Early this morning Tesla released v10 of their FSD Beta as expected. The beta is version 2021.24.15. This release of the Beta is said to include a completely retrained Neural Net, although the release notes for the update are the same as version 9.2 of the FSD Beta. Elon seems very pleased with this specific version, calling it 'next-level' on Twitter.
Lucky participants were able to download the beta this morning and try it out. So far early impressions are that v10 is a noticeable improvement over the previous version. It is now able to navigate areas it just wasn't able to before. Tesla has been making impressive improvements with each FSD Beta release. Lets not forget this beta comes just shy of four weeks after the previous beta.
In this update, the car is more confident in taking left turns at intersections that don't have traffic signals. It accelerates more briskly and generally drives more like a human driver.
Version 10 was able to navigate the famous Lombard Street in San Francisco for the first time without any human intervention. Check out how it performed below:
FSD on Lombard Street
UI Improvements
Elon mentioned that there would also be some UI improvements in this beta. We're now seeing clearer lane markings. When the car approaches an intersection, the visualization will now zoom out slightly to give you a better view of the entire intersection and surrounding cars.
For Model S and X owners, the visualizations on the instrument cluster now also take up the entire screen. Any additional information you add to the IC, like an analog clock, will now be placed on top of the visualizations.
Future Improvements
Elon said this morning that this beta uses all the new vision processing and neural net improvement only for city streets. Highway driving still relies on the current production Navigate on Autopilot codebase. Elon went on to say that Tesla will merge highway and city driving into a single stack that should be included in version 10.1 of the FSD Beta. Over time we should see big improvements in the way Autopilot navigates highways as well.
Version 10 doesn't drive entirely like a human being yet. There was a time when it didn't take the right-of-way when it should have done so. There was a time when it didn't move far enough to the left to pass a pedestrian adult and child in the road with sufficient distance. And it didn't automatically reroute itself when it came to a place where the road was closed.
So v10 is not the ultimate solution for full self driving, but it's getting there. And maybe it's good enough for Elon to give us the "BUTTON" in a few weeks.
Highway stack is still production version, as it is more polished than FSD for now. Single stack for all should release in 10.1.
This version of the FSD Beta saw an increase in the number of testers. We don't know how many, but there were additional Tesla owners invited to test out this version of the FSD Beta. This must mean that Tesla is feeling more confident and wants to slowly start increasing the numbers of testers.
Tesla signaled its intention to launch its first Robotaxi network in Austin, Texas, with company-owned and operated vehicles, back in January. This network will be Tesla’s first foray into truly autonomous vehicles - ones that aren’t being directly supervised by a driver. Later in February, Tesla’s executive team confirmed that the plans were on track for the launch of the Austin network both on X and during several interviews that they participated in.
At the end of February, we also found out that Tesla has applied for a Supervised Robotaxi license in California, where the network will also launch, but with safety drivers in place.
This is an ambitious plan, but FSD has really come a long way in the past year. FSD V12 was a massive step forward from V11, and V13 has made the experience smoother and safer than ever before. FSD V14 is expected to be another big step up with auto-regressive transformers and audio input.
Still on Track
Now, Elon has tripled down on the fact that Tesla will be launching their first autonomous robotaxi network in Austin - just two months away at this point. It seems that Tesla is fully set to launch their first fully unsupervised self-driving vehicles that will carry paying passengers in June.
Additional Cities
The best part is that Elon also confirmed that they’re targeting robotaxi networks launching in many cities within the United States by the end of this year. However, remember that this will be a Tesla-run network at first - Tesla owners won’t be able to add their vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet right away.
Adding Customer Vehicles
It will take some time before Tesla meets their strict internal safety requirements before it lets customers add their own vehicles to the network. Tesla’s executive team mentioned that they intend to let owners add their own vehicles to the fleet sometime in 2026. This happens to be the same time frame that Tesla plans to launch the Robotaxi across the United States, Mexico, and Canada — something that could only be done with customer-owned cars.
That final step will be bold—and it may come with complications, especially given that autonomous vehicle approval spans municipal, state or provincial, and even federal levels. There are plenty of regulatory hurdles ahead, but this is undoubtedly shaping up to be one of the most exciting times for Tesla.
Launch Event
With the Robotaxi network launching and Unsupervised FSD just around the corner, there’s a lot to get excited about. Tesla is expected to host a launch event at Gigafactory Texas in Austin to mark the debut of its first Robotaxi network. The company previously hinted that referral code users could receive invites—offering a rare chance to score an early ride in a Robotaxi outside the Hollywood studio lot.
Tesla’s engineering mule vehicles—used to test autonomy for future platforms—have resurfaced after an extended absence. The last time we saw them was back in July, when Tesla was gearing up for its initial We, Robot event. Since then, sightings have been scarce.
These vehicles typically signal that Tesla is testing new camera placements or validating FSD ground-truth data. This time, however, they appear to be outfitted exclusively with the updated camera hardware seen on the Cybercab.
New Sightings
The mules have now been spotted in Boston, Massachusetts, and Concord, New Hampshire—their first known appearances this far east. This suggests Tesla is actively collecting data to evaluate and optimize FSD performance in new regions. Thanks to Reddit user Ready_Medium_6693 for catching the one in Concord.
Elon Musk recently mentioned that Tesla plans to expand Robotaxi networks beyond the initial Texas and California launches. So while these sightings aren’t entirely unexpected, the speed of their arrival is. It suggests Tesla is confident in its ability to train FSD for local traffic rules and driving behaviors to the point it no longer needs a driver.
Bumper Cameras
The vehicle that’s been spotted in Boston is the usual Tesla engineering Model 3… except with one unique twist. It includes a front bumper camera. Shout out to @Dylan02939106 for catching the bumper camera in these photos.
The Refreshed Model 3 Mule with a Bumper Camera!
@Dylan02939106 on X
We previously released an opinion piece regarding whether the front bumper camera would be required for Unsupervised FSD. In our eyes, Tesla will require a bumper camera for Unsupervised FSD - if only to improve direct visibility in the bumper area of the vehicle. This is key for low-speed maneuvering in crowded areas like parking lots and garages, as well as for key features like Actually Smart Summon.
It isn’t surprising that Tesla is continuing to evaluate vehicles with a bumper camera - the Cybertruck, Cybercab, and Refreshed Model Y all have them now - and the rest of the lineup, including the flagship Model S and X, as well as the refreshed Model 3 - were supposed to eventually receive them as well.
With the Model S and Model X set for refreshes this year—and the front bumper camera on this Model 3 looking well-integrated rather than a temporary setup—it seems likely that front bumper cameras will soon become standard across Tesla’s entire lineup.
The Robotaxi Mule in Boston
@Dylan02939106 on X
In fact, Tesla’s newest iteration of the FSD computer has a slot for the Bumper Camera on all AI4/HW4 vehicles, so a future retrofit could even be possible.
These are some pretty exciting times - we may see Robotaxi networks actually deploy in time for Tesla’s lofty goal of “sometime in 2026” for cities throughout North America. Once many American cities begin to accept their deployment, it will be easier to seek homologation in Mexico and Canada, enabling deployment throughout the continent.
![Andrej Karpathy considers returning to Tesla to work on Optimus [video]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/images/news/2022/karpathy-podcast_300w.jpg)
