Tesla has released FSD Beta 11.4.1 to public testers
Not a Tesla App
Tesla has officially released the FSD Beta 11.4.1 update to some public testers, marking an exciting milestone in developing its autonomous driving technology.
Version 11.4 spent about three weeks in the testing phase with Tesla employees before the updated version 11.4.1 was released. The beta 11.4.1 update was initially provided to employees and quickly expanded to include OG testers, which is roughly 1,000 testers, or about 0.25% of all Tesla owners who have FSD Beta.
Rollout Strategy for FSD Beta 11.4.1
If no significant issues are found with the current 11.4.1 version, we can expect to see this beta version expand to more Tesla owners. The rollout is likely to begin gradually before expanding in large waves, potentially up to 10-20% of users at a time, following a similar pattern to the rollout of the 11.3.6 version.
Currently, only Tesla owners on an existing FSD Beta or those on update 2023.6 or earlier are likely to be eligible to receive this update. The next beta update may be based on 2023.12, which should allow more Tesla owners to be eligible for the update. Typically, Tesla does not roll back software, so owners already on update 2023.12 will likely not be able to receive this beta. However, with update 2023.16 just around the corner, it could be a cat and mouse game.
FSD Beta 11.4.1 - A Step Closer to Version 12
The FSD Beta 11.4.1 update is a testament to Tesla's commitment to improving driver safety and autonomy. It introduces better control and smoothness in driving by enhancing the geometry, curvature, position, type, and topology of lanes, lines, road edges, and restricted spaces. Perception of city lanes, forks, merges, and turns has significantly improved due to a bigger and cleaner training set and an updated lane guidance module.
The system's perception and detection capabilities have been boosted, with lane-guidance inputs added to the Occupancy Network to improve long-range roadway feature detection. This, along with improvements in motorbike recall and vehicle detection precision, adds more robustness to variances in vision frame rate.
Elon Musk has stated that the architectural improvements in FSD Beta 11.4.1 are so substantial that it should arguably be version 12. However, the company has reserved that designation for when Full Self-Driving is fully AI, from video input to control output.
The public release of FSD Beta 11.4.1 represents a major milestone for Tesla. This update offers significant enhancements to the driving experience and brings Tesla one step closer to achieving its goal of full AI driving capabilities.
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Last week, Mark Ruber, an engineering YouTuber best known for his glitter bombs, released a video where he tested Tesla's Autopilot against various conditions - including the iconic ACME painted wall.
During this test, many people noted that Mark was using Autopilot rather than FSD, even though his video was titled “Can you Fool a Self-Driving Car?”. The Tesla on Autopilot went up against a vehicle equipped with Luminar’s LIDAR rig, running some sort of basic autonomy or safety software.
New Video Tests FSD
Many people were disappointed with Mark’s video and his testing methods, so several creators got to work to actually test out Tesla’s FSD.
Creator Kyle Paul over on X made a much better follow-up video, using both a HW3 Model Y as well as an AI4 Cybertruck. In a relatively unsurprising turn of events, the Cybertruck was successfully able to detect the wall, slowed down, and came to a stop. The Cybertruck was running FSD 13.2.8.
Kyle’s team did a fantastic job building the wall and testing this in a private area using FSD rather than Autopilot. On top of that - they re-tested the results several times and recorded the entire thing in and out. While Mark’s video was more for entertainment, Kyle really set out to prove what would really happen in this unlikely scenario.
Sadly, the HW3 Model Y was unable to detect the wall, and manual intervention was required in each test. While the Model Y was running FSD 12.5.4.2 rather than an FSD V12.6 build, we don’t expect this to have had a significant impact on the test - this is more of an issue with how computer vision analyzes the environment.
There are several major differences between HW3 and HW4. The first is obviously that the version that runs on AI4 is more advanced, as the hardware is capable of processing a lot more data. However, AI4 also features much higher-resolution cameras than HW3, and Tesla recently added the ability for the video feeds to be processed at full resolution on FSD V13. This could have made the difference, although it’s not entirely clear. Perhaps if HW3 gets a version of FSD V13 in the future, HW3 can be retested to see if it passes the “ACME wall” test.
Watch
Kyle’s entire video is below. It’s only 10 minutes long, so definitely give it a watch. Props to Kyle on the quick and thorough execution.
What Does This Mean for FSD?
We broke down Mark’s test - and examined all the little issues that we discovered after doing some in-depth research - you can read our analysis here.
Putting aside the issues with Mark’s testing and instead using the new results - it seems that if you were to have to fight against Wile-E-Coyote and his ACME tools with your Tesla, cartoon logic may win if you’re on an HW3 vehicle. If you’re on an AI4 vehicle, you’ll likely come to a safe stop.
Vehicle depth perception is definitely something that Tesla has been hard at work to improve - and some fairly drastic improvements came with FSD V13 that haven’t been entirely translated to FSD V12 just yet. Future versions of HW3 FSD may be able to determine that the wall is there successfully. So Kyle - if you’re reading this - don’t get rid of that wall. We’d love to see more testing in the future.
However, this entire test scenario is so out of left field… there is a good likelihood this same test would fool some human drivers as well. The most important part is that the future of autonomy will not fall for these tricks, so it's very unlikely for someone to weaponize this idea as it’d only possibly work on a small segment of vehicles.
If Wile-E-Coyote is after you, someone else may drive into the wall before your Tesla does.
Not a Tesla App
We’re not kidding, this really happened already. This isn’t a realistic scenario outside of someone trying to play an insane prank - but it’s good to know that FSD V13 is capable of dodging this.
Tesla regularly holds quarterly all-hands meetings for employees, but last night marks the first time Tesla has live-streamed the event for the public.
The meeting primarily focused on Tesla’s employees, recent achievements, and the future of Tesla. While it didn’t reveal much new information, it was interesting to see Elon Musk candidly engaging with his teams, who seem to genuinely enjoy working with him. Still, there were a few noteworthy takeaways.
As with Tesla’s Earnings Calls and other live events, we’ve put together a concise, easy-to-digest recap of everything discussed.
General Points
Work-related Injuries declined over time
Planning to expand to new markets
Cell Manufacturing
Continuing to invest in battery supply
Cheapest, lowest cost per kWh cell
The supercharger network continues to grow
Vehicle range and charging speed should match the needs of humans and their required time for breaks