FSD Beta 11.3.1 now lets you leave audio feedback on Autopilot disengagements
Chuck Cook/YouTube
Tesla has released the highly anticipated FSD Beta v11.3.1 with Tesla's single-stack highway and city driving. Along with this update comes a new way to report Autopilot feedback to Tesla.
Tesla's new “voice drive-notes,” allows drivers to record an audio message describing the reason for Autopilot's disengagement.
No More Snapshot Button
Before FSD Beta was released to everyone in the U.S. and Canada, Tesla had a snapshot button that allowed drivers to 'flag' certain situations where Autopilot wasn't up to snuff. However, that button is now gone for everyone except very early beta testers.
With this latest beta, those early testers have both, the snapshot button and Tesla's new voice notes. However, we believe that Tesla will transition completely to their voice notes eventually as it provides a hands-free solution and offers the driver the ability to add more detail.
With the new voice notes, Tesla will likely still capture the same information they did with the snapshot button, including the vehicle’s camera feeds and telemetry data.
How Voice Notes Functions
After an Autopilot disengagement, the vehicle will display a small card asking the driver what happened and prompt the driver to share a short voice memo. The card will display:
Autopilot Disengaged. What Happened?
Press voice button to send Tesla an anonymous message describing your experience.
You can then push the right scroll wheel (the same one used to activate voice commands) and provide feedback about the disengagement without removing your hands from the steering wheel.
Recording Limits
Tesla appears to be limiting voice notes to 10 seconds. Once you press the voice button, the screen will display:
Recording...
10 seconds remaining until automatic upload. Press to end recording.
You can let the feature record for all 10 seconds, at which point it'll automatically stop and upload the audio clip to Tesla, or you can stop it early by pressing the scroll wheel again.
You'll also be able to cancel the voice dictation by pressing the 'Cancel' button on the screen.
Once the voice note is sent successfully, Tesla will display a confirmation on the screen.
Recording sent. Thank you. Your feedback will help us improve Autopilot.
Drive Notes in Action
Dan Burkland shows us how FSD Beta's new voice notes feature works.
Misuse of Voice Notes
There's no doubt that this system will be misused by a small percentage of drivers by providing some... interesting recordings. It's not clear how Tesla plans to address this issue, but Tesla could potentially block certain vehicles from sending in voice notes if the system is misused.
Anonymous Recordings
Tesla says that these voice notes will be anonymous, so they likely won't be tied to a specific vehicle or driver profile. However, it's not clear whether Tesla will simply transcribe your audio to text and store that, or if they will retain the audio clip, which could result in it being a little less anonymous.
Transcribing Audio Drive Notes
Tesla’s engineers certainly won’t be listening to every single voice memo sent in, so we’re assuming that Tesla will automatically transcribe these voice memos so that engineers can quickly search through and address various types of reports. However, the question remains if the transcription isn't clear, will the audio clip be available for playback?
Tesla, unfortunately, failed to point out the new voice notes feature in the latest FSD Beta release notes, but this is an exciting feature that will hopefully let many owners provide more detailed feedback on why they disengaged Autopilot.
This feature has been available to Tesla employees and early testers with the public build of FSD Beta 11.3.1 and will hopefully be available to everyone with access to FSD Beta soon.
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Tesla has begun to reach out to customers in the United States and is offering demo drives of the Cybertruck on an invite-only basis. @brandonhd on X shared the first invite image, and it looks like it's going out quite quickly to multiple locations that have Cybertrucks on display.
Up until now, display vehicles have been for just that – looking, but no touching. Some Tesla delivery centers and showrooms have also allowed viewers to take a seat inside and open it up, but most are still locked away behind the velvet rope.
It’s exciting to see that Tesla has begun to demo them – and it can only be so long until demo drives open up to everyone.
Advisor-led Demo
This Demo Drive is led by a Tesla Advisor – while you’re driving, the advisor will be in the passenger seat, walking you through the experience. They’ll explain steer-by-wire, off-road controls, and will introduce new-to-Tesla buyers to all the features that are currently available.
The list of locations so far for demo drives appears to be fairly limited, but we will hopefully see demo drives roll out throughout the United States, and eventually Canada too. Here is the current list of city/state locations that have seen demo drive invites.
Actually Smart Summon, the successor to Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, has been confirmed to be coming as soon as next month as per Elon Musk. Colloquially known as “ASS”, Actually Smart Summon is supposed to improve on the regular Smart Summon capabilities, which have historically used ultrasonic sensors (USS) to navigate parking lots.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon, and we’re quite excited about what other features will be unlocked once it finally shows up at our doorstep.
Vision-based Improvements
ASS is supposed to bring Smart Summon to vehicles that don’t have USS – using Tesla Vision. Most recently, Tesla has brought Autopark to vehicles without USS, and Vision-based Autopark has been a huge success. It is faster, more reliable, and smoother than the older USS-based solution. It can also park and maneuver in tighter locations.
Today, Smart Summon is sometimes useful at best, usually a party trick, or downright dangerous at worst. It’s excellent and best used in straight lines, where you have a clear line of sight of the vehicle, and can stop it if doesn’t see an obstacle.
I used Smart Summon today, just before writing this article – my 2022 Model Y (with USS) – did manage to show up just fine – in a straight-line location from where I was parked, after exiting the parking spot fairly cleanly. However, I’ve previously used Smart Summon and have had the vehicle turn towards obstacles, such as cart returns or curbs. Overall, it’s a sometimes-useful feature that has a lot of drawbacks right now.
Smart Summon is also restricted to a certain distance – and it's pretty small. The max distance is shorter than most parking lots, being only about 215 ft (65m). If you’re lucky enough to park close, it's very useful to bring your car right to you.
Actually Smart Summon
ASS will bring FSD V12-like capabilities to Smart Summon – the vehicle will primarily use Vision to drive toward you (or the location you’ve indicated). ASS has been supposed to be coming since about September 2022 and has seen many delays – we’re almost at the 2-year point today.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon being able to bring the vehicle – safely – right to you. ASS is also one of the key steps towards bringing some other cool features that Elon Musk has previously mentioned – Park Seek and Banish Autopark.
We’re also hopeful that Actually Smart Summon will increase the maximum range a vehicle can be summoned, because the current range is fairly small. Alongside Park Seek and Banish Autopark, we’re closing in on a Robotaxi-based future.
Park Seek and Banish Autopark
When the FSD v12.4 showed up, Elon also mentioned that going forward, vehicles would automatically park themselves when arriving in a parking lot – Park Seek – and that if you got out of the car at the entrance to a business, you could get it to automatically park itself in the parking lot – Banish Autopark. These are two features that are needed for Robotaxi to work – which itself is delayed to October 10th of this year. We’re looking quite forward to them – as in combination with Actually Smart Summon, Tesla has reached the cusp of vehicle autonomy.
A vehicle that arrives, driverless, at the location you’re at, then drives somewhere, parks itself there, and waits for you – is the definition of a Robotaxi.
While we’re likely to have to wait for Banish Autopark and Park Seek just a bit longer, Actually Smart Summon being around the corner is exciting! Gone will be the days of having to run out to your car when you forgot your umbrella – your car will just come right to you instead.
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