Tesla expands early access to highly-anticipated version 9 update, Elon Musk says ‘almost ready’

Right now, there are tens of thousands of Tesla owners anxiously waiting to get that notification “a new software update is available” on their mobile app or inside their cars.

Tesla has now expanded the early access program to the highly-anticipated version 9 update and Elon Musk says that the new firmware is ‘almost ready’.

If you have been following Electrek over the past few weeks, you should already have a good idea of what to expect with the v9 update.

Though Tesla is still tuning the update before the wider release and a few things could change.

The firmware update includes a significant user interface refresh and several new features, but the biggest change arguably has to do with Autopilot.

We have previously discussed the new ‘Navigate on Autopilot’ feature and the ‘Mad Max’ mode, which is the kind of progress that many Autopilot 2.0 owners have been waiting for over the past 2 years.

Tesla was supposed to release version 9 ‘toward the end of the month’, but the final phases of the development have seen delays.

Now Musk says that it is “almost ready” and that they expanded the rollout through their early access program:

Almost ready. We expanded the early access program to 1000 more users a few days ago.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2018

A source familiar with the rollout of the update told Electrek that the version 9 update was installed in 2,700 Tesla vehicles as of this morning.

Most of the early leaks over the past few weeks have been from people who have hacked their Tesla vehicles and managed to install the update ahead of time.

Tesla has been fine-tuning the update during that time in order to release a product polished enough to be rolled out to the entire fleet and owners in the early access program have been helping.

What are you most excited for in Tesla’ version 9? Let us know in the comment section below and check out our previous report to know all the Tesla Version 9.0 features based on your Model 3, Model S, or Model X generation.