Tesla is now aiming to release its highly-anticipated version 9 update by the ‘end of the week’, says Elon Musk

Tesla is about to release its biggest software update in 2 years, which should also include significant Autopilot improvements.

CEO Elon Musk now says that they are aiming to release the highly anticipated version 9 update by the ‘end of the week’.

Earlier this month, we got a first look at version 9 with an early alpha build obtained by Tesla hacker and tinkerer Jason Hughes.

It showed that the main change in the software is that Tesla is bringing its Model 3 UI to the Model S and Model X.

On Sunday, we released a new report about the latest development build saying that it was getting closer to release.

The new firmware appeared to be behind schedule, but now Musk says that they are performing the “final tweaks” tonight before attempting a wide release toward the “end of the week”:

Going over final tweaks tonight. Hopefully in wide release end of week.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 25, 2018

Aside from the Model S and Model X UI refresh, here’s most of what we know about the update:

The Model 3 is seeing an updated navigation UI with the direction tab now being on the left side of the screen – closer to the driver.

Waypoint navigation was in the original alpha build that leaked, but not in the other one we reported on last week – though it could still end up in the wide release.

As we previously reported, the update includes a new ‘Drive On Nav’ Autopilot features, which brings capabilities similar to the ‘On Ramp/Off Ramp’ feature that Tesla promised with the release of Enhanced Autopilot.

The Autopilot UI is also getting an update in the instrument cluster.

Musk said that Tesla is finally going to release its dashcam feature using Autopilot cameras in version 9.

Finally, the update also includes the promised classic Atari games that Musk said would be included as Easter eggs in the update.

Electrek’s Take

Strangely, we haven’t heard about the update going through the early access program, which is generally the case for at least a week or two for bigger updates.

It might have still made it, but we haven’t heard anything.

Hopefully, the wide release also includes a few surprises because it doesn’t look very significant so far. The UI update will be polarizing, as always, and while the dashcam feature will be welcomed, it’s hardly enough for a major update.

The Autopilot is likely going to be the game changer. It will be interesting to see how much it improves with the Version 9 update.