As promised by Elon Musk last week, Tesla started pushing a new update to Model S and X owners in the past few days in order to fix a few UI issues – primarily with the media player. The latest update is not addressing the most important UI complaints, but it is expected to be the first of a series of updates to be released in the coming weeks.
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As promised by Elon Musk last week, Tesla started rolling out the update last night and now we get every single detail of what the automaker is describing as “the biggest update since the introduction of the Model S”.
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Tesla v8.0 software update with upgraded Autopilot features has started being pushed to owners last night. The update includes a lot of unanimously welcomed upgrades, like the new radar processing technology, voice command improvements, and upgraded navigation and media apps with the UI overhaul.
But it also includes new Autopilot ‘nags’ and restrictions, taking the form of alerts and warnings, which are dividing Tesla owners. Some see new restriction as Tesla rolling back features that they already bought and a few go as far as refusing to update, while others welcome the new restrictions as a way to make the system safer.
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We had a pretty extensive continuous coverage of Tesla’s v8.0 software update over the past few months at Electrek, but now we are about to see if the update lives up to the hype. If all goes well, Tesla should start pushing the update within the next 24 hours.
Here are a few tricks to help some impatient owners potentially get the update faster:
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The conversation around Tesla’s upcoming v8.0 software update has revolved around the improved Autopilot, and rightfully so with the new radar processing technology to be introduced with it. But for many the biggest change will be the entire UI overhaul.
Today we take our first exclusive look at the new UI ahead of the wide release of v8.0, which is expected to be pushed to Model S and X owners later this week, thanks to new pictures from an anonymous source.
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Earlier this morning, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the automaker is aiming to push the wide release of software update v8.0 on September 21 “if no last minute issues are discovered”. The company pushed a fourth, and hopefully last, build in external beta and if everything goes well, it should be in every Tesla vehicles worldwide by the end of the next week.
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Update: Musk now says that the blog post has been postponed to the “end of the weekend”.
Today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he is writing a blog post about the details of Tesla OS software update v8.0 to be released later in the day:
Writing post now with details. Will publish on Tesla website later today.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2016
But he also said that the wide release of the update will not be for “another few weeks”.
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Since our original report on the beta version of Tesla’s 8.0 software update 2 months ago, the automaker has been improving on the system and has released several new versions for external beta testing. Last week, CEO Elon Musk said that the update was going to final review and added that “the amount of work [for Autopilot] that has been going into version 8.0 will be very noticeable”.
We’ve already discussed the new automatic off-ramp feature, but now Electrek has learned that the new version, building on the off-ramp feature, will be able to handle highway interchanges without disengaging the Autopilot…
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If you don’t remember, we published our exclusive report on Tesla’s v8.0 software update at the end of June. That’s when it entered beta testing. We are now in late August and the update is still not available to Tesla owners. CEO Elon Musk warned that it was taking longer than usual, but now it sounds like the update is imminent.
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Since we first reported on Tesla’s v8.0 software update being tested in beta, the company has been pushing a few new versions prior to the wide release in order to refine the improvements – primarily to the Autopilot – but a recent comment by CEO Elon Musk raises an interesting question.
V8 will be our biggest release since v1, so taking longer to refine. Awesome on every level. Meeting w design team every day.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2016
It’s a bold statement. We spoke to a few people who tested both v7.0 and v8.0. They mostly agree that v7.0 was a significantly bigger update to Tesla’s OS than the upcoming v8.0, but there could be more to it than what Tesla released in beta to testers.
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The limits of the Autopilot under its current suite of sensors have been debated for a while, especially since Tesla has been discussing an upcoming second-generation hardware for the program to allow fully autonomous driving.
But last night, Elon Musk announced that “certainly moderate and maybe big advances” are possible with Tesla’s current sensors.
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One of Tesla’s main advantages over other automakers is its capacity to send significant software updates over-the-air. Model S and X owners wake up in the morning and ta-da! They have new features in a vehicle they bought weeks, months or even years go, and Tesla’s next update will have something for everyone, whether you have Autopilot hardware in your car or even if you own a ‘classic’ pre-Autopilot Model S.
Electrek has learned all of the so far unreleased details of Tesla’s upcoming update 8.0 — one of its biggest to date. The automaker started testing the latest build with a limited number of owners and it features the most important UI refresh since the launch of the Model S, new Autopilot features and more…
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