Tesla Begins Rollout of FSD Beta 10.69.3.3 to Employees

Tesla's Full Self-Driving visuals

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Tesla has begun its rollout of Full Self-Driving version 10.69.3.3 to its employees, which is version 2022.40.4.10.

This year’s holiday update is expected to be full of stocking stuffer goodies for Tesla owners, such as the addition of Apple Music. Not only will owners receive a playful holiday light show, but we'll hopefully also see the integration of FSD Beta into the firm's main releases. This will mean that production updates (non-FSD) and FSD Beta updates will no longer be two separate versions.

Release notes for 10.69.3.3 are not yet available, so it’s unclear exactly what Tesla has addressed in this version and whether it'll be primarily a bugfix release or contain larger improvements to FSD Beta.

Either way, users will gain the new features that are in Tesla update 2022.40. It'll also open up the beta to owners who have been on one of Tesla's 2022.40 updates.

This release could also be in preparation for Tesla's upcoming FSD Beta v11, which will be a larger update that merges the tech stacks Tesla is using for highway and city driving.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that version 11 would come in a limited fashion before Thanksgiving, however, that hasn't happened yet. Instead, Tesla pushed its Full Self-Driving Beta software to everyone in the US and Canada.

“Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option,” Musk wrote on Twitter at the time. “Congrats to [the] Tesla Autopilot/AI team on achieving a major milestone!”

Although Musk's message was correct, that FSD Beta was opened up to everyone, it should have had an asterisk, as there are some additional requirements.

You needed to be on a production update that was lower than FSD Beta's current build, and have compatible hardware, which at the time excluded MCU 1 owners and some vehicles that required camera upgrades.

While major improvements are expected in FSD Beta v11, Tesla is also expected to make significant improvements to FSD hardware in the coming year.

Tesla is continuing to remove hardware such as radar and ultrasonic sensors from their vehicles in favor of Tesla Vision, Tesla's own camera-based visioning system. However, in January 2023, Tesla is expected to add HD radar to its vehicles. This is likely one of the first of many additions to its next-generation “Hardware 4” update.

We’re also anticipating a number of these “Hardware 4” improvements to be rolled out with Tesla’s revamped Model 3, which is expected to go into production in Q3 of 2023.

Tesla Update 2025.20 Tear Down Reveals Grok Personalities and Icons

@greentheonly on X

While most automakers are adding basic and un-integrated AI assistants to their vehicles, Tesla appears to be working hand-in-hand with xAI to build out an entire cast of characters for in-vehicle Grok. In the latest dive into Tesla’s firmware, Tesla hacker @greentheonly uncovered a few new details about the upcoming Grok feature.

This discovery, part of a larger batch of changes found in Tesla update 2025.20, also offers a hint at the hardware required for the Grok.

A Dozen Groks

While we knew from previous firmware teardowns that Tesla was adding various Grok personalities to the vehicle UI, this update introduces a new one called Language Tutor, which may allow users to learn and practice a new language. 

These are the different personas that will be included in Grok:

• Argumentative

• Assistant

• Conspiracy

• Doctor

• Kids’ Stories

• Kids’ Trivia Games

• Meditation

• Motivation

• Romantic

• Sexy

• Storyteller

• Therapist

• Language Tutor

• and the Grok Classic - Unhinged Mode

Release Date

Icons for these personalities have been added to the firmware for the first time, leading us to think Tesla is getting close to releasing the feature. However, even after the feature is developed and included in vehicle software, Tesla may only enable it selectively — such as for select employees for testing.

Grok is expected to be one of the largest vehicle features added via a software update, so it’ll be a big deal when it’s finally released. While we know more or less what to expect from Grok, what we don’t know is about vehicle requirements or whether it’ll require a subscription beyond Premium Connectivity.

Grok Requirements

While subscriptions required are anyone’s guess, vehicle requirements may be a little clearer now, thanks to Green’s discovery that Grok is only being added to AMD-based vehicle software builds.

Unfortunately, this likely means that older, Intel-based vehicles will not receive Grok support, at least for the time being. When Tesla introduced a voice assistant in China, they also started off with AMD-only support but later added Intel support, so it’s possible that the same could happen with Grok.

Energy Saving

Green also found a new undocumented navigation feature in 2025.20.3. This one focuses on leveraging Tesla’s vast amounts of data in an interesting way and offers drivers proactive advice to save energy on a well-traveled route. 

In the Energy App, your vehicle will display, “This route is typically driven at X mph. Slow down by Y mph to save Z% for the rest of this trip.’ 

As you can see in the photo below, Tesla recognizes that vehicles typically drive at 66 mph on the route being driven and offers the driver the option to go five mph slower to save 1% of range. While this example doesn’t provide much incentive to slow down, it could be useful for someone with a low state of charge or if the savings are more significant.

The new line in the Energy App

Not a Tesla App

In the future, Tesla could even use this, alongside the road surface data they’re gathering, to help plan routes for Robotaxi and Unsupervised FSD.

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NHTSA to Streamline Approvals for Control-Free Vehicles Like Tesla’s Cybercab

Not a Tesla App

In a letter to industry, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it is overhauling its approvals process for vehicles designed without human controls.

The change addresses a regulatory bottleneck that has slowed down American companies like Tesla from deploying purpose-built Robotaxis, rather than relying on using traditional vehicles with steering wheels and pedals. The policy shift is outlined in a letter posted to the NHTSA’s website, which you can find here.

Reducing Approvals From Years to Months

Under the existing rules today, any vehicle that is built without a steering wheel or brake pedals must receive a special exemption from federal safety standards.

Obtaining exemptions for a particular vehicle was a time-consuming process for both the companies requesting exemptions and the NHTSA. The process was often a black box—nobody knew when an exemption might be granted, and approvals could take years.

The NHTSA, under the new administration’s guidelines for autonomous vehicle development, is now committed to streamlining this process. The agency will be implementing a new, faster approach immediately for receiving exemptions for autonomous vehicles without standard controls. The NHTSA expects decisions on exemption requests to be determined within months rather than years. 

Accelerating the Cybercab

This change has massive implications for Tesla, which is banking on the production of the simplified and easy-to-maintain purpose-built Cybercab. The Cybercab is developed from the ground up as an autonomous Robotaxi and will be one of the key beneficiaries of this move by the NHTSA.

Knowing that a final design won't be caught in a multi-year regulatory limbo provides a level of certainty that has been missing. It allows Tesla to confidently plan the manufacturing, development, and deployment processes without worrying whether the project will get stuck in regulatory approvals.

According to the letter, the agency will publish its improved instructions for the streamlined process "shortly." With Tesla already having begun Cybercab pre-production and the goals for its deployment as soon as late 2026, there’s still a lot to be done to make autonomy a part of Tesla’s new sustainable abundance mission statement.

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