Elon Musk says Tesla’s upcoming new Full Self-Driving v12 update is “mind-blowing,” but that doesn’t mean much coming from him these days.
After almost three years in beta, Musk says that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving package is about to get out of beta with the version 12 update.
But the CEO didn’t elaborate on what that will mean precisely since beta or not, the next real significant step for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) package is for Tesla to take responsibility for it.
Right now, drivers need to monitor FSD at all times and be ready to take control. If they crash using Tesla’s FSD, they are responsible, not Tesla.
Until that changes and regulators approve Tesla FSD as a level 4 or 5 autonomous driving system, FSD is just a driver assist system that can do some cool tricks.
FSD Beta first launched in late 2020, and it has improved considerably since then, but it is still nowhere near level 4 or 5 autonomy.
Now Musk says that he tested an “alpha build” of Tesla FSD Beta version 12, and he says it is “mind-blowing”:
I tested the version 12 alpha build today. It is mind-blowing.
“Mind-blowing” is a strong word choice, but unfortunately, Musk has been overusing those words. He said the same thing about Tesla’s FSD v9, and it was quite underwhelming.
Musk didn’t give exact timing on FSD v12, but he has made it clear that it would come before the end of the year.
It’s been 7 years since Tesla’s initial FSD video, which is still up, that was later revealed to be “staged”. Tesla promised all cars being produced from that point forward would have the hardware to do Full Self Driving.
Electrek’s Take
The problem with FSD Beta is that we don’t have data tracking any progress with it. All we have is the anecdotal opinions of people using it and those vary greatly.
On one hand of the spectrum, you have Musk and his sycophants that act as if it could be good enough to transform into the long-promised robotaxi service any day, and on the other hand, you have the Dan O’Dowd-type who think it is trying to kill anyone and should be banned.
In between, you have the average, more reasonable Tesla owners who are sometimes impressed by what FSD Beta can do, but they also see often some dumb mistakes and dangerous behaviors of the system.
I fall in the last category and as someone who had FSD Beta for a while now, the most frustrating part is that I haven’t seen major progress during that time. That makes it hard to understand how Tesla can go from the current state of FSD Beta to a true robotaxi system by the end of the year – or even next year for that matter.
So unfortunately, when Musk talks about the next update being “mind-blowing,” I don’t trust him.
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