Tesla has officially started its “wider release” of Full Self-Driving Beta in the US, which consists of slowly allowing more owners to download based on their “safety score.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta (FSD) enables Tesla vehicles to virtually drive themselves both on highways and city streets by simply entering a location in the navigation system, but it is still considered a level 2 driver assist system since it requires driver supervision at all times. The driver remains responsible for the vehicle, and needs to keep their hands on the steering wheel, ready to take control.
It’s what Elon Musk has been referring to as “full self-driving feature complete” for the last few years.
Over the years, Tesla has been releasing some features like Autopilot for highway driving and Smart Summon for parking that are pieces of the autonomous driving solutions, but the FSD Beta ties them together into an end-to-end solution.
However, under its current form, the end-to-end solution is still not considered safe enough to be used without driver supervision and therefore, it’s not truly self-driving.
Tesla hopes to improve it over time with software updates and eventually prove that it’s safe enough not to require driver attention.
Tesla FSD Beta wide release
In the meantime, Tesla has been testing the software through its early access program for the last 12 months.
The program consists of about 2,000 people – mostly employees and some owners chosen by Tesla.
Now Tesla is moving to a “wider release” of its Full Self-Driving Beta.
It’s something that was delayed several times over the last six months, and it has also changed its form.
It went from a simple “download button” that would have allowed people who bought the Full Self-Driving package to download the latest software to a “request button” that starts a period of judging your driving based on some parameters and adds you to a queue to maybe get the new software.
This “safety score” to judge your driving has been active for the last two weeks, and now Tesla is starting to push the FSD Beta to those with the best score.
It was supposed to come on Friday with Tesla’s v10.2 release of FSD Beta, but Musk confirmed that the automaker started pushing the update early this morning:
Musk didn’t confirm how many people that represents, but he previously said that it would be about 1,000 per day.
The update is coming in the 2021.32.25 software update.
Tesla is using the same release notes as the updates sent in the early access program:
“Full Self-Driving is in early limited access Beta and must be used with additional caution. It may do the wrong thing at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention on the road. Do not become complacent. When Full Self-Driving is enabled your vehicle will make lane changes off highway, select forks to follow your navigation route, navigate around other vehicles and objects, and make left and right turns. Use Full Self-Driving in limited BEta only if you will pay constant attention to the road, and be prepared to act immediately, especially around blind corners, crossing intersections, and in narrow driving situations.”
The update should later propagate to Tesla owners who bought FSD and have a high driving score.
You can expect to see a lot of videos from people trying the FSD Beta features in the coming days.
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