Next Tesla FSD Beta update, v10.69 drops on August 20

By Kevin Armstrong
FSD Beta 10.13 shows its intended path much further out
FSD Beta 10.13 shows its intended path much further out
BMmwalimu/Twitter

Elon Musk shook the Tesla community through one simple tweet: "FSD Beta 10.69 drops on 8/20".

He followed up the Full Self Driving announcement tweet with another one stating: this release will be big. Just days earlier, the CEO promised Tesla shareholders at the 2022 Annual Meeting FSD would be available to the public this year.

He told shareholders that the next update is so incredible that it may need a different name. “10.13, we have been working on it for a while and what has happened is that we’ve made some pretty significant architectural improvements. So, it is really more than 10.12 to 10.13 release. It might, I don’t want to speak too soon, but it might qualify for 10.69. It has to earn that, obviously!”

Musk said the FSD team has been working seven days a week and there have been some major improvements to complex left turns, including Chuck’s Turn. But also dramatic breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. “We’re solving a very important part of AI and one that can ultimately save millions of lives. And prevent 10 of millions of serious injuries by driving just an order of magnitude safer than people.”

Chuck's Turn

This announcement is after the California Department of Motor Vehicles filed two complaints with the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings stating that Telsa is deceiving owners with FSD and Autopilot. CNBC reported that the filings state, “these ‘Autopilot’ and ‘Full Self-Driving Capability’ labels and descriptions represent that vehicles equipped with the ADAS features will operate as an autonomous vehicle, but vehicles equipped with those ADAS features could not at the time of those advertisements, and cannot now, operate as autonomous vehicles.”

The DMV wants the company to better educate Tesla drivers about the capabilities of these programs. Tesla has 15 days to respond. The filings went to the office on July 28. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also conducting at least 37 crash investigations that it is believed some form of ADAS was in use at the time of the collision.

Musk told shareholders that FSD Beta has logged more than 40 million miles and expects more than 100 million by the end of the year. He also reported on his experience, “It’s working well for me.” He added that FSD Beta will be available to anyone who requests it by year-end.

We know quite a bit about FSD Beta 10.13 already. In fact, we recently received the full FSD Beta 10.13 release notes for the update. What we don't know is how much of an improvement FSD Beta 10.69 is over beta 10.13.

We largely expect beta 10.69 to be bug fixes on top of the internally released beta 10.13, but it's always possible that we may see some additions to the release notes. FSD Beta 10.13 was based on Tesla's 2022.16 update, which is getting a little long in the tooth, but that's unlikely to change with beta 10.69.

Hopefully Tesla has a quick followup to 10.69 that is based off the latest public update, 2022.24.

FSD Beta 10.13 has an improved vehicle path which appears to show the vehicle's intended path in the visualizations as far out as possible. It's also expected to be a big improvement with roundabouts.

Elon has previously said that Tesla is working on navigating without map data and even without GPS, but it looks like that is still a work in progress.

Tesla Holiday Update Wishlist - Tesla App Edition

By Karan Singh
@niccruzpatane

So, with Halloween all squared away, the next big holiday coming up is Christmas. Each year, Tesla releases a big Holiday update packed with features. Last year’s update included some awesome features, including alternate routes, the Vision upgrade for Park Assist, Speed Cameras and Traffic Light icons, and the Automatic Blind Spot indicator, among others.

We already know that update 2024.44 - the Holiday Update Branch - is coming with Blind Spot Monitoring while Parked, Supercharger Improvements, and more. But, we’ve got a ton of good ideas that we hope will make the list, so put down your pumpkin spice, and grab your egg nog. It’s the holidays, and it’ll be Cybertruck’s first Christmas, so let’s celebrate!

Apple Watch App

First up—the Apple Watch app. This has been a highly requested feature over the past couple of years, and it looks like Tesla is listening. Tesla has apparently already begun development to support the Apple Watch in app update 4.38, so we’re expecting this to arrive as part of the big Holiday update. We’d love to see an equivalent app for Android-based watches, too.

Phone Left on Charger Alert

It’s easy to forget your phone inside of the vehicle, especially if it’s on the phone dock. A simple app alert that a phone has been left in the vehicle would be really useful. Tesla could potentially even tell the difference between a driver’s phone and a passenger’s phone, depending on the vehicle’s profile being used or which doors were open and closed.

Either way, just receiving an app notification if a phone is left in the car would be really useful, especially since your phone is your car key.

Light Show Support

Tesla Lightshows are great, but they could be made even better with Tesla app support. At the very least, it’d be great to be able to start/schedule or stop a light show from the app.

To really make light shows shine, Tesla could add the ability to create a light show directly from the app. Right now creating a light show involves using the open-source app xLights on a computer, so a simplified version of it running in the app would make it accessible to a lot more users.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Perform a synchronized light show with multiple Tesla vehicles…and a new song 🎶<br><br>Rolling out now in this year’s holiday update <a href="https://t.co/XqBUy5GxhN">pic.twitter.com/XqBUy5GxhN</a></p>— Tesla (@Tesla) <a href="https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/1737904802820919387?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Precondition Battery Button

Similar to an in-vehicle preconditioning button for 3rd party chargers, the Tesla App should also have a button to precondition the battery. This will make it easy for users, especially those who don’t have home charging – to get their vehicles ready for DC Fast Charging before departing.

Garage Door Controls

Tesla owners with HomeLink can control their garage doors directly from the vehicle. However, the Tesla app currently only allows users to open the first programmed garage door and doesn’t give the user access to any of the other programmed doors. Adding the option to choose which garage door to open via the HomeLink button would be a valuable addition—especially useful when paired with Actually Smart Summon.

Drive Stats

While Tesla already records and displays charging sessions in the app’s Charge Stats section, it’d be really helpful if Tesla also added the ability to record drives. That way, you could easily track how much your vehicle was driven on a particular day, week, or over the course of the year.

If you have any other suggestions, let us know in our forums. Who knows, some Tesla product managers may even be listening.

Tesla Adds Interest-Free Payment Plan to Tesla Shop - FSD Payment Plan Next?

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla has added payment plan options to its shop items for the first time. They’ve partnered with Klarna, a deferred payment provider, to spread the cost of items across multiple payments. For now, this appears to be limited to the Tesla Shop in the United States—no support for other regions quite yet.

Payment Options

Klarna’s primary payment option allows buyers to get 0% APR for 6 weeks, with 4 payments. The payment schedule is essentially one payment every two weeks for whichever product you buy - enabling you to buy now, and pay later with 0% financing.

For example, the payment schedule for the $420 Wall Connector is evenly divided into four portions. Of course, you’d also have to pay for shipping and taxes, both of which will be included in your first payment.

Payment 1

Payment 2

Payment 3

Payment 4

Amount

$105

$105

$105

$105

Payment Due

Day of Purchase

Week 2

Week 4

Week 6

For some of Tesla’s more expensive Shop options - like the Cybertent, this could be a fantastic means for some owners to pick up something more expensive without having to worry about interest charges on their credit card.

Klarna also offers some other payment schedules, which do have interest. While these are far more expensive and are more like credit cards, they still provide buyers a means to buy now and pay over time. These are all open loans as well, so you can pay them down at a faster rate, thereby reducing the overall interest.

Payment Schedule

Payment Rate

Interest Rate

6 Weeks

Biweekly

0%

6 Months

Monthly

7.99% to 33.99%

12 Months

Monthly

7.99% to 33.99%

FSD Payment Options?

We’d love to see an equivalent payment option available for Tesla’s FSD purchase, which is currently $8,000, even if it's bought after the vehicle purchase. The high upfront cost is likely one reason why Tesla’s FSD subscription is so popular.

It’s likely that purchasing FSD is much more popular at the time of vehicle purchase, as owners can roll the cost of FSD into their financing rather than paying the full $8,000 later on.

IPO Filing

Interestingly enough, along with today’s news that Klarna is working with Tesla, Klarna has also filed for an IPO in the United States. It is one of the first financial tech (FinTech) companies to file for an IPO in 2025 and, interestingly, one of the first European companies to conduct an IPO in the United States.

For those who trade in the financial sector, this will be one to watch—Klarna was valued at around $46 billion in 2021 and is now valued at approximately $15 billion. Partnering with a large and well-known brand like Tesla could uplift Klarna, but that’s all financial speculation.

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