Elon Musk on FSD Beta v11: 'Hoping to Ship v11.3 by End of Week'

By Lennon Cihak
Tesla's v11.3 is now expected this week
Tesla's v11.3 is now expected this week
Frenchie/Twitter

Elon Musk has provided a much-anticipated update on version 11 of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.

In a recent tweet, Musk stated that the development of version 11 has been a significant challenge due to a major overhaul of the neural networks used in the system and the replacement of several C++ components with additional neural networks.

Musk states that he hopes to ship FSD v11.3 by the end of this week. Even if this date doesn't slip, we're likely looking at a very small amount of users getting this early version. In typical Tesla fashion, Tesla will slowly ramp up the number of users testing the latest update.

Musk previously commented on FSD Beta v11 on January 20th, saying he was reviewing it for a possible release the following week. When the release of FSD v11 didn't happen, it left many wondering what the delay was or when we could expect the update.

This isn't the first time FSD v11 has been delayed. Musk expected v11 to start rolling out in about two weeks on January 11th when he tweeted:

Looks like V11.3 will be ready for wide release in about 2 weeks. Many major improvements.

Despite the difficulties, Musk remains confident that Tesla will be able to ship version 11.3 by the end of the week, offering Tesla fans and investors a glimpse of the major progress being made towards full autonomy.

Full Self-Driving Beta Version 11

Version 11 will be one of Tesla’s biggest software FSD releases to date. Tesla started testing FSD v11 to select employees around Thanksgiving of 2022. The biggest improvement that owners are excited about is the merger of highway and city driving, which is expected to bring numerous improvements to highway driving.

In recent years, Tesla has made significant investments in the development of its Full Self-Driving software, and hopefully the release of version 11.3 later this week will provide additional safety features and significant improvements to Tesla’s autonomy capabilities.

Hardware 4.0 and Retrofits

Musk and Tesla recently talked a little bit about its upcoming upgrades to FSD hardware. They didn't reveal specifics but said that the Cybertruck will include it. It's not clear whether the Cybertruck will be the first vehicle to include the new FSD hardware or not. Rumors claim hardware 4.0 will contain upgraded 5MP cameras, an HD radar, and provide additional commute power.

With previous hardware upgrades, Tesla has offered retrofits for older vehicles, however, Elon Musk said retrofitting vehicles equipped with hardware 3.0 the latest FSD hardware will not be economically feasible. Musk goes on to say that hardware 3.0 will still be capable of being safer than a human.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most significant here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety. 

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets. 

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.

Tesla FSD in Europe: June Update

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

The road to bringing FSD to Europe has been a long and complex one and filled with regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Elon Musk, as well as other members of Tesla’s AI team, have previously voiced their grievances with the regulatory approval process on X.

However, it appears that there is finally some progress in getting things moving with recent changes to upcoming autonomy regulations, but the process still seems slow.

Waiting on the Dutch

Elon commented on X recently, stating that Tesla is waiting for approval from Dutch authorities and then the EU to start rolling out FSD in Europe. Tesla is focusing on acquiring approvals from the Dutch transportation authority, which will provide them with the platform they need to gain broader acceptance in Europe. Outside of the Netherlands, Tesla is also conducting testing in Norway, which provides a couple of avenues for them to obtain national-level approval.

The frustration has been ongoing, with multiple committee meetings bringing up autonomy regulation but always pulling back at the last second before approving anything. The last meeting on Regulation 157, which governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems, concluded with authorities from the UK and Spain requesting additional time to analyze the data before reaching a conclusion.

Tesla, as well as Elon, have motioned several times for owners to reach out to their elected representatives to move the process forward, as it seems that Tesla’s own efforts are being stymied. 

This can seem odd, especially since Tesla has previously demoed FSD working exceptionally smoothly on European roads - and just did it again in Rome when they shared the video below on X.

DCAS Phase 3

While the approval process has been slow, Kees Roelandschap pointed out that there may be a different regulatory step that could allow FSD to gain a foothold in Europe.

According to Kees, the European Commission is now taking a new approach to approving ADAS systems under the new DCAS Phase 3 regulations. The Commission is now seeking data from systems currently operational in the United States that can perform System-Initiated Maneuvers and don’t require hands-on intervention for every request.

This is key because those are two of the core functionalities that make FSD so usable, and it also means that there may not be a need to wait years for proper regulations to be written from scratch. Now, the Commission will be looking at real-world data based on existing, deployed technology, which could speed up the process immensely.

What This Means

This new, data-driven regulatory approach could be the path for Tesla to reach its previous target of September for European FSD. While the cogs of bureaucracy are ever slow, sometimes all it takes is a little data to have them turn a bit faster in this case.

Alongside specific countries granting approval for limited field testing with employees, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for FSD in Europe, and hopes are that a release will occur by the end of 2025. With Europe now looking to North America for how FSD is performing, Tesla’s Robotaxi results could also play a role.

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