Tesla released FSD Beta 11.3.3, version 2022.45.12 to employees last night. Early this morning Tesla transitioned to a public release and started sending out the beta to various consumers.
This release appears to focus on bug fixes, as the release notes remain the same as beta 11.3.2.
Release
The expansion of 11.3.2 was halted after reaching about 9% of testers. We can only assume that Tesla identified a critical issue that needed to be addressed. The release of 11.3.3 is expected to fix these issues and expand to more users.
Tesla sent out a large wave this morning to update owners that were on beta 11.3.2.
New Visualizations and Feedback Feature
Tesla also introduced new driving visualizations, such as a wider path, blue chevrons, a stop line, and blue traffic lights. Additionally, the update includes the "Voice Drive Notes" feature, which allows drivers to provide hands-free feedback on Autopilot disengagement.
Unifying the vision and planning stack on and off-highway replaces the legacy highway stack and integrates multi-camera video networks with next-gen planners, resulting in smoother control and better decision-making capabilities.
Better positioning in wide lanes by biasing in the direction of the upcoming turn to allow other cars to maneuver around the Tesla vehicle more efficiently.
Smoother lane changes in dense traffic scenarios, allowing higher acceleration during the alignment phase for more natural gap selection when overtaking adjacent vehicles.
Enhanced handling during scenarios with high curvature or large trucks, maintaining safe distances to other vehicles on the road and increasing comfort for passengers.
Improved driving behavior next to parked cars in narrow lanes, preferring to offset and staying within the lane instead of unnecessarily lane changing away or slowing down.
New text blurbs on the user interface to communicate upcoming maneuvers and improved visualization of upcoming slowdowns along the vehicle's path.
Chevrons render at varying opacity and speed to indicate the slowdown intensity, with a solid line appearing at locations where the car will come to a stop.
More natural and human-like yellow light handling by modeling the decision as a tradeoff framework that considers estimated deceleration, time to enter and exit the intersection, and the distance traversed across the intersection before the light transitions to red.
Enhanced speed adjustment when entering certain speed zones by allowing for earlier control for detected speed limit signs and adjusting the assertiveness of the response accordingly.
A visual glow behind the speed limit icon on the user interface alerts the driver when the vehicle's set speed exceeds the detected speed limit by more than 50%.
Updated behavior for certain scenarios where the Tesla may maneuver from a turn lane to continue traveling straight, treating these maneuvers as a lane change with the turn indicator used to alert other drivers of the Tesla's intent.
Another Step Toward Autonomous
With this update, Tesla aims to enhance its Full Self-Driving system's overall user experience and safety. The company is continuously refining the technology through fleet learning, user feedback, and rigorous testing to bring autonomous driving closer to reality.
Tesla has been stressing the importance of driver vigilance even while using the FSD Beta, reminding drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. The release notes reiterate that the system may not detect all objects and may not brake or slow down for crossing traffic or stationary objects, particularly when moving at high speeds.
As Tesla continues to refine its Full Self-Driving technology, the company faces increasing competition from other automakers and tech companies, such as Waymo, Cruise, and Argo AI, who are all working on developing their autonomous driving systems. Nevertheless, these updates signify Tesla's commitment to the development and improvement of its self-driving technology, inching closer to a future where autonomous vehicles are more commonplace on the roads.
The release of FSD Beta 11.3.3 is a step forward for Tesla in addressing the challenges faced in previous versions and improving the functionality and safety of its autonomous driving system. As the company works on expanding its fleet of FSD Beta testers and gathers crucial data to make further enhancements, the future of autonomous driving becomes closer to becoming a reality for Tesla owners.
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Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.
Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.
Optimus is Blind
Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer.
Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.
Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips.
What’s Next?
Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.
Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.
There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.
We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.
In a relatively surprising move, GM announced that it is realigning its autonomy strategy and prioritizing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) over fully autonomous vehicles.
GM is effectively closing Cruise (autonomous) and focusing on its Super Cruise (ADAS) feature. The engineering teams at Cruise will join the GM teams working on Super Cruise, effectively shuttering the fully autonomous vehicle business.
End of Cruise
GM cites that “an increasingly competitive robotaxi market” and “considerable time and resources” are required for scaling the business to a profitable level. Essentially - they’re unable to keep up with competitors at current funding and research levels, putting them further and further behind.
Cruise has been offering driverless rides in several cities, using HD mapping of cities alongside vehicles equipped with a dazzling array of over 40 sensors. That means that each cruise vehicle is essentially a massive investment and does not turn a profit while collecting data to work towards Autonomy.
Cruise has definitely been on the back burner for a while, and a quick glance at their website - since it's still up for now - shows the last time they officially released any sort of major news packet was back in 2019.
Competition is Killer
Their current direct competitor - Waymo, is funded by Google, which maintains a direct interest in ensuring they have a play in the AI and autonomy space.
Interestingly, this news comes just a month after Tesla’s We, Robot event, where they showed off the Cybercab and the Robotaxi network, as well as plans to begin deployment of the network and Unsupervised FSD sometime in 2025. Tesla is already in talks with some cities in California and Texas to launch Robotaxi in 2025.
GM Admits Tesla Has the Right Strategy
As part of the business call following the announcement, GM admitted that Tesla’s end-to-end and Vision-based approach towards autonomy is the right strategy. While they say Cruise started down that path, they’re putting aside their goals towards fully autonomous vehicles for now and focusing on introducing that tech in Super Cruise instead.
NEWS: GM just admitted that @Tesla’s end-to-end approach to autonomy is the right strategy.
“That’s where the industry is pivoting. Cruise had already started making headway down that path. We are moving to a foundation model and end-to-end approach going forward.” pic.twitter.com/ACs5SFKUc3
With GM now focusing on Super Cruise, they’ll put aside autonomy and instead focus solely on ADAS features to relieve driver stress and improve safety. While those are positive goals that will benefit all road users, full autonomy is really the key to removing the massive impact that vehicle accidents have on society today.
In addition, Super Cruise is extremely limited, cannot brake for traffic controls, and doesn’t work in adverse conditions - even rain. It can only function when lane markings are clear, there are no construction zones, and there is a functional web connection.
The final key to the picture is that the vehicle has to be on an HD-mapped and compatible highway - essentially locking Super Cruise to wherever GM has time to spend mapping, rather than being functional anywhere in a general sense, like FSD or Autopilot.
Others Impressed - Licensing FSD
Interestingly, some other manufacturers have also weighed into the demise of Cruise. BMW, in a now-deleted post, said that a demo of Tesla’s FSD is “very impressive.” There’s a distinct chance that BMW and other manufacturers are looking to see what Tesla does next.
BMW chimes in on a now-deleted post. The Internet is forever, BMW!
Not a Tesla App
It seems that FSD has caught their eyes after We, Robot - and that the demonstrations of FSD V13.2 online seem to be the pivot point. At the 2024 Shareholder Meeting earlier in the year, Elon shared the fact that several manufacturers had reached out, looking to understand what was required to license FSD from Tesla.
There is a good chance 2025 will be the year we’ll see announcements of the adoption of FSD by legacy manufacturers - similar to how we saw the surprise announcements of the adoption of the NACS charging standard.
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