all the breathless announcement of improvements and breakthroughs, the rate of disengagement of the software is still hundreds, if not thousands of times higher than it needs to be. 3) A version of FSD (Supervised) has been released in North America but nowhere else. Tesla has taken people's money, but has not delivered on promises. Completely unethical behaviour.
Seriously who cares if it's 2025, 2026 or 2030?
FSD will continue to "still not be here" until suddenly it just is here.
Fascinating developments are happening and some people just keep whinging about timelines and "ethics".
FSD Vision Only will never be approved.
Australia uses the UNECE regulations to determine how much ADAS and fully-autonomous systems are allowed to do. So if someone wants to know about what Tesla will and won't be allowed to implement next year in Australia, that person should research those regulations, the proposed upcoming changes to the regulations, along with the processes for changing those regulations.
Mastering roundabout free California without the expensive additional equipment is a Musk fantasy. Wide angle lenses distort reality reliably........but the con goes on.
Until it is
The statement is inaccurate & misleading, not meaningless. There are no additional approvals required for FSD to be released as a L2 system.
The barriers to its implementation as a L3 or above system are numerous and have been well documented. There has never been discussion about L2 barriers becuase there aern't any.
Some Tesla's are too keen to get there! "Runaway Tesla crashes into three cars and drives off rooftop at Sydney shopping centre car park"
The best part about this, is that even when it comes out that it was driver error, not car, that you don't have to redact or re-post anything to correct the BS you just wrote.
Win!
It might be driver error, but I thought even the old model S had crash avoidance?
The driver can override AEB by keeping the accelerator pressed.
👍 Right. So that's probably what happened in all likelihood
Had it been an ICE vehicle the brand or make WOULD NOT have been mentioned. Proof that media is focused on clicks rather than just present the facts and being an EV it is even click bait potential. Driver lost control of car smashing into multiple cars and drives off roof top.
That driver in Sydney will likely be deemed a liar in a few weeks' time. Interesting stuff.
An interesting crash to analyse, whether or not it was under automous mode is clealy of interest but more interesting to me is:
1) How the car seemed to accellerate even after major damage to front wheel. I have to assume it was a rear motor only Model S?
2) Why the crash barrier failed to stop the vehicle?
The failed crash barrier struck me as the real story as well.
It's not that FSD that will likely be here shortly. It's the complete Melt down in the comments these d@#K Bags will have that i'm looking forward to. Albeit most of them are bots or BYD staff with nothing to do.
I doubt they'll ever be able to manage Melbourne's hook turns which are used to keep the centre of the road clear for trams.
Want to turn right? Queue up on the left hand side, but in the intersection, until the lights for the road you want to enter turn green.
Neural nets work by recognising patterns in data. For the FSD neural nets, the relevant data in the case you give is driver behaviour at those types of intersections. If all of the drivers are doing the same thing, the pattern will be obvious to the neural net and it will be easy to train the neural net to copy that behaviour and drive correctly at those intersections.
Neural nets only struggle to make accurate decisions when there are no clear patterns in the training data or when they encounter novel situations for which they have not been trained.
It should be able to read the sign and know what it means but definitely a great edge case to see how it behaves. Same for U turns at traffic lights, not allowed in all states of Australia. FSD will need to use location data to assess if such a move is legal.
I have a local no right turn sign after 3pm to 6pm but the indicator on my car keeps turning off when I turn right at that intersection in the morning (no FSD or autopilot engaged). It doesn't recognise the time associated with the no right turn sign. It isn't learning or improving but amazing how it tries to do the right thing (not allowing you to signal to turn right) but not smart enough to read the small print.
The cars don't learn on their own. Any changes have to come from new software downloads from Tesla.
I'm very sure that Tesla has not been making any significant upgrades to FSD over the past 3-4 years for any jurisdiction outside of North America. They is because the UNECE regulations that are used in 100+ countries, including Australia (but excluding the US and Canada), would have prevented them from implementing the types of functions that the NA version of FSD can perform.
Tesla has been lobbying the UNECE to change the regulations to allow the use of their NA version of FSD (suitably modified for local roads and traffic laws) in UNECE countries, but the UK, Germany, and a few other countries voted against this at a recent UNECE meeting. Instead, the UNECE are going to allow (starting early next year) the full version of FSD only on designated highways, as defined by each country. The next round of UNECE regulations is not scheduled to occur until 2028, so additional changes won't occur until then.
So, in Australia, we are likely to see a big improvement in how FSD drives on designated highways sometime in the first half of next year, but, for the foreseeable future, we are unlikely to see the 'city streets' version of FSD that is currently being used in NA. An exception to this that would allow the full implementation of FSD in UNECE countries might happen if Tesla develops a fully autonomous version of FSD (which might happen as soon as the first half of next year). If this happens, Tesla could apply for special consideration from the UNECE, new regulations could be proposed and a new vote could be held on those regulations.
Amazing that Teslas can drive themselves to chargers. Also amazing is the Tesla CEO, who can drive buyers to other brands. Quite impressive.
Tesla and Musk will probably 'divest' themselves of each other at some point in the not too distant future. Their business models appear to be in conflict.
It parks itself. It's the quarterly ramp of hype time. The margins are under pressure with price slashing and loan subsidising a hit to reserves - so unit sales are the only way of distracting those 'brilliant' analysts......yet again.. Believe me.....more promises are on the way.
V2L in 2025 is another one, although it can be done now via 3rd party hardware, which of course will void the battery warranty.
Sorry, even if your Tesla drives itself to a Supercharger it still needs a human to plug the charge cable in. So what's the point? Emperor has no clothes.
Well, Tesla is testing inductive charging currently (otherwise Robotaxi has an issue)...
Wasn't there road charging induction testing for EV trucks in Europe a few years ago? Whatever happened to that?
sorry, @Riz, but the headline needs to be"in US" added.
Fooledya Supervised Driving is the greatest paid con yet, from the master snake oil salesman.
It's nor released ANYWHERE outside the US, and has a very long way to go, before it's even vaguely let loose on an unsuspecting world, neural nets or not.