Photo: Tesla, @Tslachan via X
Tesla made significant progress with its Full Self Driving software in May when Elon Musk offered details about FSD V12.4 and subsequent versions. However, the update failed to materialize due to some unexpected bugs. Now, Tesla has released a new build to employees, but customers have already lost their appetite as non-FSD software comes with more exciting features.
Tesla is the pioneer of over-the-air updates, a trend that has been adopted by other carmakers with varying degrees of success. The timely updates keep Tesla EVs relevant as new features are added throughout the ownership. Tesla has been praised for having even older vehicles updated with the latest features where the hardware allowed it. However, as more vehicle models and revisions were launched, fragmentation made things a tad more complicated for the Tesla software team.
Things got even more complicated with the wider adoption of Full Self-Driving. Tesla traditionally separated software builds that include FSD from those destined for the wider fleet, with no access to FSD. This was necessary because FSD development is a tedious process, and by the time an update is released, Tesla software has already moved on to a newer build.
The situation was acceptable because the FSD user base was small, and beta testers were more excited about the self-driving features than other software improvements. However, as Tesla dropped the beta label and offered FSD to everyone in North America, more people enrolled for a free FSD trial. Their interest is more diverse, and predictably, more of them are interested in new car features than Tesla Full Self-Driving.
For instance, the latest software version, 2024.20, introduced support for adaptive headlights, among other things. This is something that people have been asking for years. However, the new features are out of bounds for FSD users because the latest FSD build is still based on older 2024.14 software. No doubt Tesla will rebase FSD on the newer software builds, but there's no guarantee a new update won't come with something more compelling than FSD.
Tesla owners reportedly unsubscribe from FSD to receive the exciting goodies in the latest software update. This shows that Tesla needs to unify FSD builds and regular updates, something it has promised for a long time. The fact that the latest FSD updates are missing in action doesn't help either.
Elon Musk promised that FSD V12.4 would arrive in May with important improvements, including the removal of the steering wheel nag, automatic parking spot seeking, and updated suspension rules. However, we're two weeks from when FSD V12.4 was supposed to launch, and the update hasn't arrived yet. The reason appears to be a serious bug in the software, which took longer than expected to iron out.
On Wednesday, Tesla released FSD V12.4.1 to employees, a bug-fix release that could finally allow a wider rollout next week. As always, Elon Musk hyped the new FSD version, saying it comes with "a massive number of changes." Musk is confident that, once known bugs are fixed, "it will take over a year of driving to get even one intervention." This is more specific than the previous "will blow your mind" statements, which is encouraging.
Things got even more complicated with the wider adoption of Full Self-Driving. Tesla traditionally separated software builds that include FSD from those destined for the wider fleet, with no access to FSD. This was necessary because FSD development is a tedious process, and by the time an update is released, Tesla software has already moved on to a newer build.
The situation was acceptable because the FSD user base was small, and beta testers were more excited about the self-driving features than other software improvements. However, as Tesla dropped the beta label and offered FSD to everyone in North America, more people enrolled for a free FSD trial. Their interest is more diverse, and predictably, more of them are interested in new car features than Tesla Full Self-Driving.
For instance, the latest software version, 2024.20, introduced support for adaptive headlights, among other things. This is something that people have been asking for years. However, the new features are out of bounds for FSD users because the latest FSD build is still based on older 2024.14 software. No doubt Tesla will rebase FSD on the newer software builds, but there's no guarantee a new update won't come with something more compelling than FSD.
Tesla owners reportedly unsubscribe from FSD to receive the exciting goodies in the latest software update. This shows that Tesla needs to unify FSD builds and regular updates, something it has promised for a long time. The fact that the latest FSD updates are missing in action doesn't help either.
Elon Musk promised that FSD V12.4 would arrive in May with important improvements, including the removal of the steering wheel nag, automatic parking spot seeking, and updated suspension rules. However, we're two weeks from when FSD V12.4 was supposed to launch, and the update hasn't arrived yet. The reason appears to be a serious bug in the software, which took longer than expected to iron out.
On Wednesday, Tesla released FSD V12.4.1 to employees, a bug-fix release that could finally allow a wider rollout next week. As always, Elon Musk hyped the new FSD version, saying it comes with "a massive number of changes." Musk is confident that, once known bugs are fixed, "it will take over a year of driving to get even one intervention." This is more specific than the previous "will blow your mind" statements, which is encouraging.
FSD 12.4.1 releases today to Tesla employees. If that goes well, then it will be released to a limited number of external customers this weekend.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2024
There are a massive number of changes to this build. It should arguably be called v13, but we’re sticking to 12
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