Tesla has started pushing a dumb-down version of Full Self-Driving (FSD) v13 to some external customers in an attempt not to have its timeline slip for two months in a row.
For the last few months, Tesla has started posting monthly “AI roadmap updates” for owners to keep track of its goal to deliver unsupervised self-driving by the end of Q2 2025.
The highly anticipated FSD v13 update was October’s main goal before it slipped into the November roadmap.
With hours left to November, Tesla started pushing v13.2 to some early-access customers in the US last night.
However, according to the release, Tesla is pushing a dumbed-down version of v13. Here are the release notes:
Includes:
- 36 Hz, full-resolution AI4 video inputs
- Native AI4 inputs and neural network architectures
- 4.2x data scaling
- 5x training compute scaling (enabled by the Cortext cluster)
- Reduced photon-to-control latency by 2x
- Speed Profiles on both City Streets and Highways
- Start FSD (Supervised) from Park with the touch of a button
- Integrated unpark, reverse, and park capabilities
- Improved reward predictions for collision avoidance
- Improved camera cleaning
- Redesigned controller for smoother, more accurate tracking
- Dynamic routing around road closures, which displays them along an affected route when they are detected by the fleet
Upcoming Improvements:
- 3x model size scaling
- 3x model context length scaling
- Audio inputs for better handling of emergency vehicles
- Improved reward predictions for navigation
- Improvements to false braking and slower driving in parking lots
- Support for destination options including pulling over, parking in a spot, driveway, or garage
- Efficient representation of maps and navigation inputs
- Improved handling of camera occlusions
Many of the features listed in “upcoming improvements”, especially the three times increase in model size scaling and model context length scaling, were in the notes about the v13 that Tesla was supposed to release in November.
However, the most significant and most impactful feature toward improving miles between disengagement is in there: the capability to unpark, reverse, and park.
Electrek’s Take
I wouldn’t be surprised if Tesla will stop posting these monthly updates. At the time of writing, we don’t have the December update, and the last one came on October 31.
Top comment by Cypress
It rains a lot here in the PNW, and I back into my driveway almost exclusively so that the charger will reach the port in my model 3, but the rear camera is often so obscured it’s nearly impossible to see anything.
FSD(™️) is going to struggle in bad weather with reverse. Heck, Tesla doesn’t even have basic rear cross-traffic alerts today.
I don’t know how they are going to resolve that without fixing the placement of the rear camera or returning USS and radar sensors. Or adding reverse camera washer/wiper.
All FSD owners were expecting v13 in October, then all HW4 owners were expecting v13 in November, and now only some HW4 owners are getting a dumbed-down version of v13 in November and no clear path toward unsupervised self-driving.
The goal of unsupervised self-driving by Q2 2025 has always been ridiculous, but it’s no surprise since Tesla has been wrong about its self-driving timelines for years. Now, the fact that it is also missing on closer short-term goals is also not great for building confidence.
With that said, I still expect a significant increase in miles between disengagement from v13 thanks to unpark, reverse, and park, but again, that’s just feature complete.
Next, Tesla needs to 2,000x its miles between disengagement. In 6 months? Please.
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