Tesla FSD Beta v11 headed for wide release

By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla's FSD Beta 10.69.3
Tesla's FSD Beta 10.69.3
@Frenchie/Twitter

Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) Beta Version 11 was released at 11:11 on November 11 as a possible nod to our veterans. As one of our readers pointed out, World War I officially ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. It was a nice touch by Tesla. All those ones fit brilliantly with FSD transitioning to a single stack, a system the Autopilot team has been working on for some time, and Elon Musk has stated his confidence. V11 spent the weekend with a limited number of users, believed to be some Tesla employees, but this version is expected to be operational in thousands of vehicles by the end of the year.

Musk did commit that everyone who has FSD in the U.S. and Canada will be able to access the program by the end of this year, possibly this month. However, a recent tweet by Musk sounds like it's going to be a tight deadline to make it before 2023. Musk posted: Given all that is in V11, it will take a few weeks to expand the beta, then another few weeks to go wide release to US & Canada.

The final V11 release notes will likely require a few pages. However, we did post the information that is available at this time, which includes moving to a single-stack solution and improved occupancy networks:

Enabled FSD Beta on highway. This unifies the vision and planning stack on and off-highway and replaces the legacy highway stack, which is over four years old. The legacy highway stack still relies on several single-camera and single-frame networks, and was setup to handle simple lane-specific maneuvers. FSD Beta's multi-camera video networks and next-gen planner, that allows for more complex agent interactions with less reliance on lanes, make way for adding more intelligent behaviors, smoother control and better decision making.

Improved Occupancy Network's recall for close by obstacles and precision in severe weather conditions with a 4x increase in transformer spatial resolution, 20% increase in image featurizer capacity, improved side camera calibration, and 260k more video training clips (real-world and simulation).

The highly anticipated and publicized 10.69 version will apparently not be the one that goes as the wide release. Musk jumped several numbers when naming the last FSD update. He thought it was so special it deserved a 69. Nevertheless, after a few significant updates to the .69 version, FSD has outgrown that number, and a new version name is needed.

The latest beta is version 10.69.3, although it's currently only available to employees and the original 1,000 public testers.

Next Beta

The plan was for beta 10.69.3 to slowly go out to all public testers, however, rumor has it that Tesla found several issues that need to be fixed before the beta is expanded further.

At this point, it's not clear whether Tesla will fix these issues with a minor update such as beta 10.69.3.1 and resume rolling out the beta or if Tesla will instead focus on updating users to v11.

If Tesla plans to have v11 on everyone's vehicles before the end of the year, they'll need to move quickly as there are roughly seven weeks before 2023.

When Tesla decides to expand FSD Beta v11 beyond employees, they'll likely be looking for feedback for any improvements needed. Due to the number of changes in v11 we may see this beta roll out slower than usual. I'd also expect v11 to have multiple revisions with fixes and minor improvements before it's released to the many owners who have never used FSD Beta before.

From Elon's comments on Twitter, it sounds like Tesla will gradually add more users to the FSD Beta until it's eventually available to everyone in the U.S. and Canada.

FSD Beta is expected to be available to more than 1 million users before the end year, more than 6x the number of users who have access to it today.

If we're lucky, we'll all be using one of Tesla's biggest enhancements to FSD Beta this time next month.

Giga Small Haus - A Demo Home Powered by Solar and Powerwall 3

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla recently showed off Giga Small Haus, an interesting new display project hosted at Giga Berlin. The small new house is located just outside the main entrance of Tesla’s Giga Berlin factory, with a Quicksilver Model Y parked inside.

Giga Small Haus is powered only by solar and Powerwall 3 - disconnected from the local grid and from Giga Berlin itself. It serves as a live demonstration of Tesla Solar and Tesla’s Powerwall battery backup.

Giga Small Haus

The centerpiece of the display is a Model Y in Quicksilver - a beautiful pick for a beautifully lit house. However, that’s not the real focus here - it's the Powerwall and Gateway on the wall.

The Powerwall is the focus of Giga Small Haus, and there’s a display with some additional information on the wall. Part of the display also includes a screen that displays the current output of the Powerwall itself versus the consumption of Giga Small Haus, as well as the input from solar.

The interior exhibit of Giga Small Haus
The interior exhibit of Giga Small Haus
Not a Tesla App

The text on the exhibit is divided into several sections. Here’s a translated and edited version of what we can see from Tesla’s images. Some additional text is obscured. If someone visits Giga Small Haus, let us know.

Powerwall

Powerwall is a home battery system that stores energy from solar panels, the electrical grid, or during off-peak hours and powers your home during the day or during a power outage. 

With Powerwall, you can use self-generated solar energy during the day and night, thus avoiding high electricity costs. You can also store excess energy produced during sunny periods for use during times of low production or power outages.

Key Features

Energy Storage: Powerwall stores excess energy from solar panels or the grid for later use or during power outages.

Backup Power: In the event of a power outage, Powerwall automatically switches to battery power to ensure continuous power supply.

Integration: Powerwall can be seamlessly integrated with existing solar systems and other power sources.

Scalability: Multiple Powerwalls can be installed to meet higher energy storage needs.

Smart Energy Management: Powerwall works with Tesla's software to optimize energy consumption and reduce costs.

How Powerwall Works

Storage: During the day, when solar panels produce more energy than needed, the excess is stored in Powerwall.

Usage: At night or during times of low solar production, the stored energy is used to power the home, reducing reliance on the grid.

Backup: During a power outage, Powerwall automatically provides power to critical circuits, ensuring continuous operation of essential appliances.

Benefits

Cost Savings: By storing and using solar energy, you can reduce your electricity bills.

Reliability: Provides backup power during outages, ensuring your home remains powered.

Sustainability: Promotes the use of renewable energy by storing excess solar production for later use.

Overall, Giga Small Haus is an interesting real-life demo of what Powerwall and Solar can accomplish. It would be neat if Tesla built more of these displays - perhaps near major Delivery and Service Centers and at Giga Texas, Fremont, Giga Shanghai, and other facilities. Many Tesla owners have yet to learn about and experience some of Tesla’s Energy products.

Tesla Adds Acceleration Boost Option for 2024 Model 3

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla has added the Acceleration Boost option to the Tesla store for owners of the 2024 Model 3 Long Range - specifically owners in Australia and China. Acceleration Boost is an upgrade that provides a significant performance boost, drastically narrowing the performance gap between the Long Range and Performance versions of the same model.

This upgrade will likely become available in Europe, Canada, and the United States in the next few days as Tesla updates its shops globally.

Acceleration Boost

This new Acceleration Boost is retailing for $3,000 AUD, or approximately $2,000 USD. That’s the same price for current owners of older Model 3 or Model Y Long Range vehicles, which all have the option to purchase Acceleration Boost through the shop.

The boost provides improved 0-100km/h (0-60mph) performance, bumping the 2024 Model 3 LR from 4.4s to 3.8s. The 2024 Performance version comes in at a blazing fast 2.9 seconds, so while it isn’t equivalent to just buying a performance variant in the first place, it is still a noticeable and significant upgrade.

Performance variants also come with a different front fascia vent for cooling, performance drive units, sport seats, adaptive suspension, 20-inch wheels, and Track Mode V3. That’s a significant number of additional features in the $10,000 USD price difference between the Long Range and Performance versions.

Should You Buy It?

If you’ve purchased a Long Range model and are itching to go just that little bit faster at every red light, this is the upgrade for you. It previously came with the cost of slightly reducing vehicle range, but the Tesla store doesn’t make a note of reduced range this time around. The 2023 Model 3 and Model Y Long Range models had an efficiency loss of about 5% due to the additional always-available acceleration and cooling. 

You could drive in Chill mode to mostly negate that efficiency loss, but what’s the fun in driving in Chill when you just got Acceleration Boost? Anyhow, the shop listing for the 2024 variant doesn’t include this detail, so it's possible Tesla may have worked some more engineering magic.

Overall, if you’ve got the $3,000 AUD burning a hole in your pocket, some Tesla referral credits sitting around, or just want to go faster, it's definitely an upgrade many users find valuable.

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