After releasing the beta internally, it looks like Tesla has found an issue that they’ll need to release a patch for. Elon has said that Tesla is issuing a patch around 3 AM. Tesla will then continue testing the beta Saturday, and hopefully send it out to beta testers on Sunday.
Tesla pushes back FSD Beta 10.4
Tesla is obviously working around the clock on these betas and doing their best to meet these ambitious timelines.
New Gradual Releases
Tesla has changed up how they will release FSD Betas after they had an issue with the previous FSD Beta. A major issue was found in Beta 10.3 after it was released publicly. The beta was causing false Forward Collision Warnings, which could lead to accidental emergency braking.
Tesla ended up issuing public builds to all beta testers and remotely disabling FCWs and Emergency Braking for anyone who stayed on FSD Beta 10.3.
The new process that Tesla is adopting for FSD Beta releases will have Tesla release the beta internally first for about a day. Only once it has passed their QA team and no major issues were found during their internal testing will Tesla then start releasing to public testers.
Once Tesla starts the public rollout, they will do so gradually. Tesla will add about 1,000 testers per hour to reduce the impact the beta may have if any major issues are found.
New Testers With 98 Safety Scores
The FSD Beta program will be expanded during this release. Beta 10.4 will be released to new beta testers with a Safety Score of 98 or higher. There are reportedly about 11,000 beta testers currently. With the release of this beta the amount of testers should drastically increase.
If you’re hoping to get into the beta program, I’d recommend using our Safety Score Calculator to find out your exact Safety Score or find out how many miles you’d need to drive to reach a score of 98.
Tesla has been slowly adding more testers into the program once they reach Tesla's target Safety Score. So if you don’t reach a Safety Score of 98 by tomorrow, you can be added at a later date.
Tesla has added a new feature to Track Mode v3 with software update 2024.38.4 and higher. This update lets users configure how aggressively their powertrain is cooled.
One of the biggest challenges of racing or tracking Teslas has been sustained performance as drivetrain components start to heat up. Previously, performance was optimized for maximum power, which would result in very high performance initially, but performance would quickly degrade after multiple laps. With this update Tesla is now giving users more control of their vehicle’s performance and cooling.
Thermal Limiting
Tesla limits vehicle performance as components reach their thermal limit. These could be the brakes, motors, or batteries. While the battery performs best when hot, too hot isn’t good for its life either. In terms of the motors, as they get increasingly hot, they’ll be at risk of damaging themselves, so the vehicle will thermally limit itself.
Track Mode also provides aggressive cooling at an increased level before, during, and after a track session, which helps to ensure that the vehicle stays within its safe thermal limits as you push it as hard as possible.
Powertrain Endurance
Powertrain Endurance is available in the Track Mode V3 menu between the Stability Assist options and the Regenerative Braking slider. It has three options: Standard, Increased, and Maximum.
Standard - This essentially provides no change to the existing functionality, so you’ll get the fastest initial times, but you’ll be thermally limited more quickly.
Increased - This is the next step up, providing a balance between initial performance and sustained power. It’ll give you more steady performance over multiple laps, but you may still get thermally limited.
Maximum - This setting will reduce your vehicle’s performance but ensures that the vehicle’s available power will last for longer distances. This is the option many have wanted to see - a way to get maximum performance without getting thermally limited and having to slow down immensely.
The 3 options in Track Mode V3
@PatrickMJanson on X
Supported Vehicles
For now, this option appears to only be able available on Track Mode v3 vehicles with update 2024.38.4 and later. For now, that means only the 2024 Model 3 Performance - the Highland refresh - has that capability.
Tesla has updated its Vehicle Safety Report once again, in line with the third financial quarter of 2024. Each quarter, alongside its Earnings Call, Tesla provides an update to its Vehicle Safety Report, which includes a massive amount of data on how safe Tesla’s vehicles are.
Q3 2024
In the third quarter, Tesla vehicles had one crash every 7.08 million miles while drivers were using either Autopilot or FSD. Meanwhile, those who didn’t use either regularly had one crash every 1.29 million miles in a Tesla.
The NHTSA shows that the average driver is in a crash once every 670,000 miles. Even if you weren’t using Autopilot or FSD but were in a Tesla, you were twice as unlikely to be in a crash. If you were using Autopilot or FSD, you were over 10.5 less likely to be in an accident compared to the average driver in the United States.
In Q1 2024, Tesla achieved a record-breaking 7.6 million miles driven before an accident while on Autopilot or FSD, and they’re trending back upwards after a Q2 miss at 6.8 million miles. Every batch of major improvements has increased this number drastically. If we look back to Q3 2021, it was only 5.5 million miles, while Q3 2019 was at 3.85 million miles.
It’s not a coincidence that Tesla’s safety numbers continue to improve. Tesla’s overall package of safety features, including technologies like Automatic Emergency Braking, Lane Departure Avoidance, and Collision Avoidance Assist, work through FSD’s vision-based system to keep both the vehicle’s occupants as well as other road users safe. Tesla continues to improve these safety features through continuous software updates, and as FSD improves, so do these safety features.
When you combine safety features with the only fully vision-based self-driving package on the market, you’ve got a vehicle that is demonstrably safer than the average road vehicle.