Elon Musk says the latest FSD Beta, version 10.69.2 will become available today
Chazman/Twitter
Elon Musk has already promised additional improvements to Tesla's Full Self Driving Beta shortly after AI Day on September 30. We are now getting a few details about what 10.69.3 will include.
The FSD Beta group grew by 60 percent in the United States and Canada when Tesla decreased the Safety Score requirement from 90 to 80. There are now about 160,000 Tesla owners in the program. That jump means more enthusiasts are giving FSD feedback on Musk's favorite platform — Twitter.
Chuck Cook, the man behind the infamous Chuck's corner, also known as the unprotected left turn, took the latest FSD for a spin to his most tested spot. His YouTube videos are fantastic, especially the unprotected left turn videos that show several camera angles of his Tesla navigating this tricky spot. He posted a video on Twitter showing 10.69.2.2 successfully piloting through the area causing Cook to clap and cheer, "wow, yes!"
Improvements in Smaller Gaps
Not surprisingly, Musk saw the video. He pointed out Cook at the recent shareholders meeting and said he welcomed the fair and honest criticism of the turn and said it would be addressed. The CEO responded to the video: "Car will move on tighter gaps as we enhance NN (neural networks) velocity predictions for crossing traffic. 10.69.3 next month has some step-change improvements." NN stands for neural networks, and this response shows that despite Cook's approval, Musk is confident the system can and will do better.
Turn Signals Improvements
Twitter user @Johnkrausephotos tweeted: "Loving FSD Beta — but — could the vehicle initiate the turn signal before switching into the turn lane? It uses the signal for speed-based lane changes but not for merging into a turn lane." The tweet caused a lot of reaction as some users were critical of the company programming its cars to change lanes before signaling. Musk must've been on the same page because he responded with a simple "Yes" and no further explanation.
Match Speed to Traffic
Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley took to Twitter to ask: "Elon when will the tesla speed up when noticing traffic is going faster? Sometimes it's going slow." Again, Musk had a quick and short response tweeting back, "Next month." We can only guess that this will be part of the 10.69.3 release as well.
This trio of improvements is expected to be downloaded to Teslas with FSD right after AI Day. So while the world awaits the unveiling of Optimus, the humanoid robot, Tesla owners will be eager to see what 10.69.3 will bring to the vehicle.
Last week, Mark Ruber, an engineering YouTuber best known for his glitter bombs, released a video where he tested Tesla's Autopilot against various conditions - including the iconic ACME painted wall.
During this test, many people noted that Mark was using Autopilot rather than FSD, even though his video was titled “Can you Fool a Self-Driving Car?”. The Tesla on Autopilot went up against a vehicle equipped with Luminar’s LIDAR rig, running some sort of basic autonomy or safety software.
New Video Tests FSD
Many people were disappointed with Mark’s video and his testing methods, so several creators got to work to actually test out Tesla’s FSD.
Creator Kyle Paul over on X made a much better follow-up video, using both a HW3 Model Y as well as an AI4 Cybertruck. In a relatively unsurprising turn of events, the Cybertruck was successfully able to detect the wall, slowed down, and came to a stop. The Cybertruck was running FSD 13.2.8.
Kyle’s team did a fantastic job building the wall and testing this in a private area using FSD rather than Autopilot. On top of that - they re-tested the results several times and recorded the entire thing in and out. While Mark’s video was more for entertainment, Kyle really set out to prove what would really happen in this unlikely scenario.
Sadly, the HW3 Model Y was unable to detect the wall, and manual intervention was required in each test. While the Model Y was running FSD 12.5.4.2 rather than an FSD V12.6 build, we don’t expect this to have had a significant impact on the test - this is more of an issue with how computer vision analyzes the environment.
There are several major differences between HW3 and HW4. The first is obviously that the version that runs on AI4 is more advanced, as the hardware is capable of processing a lot more data. However, AI4 also features much higher-resolution cameras than HW3, and Tesla recently added the ability for the video feeds to be processed at full resolution on FSD V13. This could have made the difference, although it’s not entirely clear. Perhaps if HW3 gets a version of FSD V13 in the future, HW3 can be retested to see if it passes the “ACME wall” test.
Watch
Kyle’s entire video is below. It’s only 10 minutes long, so definitely give it a watch. Props to Kyle on the quick and thorough execution.
What Does This Mean for FSD?
We broke down Mark’s test - and examined all the little issues that we discovered after doing some in-depth research - you can read our analysis here.
Putting aside the issues with Mark’s testing and instead using the new results - it seems that if you were to have to fight against Wile-E-Coyote and his ACME tools with your Tesla, cartoon logic may win if you’re on an HW3 vehicle. If you’re on an AI4 vehicle, you’ll likely come to a safe stop.
Vehicle depth perception is definitely something that Tesla has been hard at work to improve - and some fairly drastic improvements came with FSD V13 that haven’t been entirely translated to FSD V12 just yet. Future versions of HW3 FSD may be able to determine that the wall is there successfully. So Kyle - if you’re reading this - don’t get rid of that wall. We’d love to see more testing in the future.
However, this entire test scenario is so out of left field… there is a good likelihood this same test would fool some human drivers as well. The most important part is that the future of autonomy will not fall for these tricks, so it's very unlikely for someone to weaponize this idea as it’d only possibly work on a small segment of vehicles.
If Wile-E-Coyote is after you, someone else may drive into the wall before your Tesla does.
Not a Tesla App
We’re not kidding, this really happened already. This isn’t a realistic scenario outside of someone trying to play an insane prank - but it’s good to know that FSD V13 is capable of dodging this.
Tesla regularly holds quarterly all-hands meetings for employees, but last night marks the first time Tesla has live-streamed the event for the public.
The meeting primarily focused on Tesla’s employees, recent achievements, and the future of Tesla. While it didn’t reveal much new information, it was interesting to see Elon Musk candidly engaging with his teams, who seem to genuinely enjoy working with him. Still, there were a few noteworthy takeaways.
As with Tesla’s Earnings Calls and other live events, we’ve put together a concise, easy-to-digest recap of everything discussed.
General Points
Work-related Injuries declined over time
Planning to expand to new markets
Cell Manufacturing
Continuing to invest in battery supply
Cheapest, lowest cost per kWh cell
The supercharger network continues to grow
Vehicle range and charging speed should match the needs of humans and their required time for breaks