Tesla launches Safety Score and the 'Request FSD Beta' button in Canada

By Gabe Rodriguez Morrison

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
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
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
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.

You may also want to look at our tips for increasing your Safety Score.

First Look at Tesla’s New 'Blind Spot While Parked' Feature [VIDEO]

By Karan Singh
Automobile Propre

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.

Blind Spot Monitoring While Parked

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.

Tesla Improves Trip Planner - Arrival State of Charge Coming

By Karan Singh
DBurkland/X

Tesla recently added the ability to report Supercharger issues - such as insufficient lighting, accessibility, cleanliness, and other things that can’t be automatically monitored. In response to the post on the official X Supercharger Community, Max de Zegher, Director of Charging, North America, confirmed that one of the most wish-listed features - Arrival State of Charge, is coming soon.

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.”

When Does it Arrive?

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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