Tesla drops Safety Score to 80; sends FSD Beta to new testers

Tesla is expanding the FSD Beta pool

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Tesla is finally expanding the FSD Beta to more testers who have been patiently waiting and maintaining high Safety Scores.

Elon Musk announced the expansion on Twitter and said Tesla would expand the beta to 160,000 testers in the United States and Canada, up from 100,000.

He has said the program could only improve with more real-world driving data input. The real-world experience could have been drivers achieving nearly perfect Safety Scores.

Lower Safety Score

Tesla has now lowered the Safety Score required to get into the FSD Beta program. Anyone in the U.S. or Canada or who has driven more than 100 miles with a Safety Score of 80 is now eligible to receive the beta.

Early this morning owners began waking up to a surprise update from Tesla. Tesla started sending out the latest FSD Beta, 10.69.2.2 (update 2022.20.17) to new testers overnight.

Only for those on 2022.20 or earlier?

It appears that those receiving the beta have been on a version of 2022.20 or earlier. Owners on update 2022.24 or 2022.28 haven't been offered the beta yet.

It's possible Tesla wants to prevent rolling owners backward in terms of updates, causing some features to be removed. Potentially features that the owners may have just started getting used to such as blind spot camera placement, alternate routes, or other features included in update 2022.24 or 2022.28.

Elon has already commented on the next version of FSD Beta, revealing that it will be beta 10.69.3 and it's expected to be released shortly after AI Day Part II. This version could be based on update 2022.24 or 2022.28 and include testers currently on those updates.

For those unfamiliar, just because someone purchases FSD doesn’t mean they have access to the FSD Beta. No, the driver is graded by Tesla and given a score. That score has to be above a certain point to be enrolled in the FSD Beta. Tesla’s CEO has said that more than 100 million FSD miles should be logged by the end of 2022. In July, that number stood at 35 million miles. Of course, to triple that number, more testers are needed.

In August, Tesla’s CEO was confident FSD had a breakthrough and told shareholders the next update would be so great that he had to break the order of numbers, “… we’ve made some pretty significant architectural improvements. So, it is really more than 10.12 to 10.13 release. It might, I don’t want to speak too soon, but it might qualify for 10.69. It has to earn that, obviously!”

While the price of FSD continues to go up, Musk says this about making the roads safer, “We’re solving a very important part of AI and one that can ultimately save millions of lives. And prevent 10 of millions of serious injuries by driving just an order of magnitude safer than people.”

Autonomous vehicles have been a goal for years. Musk publicly discussed it in 2017 and believed the feat could be done in two years. However, a few months ago, he admitted it was a much more significant challenge than he predicted. “The sheer amount of work required to do this boggles the mind,” he told the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley. “I’ve seen a lot of tough technology problems, and solving real-world AI such that a car can drive itself is one of the hardest problems I’ve ever seen. It is way harder than I originally thought, by far.”

Were you newly invited to FSD Beta if you had a 80+ score?

— Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp) September 20, 2022

Since 10.69 was released on August 20, updates have included several improvements to FSD. The most recent update can be found here. Now with 60% more users, there will be more updates to address what Teslas are experiencing. Plus, there is already FSD Beta 10.69.3 expected just after AI Day on September 30.

Have you just received Tesla's FSD Beta for the first time? Let us know in our forum.

Tesla Increases Price of Model S; Starts Offering Free Lifetime Supercharging

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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.

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Tesla’s Optimus Robot Learns to Walk Without Vision [VIDEO]

Optimus Falls - but catches itself!

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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.

Daily walks help clear your mind pic.twitter.com/dUsW58trS6

— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 9, 2024

A Look Behind the Curtain

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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