Tesla has released FSD Beta 11.4 to employees, with original testers hopefully soon to follow. The update is version 2023.6.15, making it the first time FSD Beta has been based on a 2023 branch. With this update, Tesla has prioritized refining the vehicle's performance over introducing new features.
Enhanced Safety Features: Pedestrians and Vulnerable Road Users
Some standout improvements include enhanced pedestrian recognition and response, allowing Tesla vehicles to predict pedestrian movements better and react accordingly. This leads to a smoother driving experience at intersections, as vehicles can accurately anticipate when to stop or proceed.
Another critical aspect of the update is its improved responsiveness to vulnerable road users, such as bikers and cyclists. The FSD Beta 11.4 update now reacts more quickly to these road users and adjusts the vehicle's speed when necessary, ensuring a safer experience for everyone involved.
Improved Driving Performance: Urban, Rural, and Adverse Weather Conditions
One of the most notable features of the update is its weather-adaptive speed control. The FSD Beta 11.4 adjusts the maximum Autopilot speed based on current weather conditions, considering factors such as visibility, road wetness, tire tread, and even tire spray from other vehicles, ensuring a safer driving experience in adverse conditions.
Urban drivers will appreciate the optimized turn performance in city environments, as the update enables Tesla vehicles to navigate dense areas and challenging turns more effectively. This results in smoother navigation while avoiding obstacles like parked cars and bus lanes. Additionally, the update brings advanced bus lane recognition, helping prevent the vehicle from accidentally entering restricted areas.
In rural areas, the FSD Beta 11.4 should improve, with upgraded lane, line, and road edge detection. This enhancement is beneficial when driving on roads with inconsistent markings and paving, providing a safer experience. Alongside these improvements, the update also refines lane guidance and partial cut-in predictions. By leveraging Tesla's extensive library of clips and auto-labelling system, these enhancements ensure the vehicle remains in the correct lane and accurately predicts the movement of other vehicles.
Smarter Navigation: Lane Guidance and Speed Adjustments
The FSD Beta 11.4 also considers upcoming navigation deadlines, adjusting the vehicle's speed accordingly during lane changes, resulting in refined lane change speed control. Furthermore, Tesla's new Vision Speed network allows its cars to infer the typical driving speed on any given roadway, optimizing speed control in various situations, such as residential areas and parking lots.
Finally, Tesla has enhanced long-range path blockage detection, enabling vehicles to merge into other lanes more swiftly to avoid obstacles on the road.
Who is Eligible for This Beta
With the latest FSD Beta being based on Tesla's 2023.6 code branch, this will make FSD Beta available to many new owners who are on a 2023.2 or 2023.6 update. So if you've been waiting to be eligible for FSD Beta before subscribing, you may soon get your chance. However, it may still take several weeks before this update, or a revision of it goes into wide release, so don't click that button just yet.
Release Date
Tesla will typically release an update to employees and then to OG testers before having it go out to everyone else in waves. However, if Tesla discovers a blocking issue, the rollout is halted until an update becomes available. Once a revision is available, Tesla will restart the rollout with employees again.
FSD Beta 11.3 went through various revisions before finally being available to most owners. However, that was a much larger update, so FSD Beta 11.4 will likely see fewer revisions. In the past we've typically seen 1 to 3 revisions before a major update to FSD Beta went into 'wide' release.
What happens next will depend on whether Tesla encounters any major issues. Tesla may release FSD Beta 11.4 to OG testers or it may be quiet for several days before 11.4.1 or a similar revision to FSD Beta surfaces.
FSD Beta 11.4 demonstrates Tesla's unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of autonomous driving technology, bringing us closer to a future where fully autonomous vehicles are the norm. Take a look at the release notes for FSD Beta 11.4 for a thorough look at all the changes in this update.
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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
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 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.
