Yesterday, Elon Musk confirmed that FSD V12.5 is being tested on Chuck’s Unprotected Left Turn. This is a big step – as we usually see Chuck’s UPL getting tested a few weeks or months before the release of another set of software.
Chuck’s Left Turn
Chuck’s Unprotected Left Turn, or UPL, has regularly been seen as a challenge for FSD. Chuck’s UPL is a complex, 2-stage unprotected left turn into high-speed traffic. Ever since 2022, Tesla has been testing on Chuck’s UPL, which is in Jacksonville, Florida.
Vehicles are intersecting from different sides at different portions of the turn, making it one that is truly difficult for both humans and for FSD to get right. It can be a difficult challenge for regular drivers, and ensuring FSD gets it right every time Tesla releases a new build seems to have become a bit of a tradition for Tesla.
As such, we generally see Chuck’s UPL getting tested by Tesla’s ADAS testers prior to a new build being prepared for release to employees. These ADAS testers are pretty obvious – they’ve got manufacturer plates on, and the telltale 2-second halt at stop signs.
FSD V12.5 Around the Corner?
Although Tesla is already testing FSD 12.5, it doesn’t necessarily mean that v12.5 is around the corner just yet – there are still plenty of users that still need to receive FSD v12.4.3 before Tesla jumps to v12.5. About 20-25% of FSD users now have FSD 12.4.3, but most are still on update 2024.14.9 with FSD 12.3.6.
What we’re seeing in Florida on Chuck’s turn (Tesla refers to Chuck Cook in release notes) is likely just the ADAS testers working on the early builds of v12.5. As such, don’t get too wrapped up around v12.5 – most are still waiting for nag-free FSD for the most part.
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Elon Musk provided a sneak peek into “Cortex”, Tesla’s new AI training center that has been under construction for quite a while at Giga Texas.
Previously, we saw some shots of the new wing for the massive water-cooled supercomputer cluster at Giga Texas, which was being built at the southern end of the Gigafactory.
AI4 Training
Cortex appears to be the name of the supercomputer cluster, and we can assume that it will be referred to that way from now on. Cortex will primarily focus on exploring and expanding FSD’s performance envelope to include AI4, which will begin to diverge from HW3 sometime soon. Tesla hasn’t yet unlocked the full potential of AI4, as it still runs HW3 in emulation mode, but with a few extra tricks that HW3 doesn’t have access to. These are mostly hardware compiler changes, but they make a significant difference in the speed of processing the AI model.
Tesla intends to continue supporting HW3, but it's already apparent that the FSD model for HW3 is smaller than the model for AI4. However, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Autopilot program director, expects performance to be similar for the most part.
One other thing that Cortex will likely be tackling is not just FSD in cars – but FSD in Optimus. Optimus uses the same principal technology behind FSD for movement, as well as understanding and learning tasks, so we can expect to see plenty of improvements as Tesla is now getting Cortex online.
Video of the inside of Cortex today, the giant new AI training supercluster being built at Tesla HQ in Austin to solve real-world AI pic.twitter.com/DwJVUWUrb5
What’s most interesting is that this new supercomputer cluster isn’t Tesla’s Dojo Supercomputers. Instead, this Cortex cluster is instead based on Nvidia’s H100 GPUs. Dojo was supposed to be Tesla’s in-house designed and specialized AI GPUs, meant to focus on optimizing FSD.
Dojo isn’t dead – but delayed from the sounds of it. We’re excited to see where Cortex takes Tesla in the future, and when Dojo shows up to join the party.
Tesla has lowered the price for both the CCS adapter, as well as CCS retrofits for its entire lineup throughout North America. This includes a reduction in price for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
CCS Adapter
Tesla has dropped the price of the CCS (Combo 1 – North America) from $250 USD to $125 USD ($345 CAD to $175 CAD). That’s a straight 50% price reduction, making Tesla’s OEM CCS Adapter one of the cheapest on the market.
CCS1 was the non-Tesla standard for EVs, prior to Tesla opening the NACS standard. Tesla vehicles that have completed the retrofit, or are built after the retrofit date, can use a CCS adapter to charge at any regular CCS station.
CCS Retrofit
The CCS retrofit enables Tesla vehicles before around September 2022 (depending on model and region) to charge at CCS stations using a compatible CCS-to-NACS adapter. Vehicles built before that date won’t be able to charge at CCS stations without this retrofit. The retrofit also comes with a complementary CCS adapter.
You cannot unbundle the CCS adapter from the retrofit purchase to reduce the price.
The retrofit has different pricing for the Model S/X and the Model 3/Y.
Vehicle
USD (New)
USD (Previous)
CAD (New)
CAD (Previous)
Model S / Model X
$300
$450
$415
$615
Model 3 / Model Y
$225
$350
$310
$475
How to Check If You Need a Retrofit
If you’re not sure whether your vehicle is CCS capable, you can go to Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Information. It will show a line near the middle titled “CCS Charging and third-party NACS DC charging.” Next to it it will show whether your vehicle supports third-party CCS charging or whether you'll need a retrofit.
NACS to CCS
And that’s not all – Tesla has drastically increased the production of the NACS to CCS adapter for non-NACS vehicles that are Tesla Supercharger approved, hitting a new record of 8,000 units per week.
Tesla has made massive strides in bringing one standard and improving the efficiency and up-time of EV charging throughout North America, and we’re glad to see them continuing this trend as they move forward.
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![A Look at Tesla's New AI Training Center at Giga Texas [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/computing/dojo_exapod.webp/b226b800ce82f29489944492f5c464c9/dojo_exapod.jpg)
