With version 9 of the FSD Beta Tesla has rolled out an updated view of the car visualizations, known as “Mind of the car.”
Elon Musk is calling the visualizations, 'mind of the car' because Tesla is attempting to show you what the car is recognizing and it's confidence level in a visual way.
The new visualizations are combining what the FSD beta used to recognize in beta 8 and earlier into a more production ready visualization. The visualization is similar to the production version in Teslas today, but it's much more advanced in what it shows. The new visualizations are all 3D objects rendered on the screen instead of the dots and rectangles we saw in earlier betas.
The updated visualizations are able to render complicated intersections, curves and turns. Similar to earlier betas they paint road boundaries in red and divide on-coming traffic with same-way traffic with a purple line. The yellow lines represent their real life counterparts, lines that you should not cross on the road. In addition lane markings are more consistent and smooth.
Tesla FSD beta 9 visualization is amazing. Hope this will be incorporated in upcoming V11 software pic.twitter.com/gbUKjSXiyl
With this beta, Tesla also switched over to vision only and stopped relying on radar. Due to improvements with their vision detection the car is now able to detect and display objects much more accurately. The car detects and displays more vehicles in the visualizations and more detailed surroundings.
Tesla found a clever way to show how confident the vehicle is in each object it's displaying. The brightness and translucency of each object will vary, depending on the confidence level of the neural net for that object.
Mind of car visualization will improve a lot in coming releases.
Brightness/translucency indicate confidence of neural net in predicting any given object.
Acid test is being able to assess with quick glance at screen if car fully understands environment.
Although previous betas showed a rectangular prism for each object detected, even if the car didn't recognize what the object was, this beta requires knowing what the object is before it will render it on the screen.
I expect this to change and Tesla to not only add many more 3D assets, but also to come up with a way to show an unknown object. Maybe they go back to a 3D rectangle for these situations. Elon Musk has said that car visualizations will “improve a lot in coming releases.” He recently commented that turn signals, hand gestures and more are going to be added soon.
In order for Tesla to achieve a high level of autonomy, they will essentially need to be able to build a highly detailed video game that represents the real world, in real-time. We are getting closer and the visualizations help us understand what the car sees and understands. With the ‘Mind of the car' visualizations we will now be able to tell how confident the car is in determining certain situations and that will let us better understand when we should take over.
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For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.
Price Increase
The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.
The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series.
The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.
Free Lifetime Supercharging
For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.
There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.
We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.
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.
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