Musk Shares Details on FSD Beta v11: Neural Nets to Be Used for Vehicle Control

Elon Musk says we may get FSD Beta v11.3 as early as this week

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Elon Musk has provided further guidance on Tesla's next major release of FSD Beta, v11.3. Last week Musk said that v11.3 would be ready in about 'two weeks' and would contain many major improvements.

We've heard these two-week estimates before, but it's reassuring that Musk is being specific with details on this upcoming release.

Now just seven days after his last tweet, Elon Musk is giving us more details on this significant upgrade.

Timeline

Musk said he expects FSD Beta v11.3 to start rolling out to some customers later this week, or next week at the latest. This matches up with his initial two weeks estimate a week ago.

Elon Musk's estimates are known to be overly optimistic, but given the number of details he's releasing, it sounds like Tesla may be close to releasing this next build.

FSD Beta v11.3 will likely roll out to Tesla employees first and then go out to select FSD Beta testers, possibly the original OG group. Since this is a major milestone and includes major improvements, expect a slow and gradual rollout. Although we may get our first glimpse into FSD Beta v11 this week, it may be several weeks or more before the majority of customers have access to this beta.

Neural Nets for Vehicle Behavior

A week ago Musk said this upgrade will include 'many major improvements.' Last night Musk revealed some additional details. He said there will be "many small things," one of which will be that Tesla will begin to use neural nets for vehicle navigation and control, instead of just vision.

Today Tesla uses neural networks to determine the vehicle's surroundings, where objects are, what they are, and their distances from the vehicle to create a 3D environment known as 'vector space.' With this information, the vehicle can then plan a path and navigate around these objects toward its destination.

However, based on Musk's comment, it sounds like Tesla is currently only using neural nets to determine its environment and not for controlling the vehicle. This means that how the vehicle behaves, how it finds a path, and how it moves is still a process that is coded traditionally.

In the same way that Tesla uses millions of images to determine what a stop sign or traffic cone is, it sounds like Tesla will now use a large number of examples to determine how to best control the vehicle in various situations.

That could mean that Tesla will take millions of quality examples of how to gradually accelerate or slow down, based on real driving behavior to determine how the vehicle should accelerate in different situations.

This could be applied to every driving characteristic such as turning, slow downing, driving around a parked vehicle, etc.

If Tesla starts leveraging neural nets to aid vehicle control we may soon see drastic improvements to vehicle behavior, making it much smoother and human-like.

New Features

Although Elon Musk didn't specifically mention new features coming to FSD Beta v11.3, there are several that have been talked about in the past that could show up in this major full self-driving update.

Reverse Creep

Reverse Creep has been a feature that has been talked about as far back as FSD Beta 10.13. This feature would allow the vehicle to go into reverse to move out of the way of danger or adjust its trajectory. Right now FSD Beta will only ever move forward, so this improvement would be a giant step toward achieving human-like behavior.

A good use case for this is when the vehicle moves forward for better visibility. There may be times when the vehicle sees a car coming after moving creeping forward. In these cases, it'd be smart to let the vehicle reverse back to its previous position if it is now in the path of traffic.

Navigating Without Map Data & GPS

In the past Musk also alluded to the fact that Tesla is working on the neural networks' ability to complete 'dead reckoning' navigation, which is navigating based only on inertial measurements such as speed, direction and wheel movement.

He gave underground parking garages as an example of where FSD would need the ability to navigate without GPS or map data.

The car will be able to do this by using its last known GPS location and then determine its future location using only a compass, wheel movement and speed.

FSD Beta v11

FSD Beta v11 has always been expected to be a big leap forward, and as we get closer, that hasn't changed. This update is expected to be a huge improvement to what is currently available to customers. Although Musk's timelines have usually shifted and features have typically taken longer than initially planned, it looks like we may be getting close to the next major release for FSD Beta.

Although we're still years away from true full self-driving, Tesla's mission inches closer with every update. 

Recently there was also a leak revealing some details of Tesla's upcoming cameras in hardware 4.0, which are expected to include a fan and heater for select cameras.

Tesla Releases FSD V12.6.1 for Model 3 & Model Y

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Last night, Tesla released software update 2024.45.25.15, which includes FSD V12.6.1. This update adds support for all HW3 vehicles, including the Model 3 and Model Y. We’re excited to see the continued support for HW3 owners. 

FSD V12.6.1

V12.6.1 is now going wide, according to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI. This update is going to the Model 3 and Model Y for the first time - as only the Model S and Model X were included in FSD V12.6. 

V12.6 is a big step forward for HW3 - it includes End-to-End on Highway, Improved City Streets Behavior, and Smoother and More Accurate Tracking - all contributing towards a better, smoother, and more comfortable build of FSD. You can read our comparison between FSD V12.6 and V13.2.2 here. 

In short, FSD V12.6 performs considerably closer to V13 than V12.5.4.2 - which is a massive improvement. It performs as well as the Cybertruck version of FSD V13, which is still missing a few features when compared to other HW4 vehicles, but it’s a great sign for HW3. A lot of the improvements can be pointed to in the improvements to lane selection and decision-making - the vehicle tends to hesitate far less on V12.6, meaning the ride is a lot smoother. Many early V12.6 testers mentioned that it felt more like V13-mini than anything else.

Legacy Model S & X

We haven’t seen this update hit any legacy Model S and Model X vehicles just yet. We’re not sure whether Ashok’s statement of “generally” applies here - but it should. If you do get the update, please let us know.

Legacy Model S and Model X vehicles are still on an older FSD build and potentially won’t see another FSD update for a little while longer. While they do have the same FSD hardware as other vehicles, there are enough hardware differences that require a build specifically for these vehicles.

Release Date

FSD V12.6.1 is going out now to the redesigned Model S and X with HW3 and all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with HW3. The initial wave went out last night, and we expect to see more later today or tomorrow. If this release ends up going “wide,” we should see much larger waves go out next week.

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Tesla Issues Physical & OTA Recall for Hardware 4 Computer

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Tesla has issued a recall for some vehicles due to issues linked to a revision of the Hardware 4 (HW4) computer that was introduced this past November. This recall affects all vehicles with the revised hardware except for the Cybertruck, as it uses a slightly modified version of the HW4 system.

Many vehicle owners have reported a complete failure of their Autopilot computer, which not only leaves the vehicle without FSD and Autopilot but also disables many of the active safety features that make a Tesla what it is.

Let’s take a look at this recall - because the recall is partially physical and partially a software recall.

HW4 Failure

Tesla has identified the failure and flagged it to the U.S. NHTSA (but not Transport Canada or Euro NCAP at the time of publishing) as a recall.

Tesla mentions that the vehicle’s FSD computer circuit board may short circuit, resulting in the loss of the rearview camera image. The recall itself is focused on the rearview camera - as not having a functional rearview camera breaks a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. However, it does impact more than just the rearview camera.

As previously mentioned, users have experienced the full loss of Autopilot and FSD on these vehicles, as well as reduced traction control and removal of safety features such as automatic emergency braking, collision avoidance assist, and forward collision warnings. 

While the vehicle remains driveable, it is not necessarily a good idea to drive the vehicle with many of these features, especially with the reduced traction control noted by many people. We’ve already noted that while Tesla has been sending tow trucks to pick up some vehicles, it is also prompting owners to drive the vehicle to their service center in some cases.

Remedy

Unlike most of Tesla’s recalls, this one isn’t entirely an OTA recall, owing to the fact that people have already experienced circuit board shorts and are already waiting for replacements.

The software portion of the recall has already been mostly completed for any vehicles with Tesla software update 2024.45.25.3 or greater. However, a significant portion of the tracked fleet remains on update 2024.44.25.2 (approximately 20%), so we recommend updating your HW4 vehicle whenever you receive the notification.

On the hardware side, Tesla is immediately identifying and replacing hardware that has had circuit board failure. Tesla is also reaching out to customers who have expressed intermittent issues with Autopilot features, active safety features, or vehicle cameras that don't display correctly. If you have experienced any of these issues in a late 2024 vehicle, we recommend submitting a service ticket with Tesla to ensure that your vehicle isn’t affected by this recall.

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