2023 is sure to bring good things, but if you live in Europe, it could get even more exciting. Tesla has posted a new job position to its careers site for an ADAS test operator.
ADAS, which stands for “Advanced Driver Assistance Systems,” is the broader category for Tesla's Autopilot and FSD features. Although FSD is quite capable, it is still officially a level-2 system. The addition of this position to Tesla's careers site could mean that Tesla is stepping up testing in Europe, where it expects to release FSD next.
The job description says the "ADAS test operator will be responsible to identify improvements and regressions across software iterations."
This is particularly interesting because Tesla hasn't been actively developing its Autopilot or Navigate on Autopilot features for several years since the new tech stack that FSD leverages will be the foundation for future iterations of Autopilot.
Elon Musk has said various times before that Tesla's FSD feature will expand to Europe next. In March of 2022, Musk stated that he expects FSD to be available in Europe as early as summer. He tweeted:
"FSD Beta should be available in Europe for LHD this summer, RHD a few months later. These dates depend on regulatory approval."
During Tesla's AI Day 2, Elon Musk also mentioned that he hopes to expand FSD to Europe before the end of 2022.
Tesla's FSD feature was limited to the U.S. until it expanded to Canada with FSD Beta version 10.11.1, which was rolled out in March 2022.
Public Testers
Tesla required public testers to achieve a certain safety score in order to be included in the FSD beta program in the U.S. and Canada. That restriction was removed at the end of 2022 when FSD Beta was opened up to everyone eligible.
It's not clear what Tesla's plan is for the expansion of FSD, but we know it will expand to Europe next and this job posting appears to indicate testing is already underway. Tesla may utilize the Safety Score again once they're ready to open up FSD Beta in Europe to public testers.
The Austin, Texas-based automotive company continues to ramp up production and prepare for a new vehicle platform in March 2023. Furthermore, they’re preparing for hardware 4.0, which will see a higher megapixel cameras, heaters, and fans. It will also reduce the amount of front-facing cameras from three down to two.
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Klaus Schmid on YouTube has posted a nice video overview of some of the major new features in this major update.
While most of the design changes appear to be limited to vehicles with AMD Ryzen chips, there are plenty of features to be excited about for Intel owners as well.
Parked Visualization
In the video, Klaus of course fiddles with the amazing-looking new vehicle model that is front and center while the vehicle is parked. You can freely pan, zoom, and play with the vehicle. The Cybertruck was the first vehicle to feature this new v12 design and even includes an easter egg when you tap on the glass multiple times. There’s no word on whether there are any easter eggs built into other vehicles.
The 3D model looks fantastic, but it's not immediately clear whether it's the same model that Tesla was using before this update or potentially a higher-resolution version, which could help explain the AMD requirement for this view.
The map while parked is now small and in the top-right corner of the screen. However, you can make the vehicle's visualization smaller so that it goes back to the older look with the visualization on the left and maps on the right.
The new parked visualization
Spotify Queue
Next, Klaus goes into Spotify, which now gives you the ability to queue up songs instead of just playing a predefined playlist or starting a new song immediately.
Quick Access to Car Wash Mode
Under Controls, you also now have quick access to Car Wash Mode, instead of having to remember it's under Service.
New Wiper Controls
The windshield wipers have been one of the most controversial topics on Teslas, mostly due to their automatic function not always working well. Tesla continues to add wiper controls to make them easier to manage.
In the last few updates, Tesla has now added various ways to control the wipers. You're able to add the wipers button to the dock at the bottom of the screen, use the newer multi-function control to control them with the left scroll wheel, and now Tesla is adding another way to control them.
Video of New Features
Easier Way to Change Wiper Speed
With update 2024.14.3, if you press the button on the left stalk to activate the wipers, you can now adjust their speed up by moving the scroll wheel up or down. Before this update, you could do something similar, but it required tilting the scroll wheel left/right, which wasn't as intuitive.
If you have your wipers on and set to a certain speed after installing this update, you’ll now also be able to tap the wipers button to cycle through the various speed options.
While this is a welcomed improvement, all the wiper control changes could be a little confusing for folks who don't follow Tesla as closely as we all do. In the end, the issue comes down to the automatic wiper function not working reliably, which is a little ridiculous since every automaker has already solved this problem with a $4 rain sensor. Tesla makes a lot of gambles, and I guess this one hasn’t panned out.
Full-Screen Visualizations
Owners outside of North America will finally be able to enjoy full-screen visualizations, although unfortunately, it doesn't include the full set of visualizations that are included with FSD. It appears that Tesla is keeping the full visualizations tied to FSD.
For drivers in North America who own or subscribe to FSD, which was recently lowered in price, the new full-screen view brings some improvements.
The new media player is now centered on the screen and includes additional buttons such as repeat, shuffle, search and more. You also get the small map in the corner which is useful to be able to see your next turn.
In addition, Tesla is now leaving the "Navigate to" module on the screen as well, so that you can set a new destination without leaving the admittedly nice full-screen view.
Update 2024.14.3 just started rolling out to owners yesterday, so it will be several weeks before most owners have access to this update. For now, check out all of our coverage and the release notes to see which features you can look forward to.
Tesla is starting to roll out its latest iteration of Autopark to additional vehicles. The feature that lets your vehicle park automatically was initially rolled out in North America to vehicles without ultrasonic sensors (USS). However, now with FSD v12.3.6, it's going out to vehicles with USS as well.
However, there are differences in how Autopark looks visually, depending on whether you have an infotainment unit that is based on the slower Intel Atom processor, or the latest AMD Ryzen processor.
What’s the Same
Both vehicles will receive the new Autopark and the functionality remains the same. The difference lies in the visuals and whether the vehicle is capable of displaying Tesla’s High Fidelity Park Assist. All vehicles will display available parking spots when you're traveling under 5 mph. You can then tap any of the spots to have your vehicle automatically park at the chosen location.
Intel Vehicles Will Still New New Visuals
Contrary to what was expected, vehicles with the older processor will still display some new visuals, beyond the parking spots. Think of it as a less intense version of High Fidelity Park Assist. Whereas Park Assist on AMD vehicles shows a complete 3D reconstruction of objects in 3D, Intel vehicles will display what looks more like a two-dimensional overhead view. However, it will still display road markings, like arrows and parking lines and even walls and barriers, but unfortunately, the view can not be spun in a 3D fashion like visualizations normally can.
This is a great summary of my AutoPark discoveries yesterday w/ FSD 12.3.6 on my Model 3 with Ultrasonic Sensors and INTEL Atom CPU.
The lines and objects displayed are different from the vector-based lines the vehicle normally displays on roads. FSD visualizations aren’t, in fact, recreating the environment they see, they’re simply detecting an arrow, line, or object and then replacing it with a pre-created 3D asset in the visualization. Although these reconstructions don’t look as sharp or pretty, they’ll mimic whatever is actually drawn on the road.
For vehicles with AMD processors, you'll see the previously released High Fidelity Park Assist (video below), which does look amazing.
If you’d like to always use High Fidelity Park Assist visuals even when you’re not using Autopark, then you’ll need to disable your ultrasonic sensors and give up the accurate measurements they display.
You can change your setting under Controls > Autopilot > Park Assist and toggle between Standard or Vision.
High-fidelity park assist is shipping this weekend to Tesla customers without ultrasonic sensors as part of the holiday release!pic.twitter.com/MEHL6w003r
If your vehicle has ultrasonic sensors, then the new Autopark is currently only available on FSD v12.3.6 , which is update 2024.3.25, but since Autopark only requires Enhanced Autopilot or above, it should be bundled with a non-FSD update in the future.
While the new Autopark is only available in North America, it is expected to be rolled out to additional regions in the near future as Tesla continues to test the feature.
If you're not sure if your vehicle has an Intel Atom or AMD Ryzen processor, you can double-check by going under Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Information. You'll see your infotainment processor listed there.
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