Tesla FSD Beta 11.4.8 Release Notes Explained: Faster Decision Making, Improved Park Assist and More

November 16, 2023

By Not a Tesla App Staff

A user on Reddit leaked the release notes for Tesla's next FSD Beta release

darwizzy333

Tesla's most recent FSD Beta, v11.4.7.3 was released almost a month ago on October 19th, but it now looks like Tesla may be looking to release another FSD Beta update.

Release notes for an alleged subsequent version, FSD Beta 11.4.8, have surfaced on Reddit. While their authenticity isn't confirmed, the release notes use the same syntax and language Tesla typically uses. Here's a breakdown of what may be included in Tesla's next FSD release.

Update: These release notes have now been confirmed and the update is rolling out to Tesla employees for further testing. The update is version 2023.27.11.

Simplified Autopilot Activation

Single-Tap Autopilot: The update reportedly allows drivers to activate Autopilot with just one press of the stalk, instead of the current two-press method. This could make engaging and disengaging Autopilot quicker and more straightforward.

This feature, along with separate audio for passengers using the rear display recently made its way to production in update 2023.38.8, which adds some credibility to these leaked release notes. This could also mean that this version of FSD Beta may be based on a more recent production branch, instead of the current version of 2023.27, which is now starting to lag in terms of features.

Advanced Video Processing

New Video Module: A new video processing component has been introduced to improve vehicle detection, movement understanding (semantics), speed (velocity), and other attributes. This improvement means the system can process visual information more efficiently and quickly, enhancing overall performance.

Enhanced Object Detection

Better Object Detection: The system's ability to notice objects crossing its path is said to be improved by 6%. Additionally, vehicle detection has become more precise due to updated data and the new video module.

Improved Vehicle Interaction

Cut-In Vehicle Detection: The precision in detecting vehicles that cut into the Tesla's lane is reportedly improved by 15%. This is crucial for safer lane changes and merges.

Accuracy in Speed and Movement

Reduced Errors in Speed and Acceleration: The system now makes fewer errors in judging other vehicles' speed (by 3%) and acceleration (by 10%). This means a more accurate response in traffic.

Faster Decision-Making

Reduced Network Latency: The update claims to reduce the delay (latency) in the vehicle's decision-making network by 15%, allowing for quicker responses without compromising performance.

Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety

Rotation Error Reduction: There's an over 8% reduction in errors related to understanding how pedestrians and cyclists are moving or turning. This could improve interactions with these road users.

Enhanced Parking Assistance

Vision Park Assist Accuracy: The geometric accuracy of the Vision Park Assist system is improved by 16%, making parking assistance more reliable by leveraging data from hardware 4 vehicles. It appears that these improvements will apply to all vehicles without ultrasonic sensors, although it's not very clear.

Smoother Lane Changes

Lane Change Accuracy: The accuracy of lane changes in response to path blockages is improved by 10%, likely leading to smoother and safer driving in complex traffic situations.

While these updates, if true, indicate a continued effort by Tesla to refine and improve FSD Beta, Tesla also continues work on the next major release of FSD Beta, version 12. V12 is expected to be 'end-to-end' neural networks, which will be the first time that neural networks are used to control the vehicle.

It's not clear when Tesla expects to release FSD v12, which is also when Musk says FSD will graduate from its beta status. Musk recently showed off FSD v12 and its capabilities in a livestream on X.

The complete release notes that were shared on Reddit are below.

FSD Beta 11.4.8 Release Notes

-Added option to activate Autopilot with a single stalk depression, instead of two, to help simplify activation and disengagement.

-Introduced a new efficient video module to the vehicle detection, semantics, velocity, and attributes networks that allowed for increased performance at lower latency.This was achieved by creating a multi-layered, hierarchical video module that caches intermediate computations to dramatically reduce the amount of compute that happens at any particular time.

-Improved distant crossing object detections by an additional 6%, and improved the precision of vehicle detection by refreshing old datasets with better autolabeling and introducing the new video module.

-Improved the precision of cut-in vehicle detection by 15%, with additional data and the changes to the video architecture that improve performance and latency.

-Reduced vehicle velocity error by 3%, and reduced vehicle acceleration error by 10%, by improving autolabeled datasets, introducing the new video module, and aligning model training and inference more closely.

-Reduced the latency of the vehicle semantics network by 15% with the new video module architecture, at no cost to performance.

-Reduced the error of pedestrian and bicycle rotation by over 8% by leveraging object kinematics more extensively when jointly optimizing pedestrian and bicycle tracks in autolabeled datasets.

-Improved geometric accuracy of Vision Park Assist predictions by 16%, by leveraging 10x more HW4 data, tripling resolution, and increasing overall stability of measurements.

-Improved path blockage lane change accuracy by 10% due to updates to static object detection networks.

Tesla Smoking While Supercharging? A Look at What's Actually Happening

February 12, 2025

By Karan Singh

Hot_Engineering3140 on Reddit

Winter is here, and temperatures are dropping, so one of the most common Tesla questions is about to resurface.

If you’ve landed here after frantically searching about “smoke” coming from your Tesla while Supercharging, take a deep breath—it’s completely normal.

Tesla Smoking While Charging

If you’re Supercharging in freezing weather—even with preconditioning—you might notice steam rising from your Tesla. But rest assured, your car isn’t smoking.

Your Tesla’s heat pump is hard at work warming both the cabin and battery to keep you comfortable and ensure optimal charging temperatures. Over time, condensation and ice build-up in the heat exchanger coils.

Why Does It Happen?

When you reach a Supercharger with your vehicle, the heat pump is still running hot, but without the cold air from driving to keep the heat exchanger coils cool, the ice and condensation quickly start to evaporate—creating what looks like smoke.

Since this typically happens near the front of the vehicle, where a car would traditionally have an engine, new vehicle owners can be startled by the discovery. However, rest assured that it’s just water vapor and it’s completely normal in cold weather.

In fact, this behavior can be experienced in any EV with a heat pump in cold climates. So, if you saw steam coming out of your vehicle and panicked, don’t worry—you’re not alone.

Now that you know what’s happening, go ahead and Supercharge with confidence.

Tesla Improves YouTube App With Smoother Playback

February 12, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla made a lot of improvements in the 2024 Holiday Update, including more than 15 undocumented improvements that were included in the release. One of these was a stealthy performance improvement to the YouTube app.

Several people have mentioned they’ve seen improved performance on YouTube since this year’s Holiday Update - and there’s an interesting reason why.

YouTube Improvements

The improved YouTube performance in Tesla vehicles comes from an unexpected source—Tesla actually rolled back support for YouTube’s newer AV1 video encoding. Instead, vehicles now default to the older VP9 encoding standard.

While AV1 is highly efficient in terms of bandwidth, it requires considerably more processing power to decode and display videos. VP9, on the other hand, is less computationally demanding but uses more bandwidth to achieve the same video quality. This trade-off means smoother playback and better overall performance, even if it comes at the cost of slightly higher data usage.

Intel Inside

The VP9 video codec that the YouTube app is now using is much easier to decode, making it less taxing on the vehicle’s processor. This change is particularly beneficial for Tesla vehicles with Intel processors, which previously struggled to stream video at just 720p. When using AV1, these vehicles often experienced stuttering, sometimes forcing the YouTube app to automatically downgrade playback to 480p.

With this update, Intel-based Teslas should now be able to stream at 1080p smoothly. Streaming at 1440p is also possible, although occasional stutters still occur as the system keeps up with the decoding process.

Intel-based vehicles are the big winners with this change, but this appears to affect AMD Ryzen-based infotainment units as well, providing even smoother playback.

Chromium Web App

Tesla’s Theater apps aren’t native applications; instead, they run as chromeless web apps, leveraging the open-source browser built into Teslas known as Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome). Although this works quite well, there is a severe limitation - Chromium hardware acceleration isn’t supported on Linux, the operating system Tesla uses for their OS.

As a result, Tesla vehicles rely on software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which would otherwise handle video playback far more efficiently. A potential solution could be for Tesla to transition away from Chromium-based web apps in favor of a Mozilla Firefox-based browser, as Firefox does support hardware acceleration on Linux. This switch could also open the door to better streaming performance and the possibility of expanding Tesla’s in-car entertainment options.

However, Tesla’s choice of Chromium likely stems from Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements for streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, which rely on DRM-enabled playback. Firefox on Linux has had inconsistent support for DRM due to codec availability and variations in operating system versions.

We’re hopeful that Tesla will either adopt Firefox or develop a fully native application to improve video streaming, rather than continuing with the current web-based Tesla Theater. This shift could also pave the way for additional in-car applications built on Tesla’s native Linux environment—perhaps even reviving the long-rumored Tesla App Store.

Regardless, this update is a welcome improvement, particularly for YouTube, which remains one of the most widely used Theater Mode apps due to its accessibility, free content, and mix of short and long-form videos. It remains to be seen whether similar improvements are made for Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming platforms.

If you’ve noticed improved performance in Theater Mode, now you know why.