The "Request Full-Self Driving Beta" button has now become available in Canada in the latest software update, version 2022.4.5.4. If you decide to opt-in, you will be enrolled in the FSD Beta queue and a “Safety Score” will become available on your mobile app.
Tesla's Safety Score launches in Canada
If the FSD rollout in Canada follows the same process as the US, you will have to achieve a perfect 100 Safety Score for a week before being permitted to download the software.
In the US, first entries into the beta required a score of 100, then 99 and eventually 98. Few owners with a score below 98 got in and owners who achieved even a 100 score later on still haven’t been included. Enrollment for FSD can be expected to follow the same process in Canada.
Tesla calculates the Safety Score by assessing your risk across five major categories. The five categories in order of weighted average score:
1. Forced Autopilot Disengagements
2. Hard Braking
3. Aggressive Turning
4. Unsafe Following
5. Forward Collision Warnings
In the mobile app, users can see the Safety Score breakdown for each category and compare it to the Tesla fleet median. Users can also see how a specific trip affected the score and pinpoint instances of unsafe driving. Tesla will show you which driver profile was used for an individual trip which is a useful feature for monitoring how the vehicle was handled by new drivers or when using a valet service or car rental service.
Your Safety Score in the Tesla app
If you find yourself with a score below 100, you can improve it in one of two ways. You can achieve higher scores in future drives so that your average score is raised, or you can wait to have your low scores fall off after 30 days.
You can increase your overall score to 100 by avoiding penalties in the previously listed categories. Here are 5 ways to get the 100 Safety Score required for Tesla FSD beta:
1. The primary category that affects the safety score is Forced Autopilot Disengagement. This happens when the vehicle warns the driver to apply resistance three times without driver intervention. They will also occur if you exceed 90 MPH for vehicles with radar or 80 MPH for vision-only vehicles, while on Autopilot. This can be easily avoided by applying resistance when required.
2. If Hard Braking is bringing down your score you should brake gradually to avoid any penalties. If you need to slow down quickly, it may be useful to put the vehicle into Autopilot to let Autopilot slow down for you. This is the toughest category to master and you will need to slow down more gradually than you’re likely used to.
3. When it comes to aggressive turning, you'll want to make sure you're not going too fast around turns. The tighter the turn, the slower you must go to avoid penalties.
4. If Unsafe Following brings down your score, you can try to use Autopilot more often and make sure you’re leaving more of a distance between your vehicle and the car in front of you.
5. Finally, we have Forward Collision Warnings. This warning occurs when your speed is too high relative to the distance you have to the object directly in front of you. If you find that you get a lot of Forward Collision Warnings, you can set your alert level to 'Early'. This way you'll be made aware of the potential collision before getting penalized for it.
The Request FSD Beta button
Another potential way of improving your score is to not count your current drive toward your Safety Score if you think you’ll be penalized. If you perform a soft reset before you park your car, the drive will not be registered and will not count toward your overall Safety Score. This is expected to be patched in a future update.
Only the last 30 days of your driving history are counted toward your Safety Score. You can track your Safety Score progress using our Tesla Safety Score Calculator where you’ll enter your target score and it’ll determine how many more miles you'll need to drive to reach (with a perfect score) in order to reach your target.
Tesla’s been on a roll with Supercharger improvements lately, from the 325kW charging update for the Cybertruck, to 500kW with V4 Superchargers coming next year. While those improvements have been limited to the Cybertruck, Tesla didn’t put all their focus on their new flagship vehicle, but looked at their more affordable vehicles as well.
LFP Battery Heating
Tesla’s Superchargers can now heat LFP Batteries - those that are in the Model 3 and Model Y Rear Wheel Drive variants. This applies to Long Range and Standard Range models, which saw a limited run. This is another update included as part of the 2024 Tesla Holiday Update - which really arrived with a lot of unannounced new features and capabilities.
The change is pretty interesting - Superchargers of the V3 and V4 variety can now pre-heat batteries for Model 3 and Model Y vehicles equipped with LFP battery packs. That means those vehicles are able to get back on the road faster when it's extremely cold. Of course, Tesla still advises you to precondition before you arrive, saving drivers time and money.
Max de Zegher, Tesla’s Director of Charging, also commented on the new feature. Essentially, Tesla is inducing an AC (alternating) ripple current through the battery to warm it up. Keep in mind that Superchargers are DC charging. That means it is possible to get a cold-soaked LFP vehicle on the road 4x faster than before, assuming that it didn’t precondition at all and that it is in the worst-case scenario (below 0ºF).
In essence, Tesla is using some engineering magic to turn the circuits inside the LFP battery into an electric heater - and powering that heater through the Supercharger. An AC ripple current is a small oscillation in the DC charging current that generates heat through electrical resistance, warming up the battery. Those ripples are a byproduct of converting AC to DC and back - so Tesla is using the onboard charger to induce those ripples to warm up the battery. Definitely an innovative technique that’s really only possible with the versatility of the NACS connector.
We’re hoping Tesla can implement this across their full lineup of vehicles, but we’ll have to wait and see how it is trialed across LFP vehicles first and if it is even possible on vehicles with 2170 or 4680 battery packs.
Tesla launched two FSD updates simultaneously on Saturday night, and what’s most interesting is that they arrived on the same software version. We’ll dig into that a little later, but for now, there’s good news for everyone. For Hardware 3 owners, FSD V12.6.1 is launching to all vehicles, including the Model 3 and Model Y. For AI4 owners, FSD V13.2.4 is launching, starting with the Cybertruck.
FSD V13.2.4
A new V13 build is now rolling out to the Cybertruck and is expected to arrive for the rest of the AI4 fleet soon. However, this build seems to be focused on bug fixes. There are no changes to the release notes for the Cybertruck with this release, and it’s unlikely to feature any changes when it arrives on other vehicles.
FSD V12.6.1 builds upon V12.6, which is the latest FSD version for HW3 vehicles. While FSD V12.6 was only released for the redesigned Model S and Model X with HW3, FSD V12.6.1 is adding support for the Model 3 and Model Y.
While this is only a bug-fix release for users coming from FSD V12.6, it includes massive improvements for anyone coming from an older FSD version. Two of the biggest changes are the new end-to-end highway stack that now utilizes FSD V12 for highway driving and a redesigned controller that allows FSD to drive “V13” smooth.
It also adds speed profiles, earlier lane changes, and more. You can read our in-depth look at all the changes in FSD V12.6.
Same Update, Multiple FSD Builds
What’s interesting about this software version is that it “includes" two FSD updates, V12.6.1 for HW3 and V13.2.4 for HW4 vehicles. While this is interesting, it’s less special when you understand what’s happening under the hood.
The vehicle’s firmware and Autopilot firmware are actually completely separate. While a vehicle downloading a firmware update may look like a singular process, it’s actually performing several functions during this period. First, it downloads the vehicle’s firmware. Upon unpacking the update, it’s instructed which Autopilot/FSD firmware should be downloaded.
While the FSD firmware is separate, the vehicle can’t download any FSD update. The FSD version is hard-coded in the vehicle’s firmware that was just downloaded. This helps Tesla keep the infotainment and Autopilot firmware tightly coupled, leading to fewer issues.
What we’re seeing here is that HW3 vehicles are being told to download one FSD version, while HW4 vehicles are being told to download a different version.
While this is the first time Tesla has had two FSD versions tied to the same vehicle software version, the process hasn’t actually changed, and what we’re seeing won’t lead to faster FSD updates or the ability to download FSD separately. What we’re seeing is the direct result of the divergence of HW3 and HW4.
While HW3/4 remained basically on the same FSD version until recently, it is now necessary to deploy different versions for the two platforms. We expect this to be the norm going forward, where HW3 will be on a much different version of FSD than HW4. While each update may not include two different FSD versions going forward, we may see it occasionally, depending on which features Autopilot is dependent on.
Thanks to Greentheonly for helping us understand what happened with this release and for the insight into Tesla’s processes.
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