Tesla pushed FSD V12.5 with update 2024.20.10 to additional vehicles last night. For the first time, FSD v12.5 also went out to additional Tesla models, however, it’s still limited to hardware 4 vehicles.
Support for FSD V12.5
FSD V12.5 is only available to vehicles with hardware 4 vehicles, or as Tesla is now calling the hardware, AI4. Before yesterday the update was limited to just Model Y vehicles on HW4, but Tesla quickly expanded it to all vehicles besides the Cybertruck and Semi, which has yet to see any Autopilot features.
Musk commented on X that he wanted to focus on improving the software on specific hardware before expanding it to additional hardware and vehicles.
FSD v12.5 has a 5X increase in operating parameters. This is a large increase and Musk said that it currently won’t be able to run on hardware 3 until the code is optimized.
We are focusing on just Model Y with HW4 for the initial release. Make sure that works well, then broaden.
This has the 5X increase in parameters.
HW3 would run the same parameter count, but requires extra work to optimize the code.
Ashok Elluswamy, Head of AP at Tesla, also mentioned that the focus for V12.5 was on both safety and smoothness for this release. His personal test – not spilling an open cup of coffee while on FSD. On V12.5, Ashok made it 30 minutes without spilling coffee. This is good news, as the smoother and safer FSD gets, the more natural it feels for the driver and occupants in other vehicles.
HW4/AI4
Following all this up is a recent post on X from Elon mentioning that Hardware 4 will now be renamed to AI 4. Tesla is already training the HW4 computers in a loop with Nvidia GPUs, at a 1:2 ratio. This is surprising news, as Musk previously mentioned that training for Hardware 4/AI4 would only begin after the new Supercomputer cluster was finished.
It's good to see that training is already underway for AI4, but this also means we’re hitting the limits of Hardware 3 pretty fast. It has been mentioned that there will be a drastic hardware divergence in the future between Hardware 3 and AI4, but we weren’t expecting that until later this year.
This means that updates may get better, as Tesla’s AI4 is approximately 4-5x better in terms of resolution and fidelity than hardware 3, and hardware 4.0 is about 3-5x faster and more powerful in inference capabilities.
AI5
With AI5 scheduled 18 months away, including a 10x inferencing improvement, we’re wondering what the future of Hardware 3 and AI4 will look like within the next 3 to 5 years. Cars are long-time purchases for many people, and we’re hoping that Tesla continues to do their best work to optimize code wherever possible to continue supporting Hardware 3.
Tesla has specifically come out and said it doesn’t plan to support a retrofit from Hardware 3 to Hardware 4, likely due to the differing locations of electrical and coolant connections, as well as the form factor of the compute units themselves.
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Tesla software update 2024.44.3 has started rolling out to customers in larger waves recently and it brings several new features - including Actually Smart Summon to Europe and the Middle East, as well as improvements to Autopark. But that’s not all, it also adds a new Blind Spot Monitoring feature to the new Model 3, and potentially the Cybertruck, but that’s still to be determined.
We previously covered the Blind Spot Warning While Parked as part of our preview notes for update 2024.44, but now that it's going out to customers, it's time to see it in action.
If the vehicle’s door open button is pressed, and a vehicle or object is near or incoming, the vehicle’s Blind Spot Warning Light (2024 Model 3 and Cybertruck) will illuminate, an audible tone will ring and the door won’t open. A message will also be displayed on the center displaying, letting driver’s know why the door didn’t open.
Pressing the button a second time will allow you to override the warning and open the door normally, providing a way to get out in case you just parked close to a nearby vehicle or obstacle.
The object detection for this new feature includes cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and other objects - like things including traffic cones, bollards, strollers, and other large obstacles that FSD and vision-based Autopark detect during normal operation. Of note - this only works for the front two doors. Thanks to X user Max, who did some testing for us, It does not work for the rear passenger doors.
Optional Feature
The feature is optional - it’ll be enabled by default for safety, but if you need to enable or disable it, you can do so under Controls > Safety. For now, the feature is only available on the 2024 Model 3, but we expect it to roll out to the Cybertruck at least. However, there’s no reason why it can’t be added to other vehicles as well, minus the small red dot. We expect Tesla to eventually add this feature to all Tesla vehicles, but it’s currently not a part of update 2024.44.
Enhauto’s S3XY Buttons & Commander
If that’s not enough safety and vision for you, Enhauto, the makers of the popular S3XY Buttons and Commander recently put out a new software update for the 2024 Model 3, which makes some fantastic use of the ambient lighting.
With Enhauto’s solution, users are able to tie their ambient lights to Autopilot use, turn signals or even if a vehicle is their blind spot. Check out the video below for this awesome implementation, where the ambient lights turn red when another vehicle approaches.
Maybe Tesla will integrate something like this into a future update? We’ve been hoping for more customizability with their ambient lighting - it's an easy safety win and a demonstration of Tesla’s do-more-with-less attitude.
I look forward to @enhauto updates more than Tesla...
Ambient light effects....
I set default color to white. Blinks green on turn signals Turns blue on FSD activation Yellow if someone in blind spot Blinks red if turn signal on and blind spot activity detected.
The feature is now possible thanks to what Wes Morrill, Cybertruck’s lead engineering, points out is a huge rewrite of Tesla’s Trip Planner, which not only makes it much more accurate but will now allow users to choose their arrival charge percentage.
More Accurate Trip Planner
When you navigate to a destination, your Tesla will automatically calculate when, where, and how much you need to charge. While the process seems straightforward, Tesla deserves a lot of credit for creating a simple user experience because a lot goes into accurately determining this information.
Tesla has to calculate many moving pieces in order to accurately predict when and where you should stop. First, it needs to consider your driving efficiency and wind direction, terrain elevation, traffic, vehicle speed, and ambient temperature. It also needs to predict the best Superchargers to stop at, taking into account congestion and charger speed.
This morning, in response to Dan Burkland, Wes shared that Tesla had significantly rewritten the backend portion of Trip Planner. These improvements, made by several engineers, were designed to improve Trip Planner’s accuracy and open the door to future features.
It sounds like these changes are mostly server-side, so thanks to their OTA connection, more accurate predictions should be available to all vehicles—no vehicle update is required.
Arrival State of Charge
Along with Tesla’s improvements to Trip Planner, Wes also stated that these improvements allow for a popular feature request — the ability to select your desired charge level at arrival.
Up until now, Tesla’s Trip Planner tried to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, which usually meant arriving with a low state of charge.
While this was fine if you have a charger at your destination, it’s not great if you don’t, or it could be even worse if there are no chargers nearby.
Max de Zegher said on X that he has heard the requests for a selectable arrival state of charge. Wes later clarified this by saying that these improvements to Tesla’s Trip Planner now allow for additional features to be added, such as “desired arrival charge.”
Actually trip planner got a huge rewrite on the back end. I had a great conversation with one of the engineers working on this over a morning run a few weeks back, it's pretty neat. The rewrite also unlocks additional features, like desired arrival charge.
Given that Max de Zegher’s comments came last night and Wes Morrill commented this morning, this feature request likely won’t arrive with the upcoming Holiday Update. Tesla actually hinted at such a feature being added in their last app update, so it does seem like they’ve already planned for it.
Although ‘Arrival State of Charge’ was on our wishlist for the Holiday Update, it looks like it may arrive soon after the holidays.
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