Tesla has now released the public version of FSD Beta 10.5. The public release comes in as version 2021.36.8.8.
Tesla releases FSD Beta 10.5
Frenchie/YouTube
Tesla was aiming to have the beta initially available this weekend, but after releasing the beta to employees, Tesla wanted to make some changes before releasing it publicly.
Tesla employees were initially given release 2021.36.8.7, followed by 2021.36.8.8 the following day.
It's not clear what the issue was, or what Tesla fixed, but the release notes for both versions are the same and the FSD Beta version number didn't change between them as the beta remains at v10.5.
98 Safety Scores
With this release Tesla is also hoping to expand the beta to owners who have achieved a Safety Score of 98 or higher.
It appears that that is still the plan as we haven't heard otherwise as of yet, but it doesn't appear that the expansion has started yet.
It's likely that Tesla is completing the rollout to all existing beta testers and will wait a few days before expanding it to additional testers.
Release Notes
Tesla has once again posted technical release notes for the beta. It doesn't appear to have any new functionality, but instead improving various key aspects of what it already does such as better object detection and maneuvering.
The full technical release notes are below:
- Improved VRU (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcycles) crossing velocity error by 20% from improved quality in our auto-labeling.
- Improved static world predictions (road lines, edges, and lane connectivity) by up to 13% using a new static world auto-labeler and adding 165K auto-labeled videos.
- Improved cone and sign detections by upreving the generalized static object network with 15K more video clips and adjusting oversampling and overweighting strategies (+ 4.5% precision, + 10.4% recall).
- Improved cut-in detection network by 5.5% to help reduce false slowdowns.
- Enabled "emergency collision avoidance maneuvering" in shadow mode
- Enabled behavior to lane change away from merges when safe to do so.
- Improved merge object detection recall by using multi-modal object prediction at intersections.
- Improved control for merges by increasing smoothness of arrival time constraints and considering possible merging objects beyond visibility.
- Improved lane changes by allowing larger deceleration limit in short-deadline situations.
- Improved lateral control for creeping forward to get more visibility.
- Improved modeling of road boundaries on high curvature roads for finer maneuvers.
- Improved logic to stay on-route and avoid unnecessary detours/rerouting.
The full release notes for this beta are accessible on our release notes page.
New Terms
The FSD Beta will also require you to reapprove the terms of use, which will require you to go into Controls > Autopilot before you can use FSD.
The terms appear to be the same as the previous beta, so it's not clear whether Tesla will be updating the terms or if this will be a new policy where you will have to accept the terms with each beta release.
It does serve as a reminder that this is still very much beta software and you need to be vigilant when using it.
First Look
The first videos of beta 10.5 are now becoming available. Here are some of the first videos below.
In this first video DirtyTesla tries the beta around some major construction.
Visualizations
We haven't noticed any new object visualizations yet, but the visualizations for road lines and road edges appear to be much improved.
Previously when the car wasn't sure exactly where a line or edge was, it could cause excessive blurring or jitteriness where the line would shift back and forth.
In this release the lines appear much more consistent and do not bounce back and forth as much as they did in previous releases.
The improved visualizations can be seen in this James Locke video where he takes the beta through his test loop 1. James has consistently tested previous betas through various loops so that we can see their progress over time.
If you'd like to see all the FSD visualizations that the beta can display and what they mean, you should take a look at our FSD Visualizations article.
While Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update brought many new features, including Apple Watch Support, Cross Traffic Alerts, Weather Overlays, Search Along Route, and others, there are also several smaller items in this update that didn’t get much attention.
Ambient Lighting Now Affects Easter Eggs
The 2024+ Model 3 and Cybertruck both come equipped with ambient lighting, and Tesla is now taking advantage of this custom lighting feature by incorporating it into several easter eggs.
Rainbow Road: If you head over to Apps > ToyBox > Rainbow Road, you’ll find a new option available that allows the ambient lighting in the vehicle to also change shades while Rainbow Road is active. The Rainbow Road easter egg is a tribute to the iconic course course in Nintendo’s Mario Kart.
Check out the feature in action below:
🇮🇹 Con l’aggiornamento di Natale, quando attiviamo la pista arcobaleno, anche i LED interni diventeranno arcobaleno. Questa è una novità non documentata, scovata da un utente di TESLERS (chiaramente riguarda le Model 3 Highland)
Santa Mode: Just in time for Christmas, Tesla has improved Santa Mode by cycling the ambient lighting between Christmas colors. Similar to Rainbow Road, the use of ambient lighting for the easter egg is optional and can be enabled under Apps > ToyBox > Santa Mode.
When using Santa Mode with ambient lighting turned on, the lights will cycle just between Christmas colors, red, green and white, instead of the full rainbow. There’s a video of the feature below:
The Model S and Model X vehicles that support Steam gaming are receiving a Steam app update in the holiday update as well. This update could end up being very interesting, but for now Tesla says that the SteamOS, which also runs on Valve’s Steam Deck has been updated to version 3.6.
Valve outlines a wide range of fixes and improvements in their release notes for version 3.6, but Tesla simply states that the OS update includes performance enhancements and improved game compatibility.
The SteamOS hasn’t been updated on the Model S and X for quite a while, so we believe there may be more to this besides performance improvements and fixes. We’ll be looking to share some insights into this in the near future.
So, there you have it—three new features in the Holiday update that have mostly gone under the radar. While they may not apply to everyone, there are plenty of other cool features in the Holiday Update, like the arrival of Dynamic Road Closure Routing and Nearby Parking, that are coming to every vehicle, so go check out the full release notes.
At the 2023 Q3 Earnings Call, Tesla provided an update on its next-generation model, what many are referring to as the “Model 2” or “Model Q.” Although the actual model name is yet to be determined, it is known internally as Redwood.
During the 2024 Shareholder Meeting, Musk again mentioned the upcoming model, saying that Tesla is working on new products, including a more affordable vehicle and a larger SUV.
While we know the next-gen vehicle is aimed at the $25k to $30k USD market, we now have some new information thanks to a new report out of China.
Launch & Price
According to the Chinese outlet CNMO Technology News (Sina Finance), Travis Axelrod, Tesla’s Head of Investor Relations, announced plans to launch a new model. Axelrod shared this update while addressing senior corporate investors at an investor conference hosted by Deutsche Bank on December 5, 2024.
The goal of Project Redwood, internally dubbed “Model Q” by Deutsche Bank, is to achieve a post-subsidy price of under $30,000 USD. With the Federal EV Rebate potentially expiring next year, this suggests that the Model Q’s starting price will be around $30,000 USD. For comparison, the Model 3 currently starts at $42,490 in the U.S.
We previously reported that Tesla has already been speaking to suppliers and is looking to begin volume production of the vehicle sometime around June 2025. Of course, prototyping is still necessary, but we haven’t seen any signs of Tesla testing a new vehicle since spotting the Cybercab on the streets ahead of We, Robot.
Specs
The Model Q will supposedly be about 15% smaller and 30% lighter than the Model 3, with an approximate length of 3,988mm, or 157 inches. For scale, the Mini is 157 inches, while the Model 3 is 185 inches, so it’s fairly compact.
The battery will also be smaller to match the vehicle’s smaller size as Tesla tries to reduce the vehicle’s price while maintaining a similar range as its other vehicles. Tesla is expected to offer two models—a single-motor RWD model and a Long-Range Dual-Motor AWD variant.
The lower trim level will include a 53 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, while the AWD version is expected to include a 75 kWh LFP battery. The report says that the vehicle will be able to travel up to 500 km (310 miles) on a single charge, but it’s not clear whether this will be for the more efficient RWD version or the AWD variant.
Given the vehicle’s weight reduction compared to the Model 3, this type of range is likely for the lower trim level.
Variant
Motors
Battery Size
Estimated Range
RWD
1
53 kWh (LFP)
310 miles (500km)?
AWD
2
75 kWh (LFP)
?
There’s no news yet on the price of the AWD version, but we expect it to be about $5,000 more expensive than the RWD variant.
Once the vehicle ramps up in production, Tesla intends to produce about 10,000 of these per week globally or about 500,000 per year. As Tesla mentioned during one of their previous earnings calls, this next-gen vehicle will be built using Tesla’s current assembly lines with minimal changes. This should allow for a smoother and more predictable production ramp. While Tesla still plans to use its new unboxed assembly process, it’s now saving it for the robotaxi.
We’re expecting Juniper to launch early next year, as production has supposedly already begun at Giga Shanghai, at least on a limited prototyping basis. If the rollout matches the Model 3 Highland refresh, we’ll see Juniper arrive in China first and then make its way to North America and Europe by the end of 2025. The performance variants should launch in early 2026, after the standard models.
If you’re excited about Juniper, so are we! Check out our wishlist of features for Tesla’s Model Y refresh, and see everything we know so far.
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