While some owners may receive an update within a few days of it being released, most owners will actually not receive the latest update for several weeks.
There are a couple of reasons why Tesla doesn't update all of its vehicles at the same time.
Unfortunately, updates for Teslas aren’t like mobile devices where an update is available for everyone right away. There’s a little more that goes into pushing updates for vehicles, especially for a vehicle that can drive itself.
How Tesla Rolls Out Updates
Tesla rolls out updates to its fleet based on the vehicle's VIN, region, model, hardware, and other factors. The main reason Tesla rolls out updates in this manner is to minimize risk and to assess how an update is performing.
Rolling out updates slowly lets Tesla quickly iterate on their update and focus on feedback and bug fixes before a potential issue has the chance to affect a large number of vehicles.
If, for example, an update caused the MCU reboot
, making the display go dark while the vehicle was in motion, Tesla could more easily isolate the issue. Tesla would then be able to roll out a fix before the issue had a chance to affect a larger portion of their fleet.
Your vehicle model or other hardware in your vehicle is taken into account as well. For example, if Tesla is looking to gather feedback on a feature that requires MCU 2 or MCU 3, they may first send the update to those vehicles before releasing it more widely.
If you look at our software updates page you'll see that there are Tesla vehicles on a wide variety of updates. Some may be on the same major update, but on a different revision, while others may be one or two major updates 'behind'.
Although a vehicle can have an update that gets 'stuck' while downloading, that's usually relatively rare. If you notice that your vehicle falls too far behind, you can send a message to Tesla Service to see whether there is an issue with your vehicle.
What do the Numbers in Tesla Updates Mean?
Tesla's release process is why you may notice several versions for the same update.
For example, Tesla may first release update 2022.36, but as new issues are found and Tesla fixes them, Tesla will roll out further updates such as 2022.36.1 and 2022.36.2.
The 2022 in the version number stands for the year in which development began for this update. The 36 stands for the week number, and the last number stands for the revision of the update.
So in general, 2022.36.1 would include the same features as update 2022.36 but would contain several fixes for issues that were found in 2022.36, while 2022.36.2 would contain fixes that were fixed after 2022.36.1 was released.
This isn't always the case since Tesla does sometimes release new features with a minor revision, or but in general it's a good rule of thumb.
Once Tesla is confident they have solved all known issues, they'll then send out the update to the entire Tesla fleet.
Can I Force My Vehicle to Receive an Update?
Unfortunately, no. Under normal circumstances, there is no way to force your Tesla to receive an update. You'll simply have to wait until the update is available for your vehicle.
However, there are a couple of things you can do to receive updates as soon as possible.
It's not clear how much this toggle does anymore, but if you're interested in receiving updates as soon as they're available it's a good idea to toggle on “Advanced Updates” under the Software tab in your vehicle.
You'll also want to make sure your car is connected to Wi-Fi as often as possible, such as at home or work. Tesla prefers to download updates over Wi-Fi so this will ensure you get an update as soon as it's available to you.
You can track which updates are going out to by checking our software updates page.
How to Check if Your Tesla is Running the Latest Update
If an update is available for your Tesla, it will usually show up in your mobile app, although it's not clear how often the mobile app checks for updates. If you suspect an update may be available for your vehicle, you can check in your vehicle, although Tesla has recently started limiting this check to once per 24-hour period.
To check if there is an update available for your Tesla, tap Controls (the car icon), and then tap on Software. On the right side, you'll be able to check your vehicle's version and whether an update is available.
Your vehicle does not need to be connected to Wi-Fi to check whether an update is available
Do I Need to be on Wi-Fi?
For the most part, Tesla requires that updates be downloaded while the vehicle is connected to Wi-Fi.
However, there are exceptions to this. If an update includes important fixes or a recall then it is usually available over cellular. The same goes if you haven’t updated your vehicle in a while, are on FSD Beta, or other unique scenarios.
If you can't connect to Wi-Fi at home or work, you can try using public Wi-Fi networks or using your mobile phone as a hotspot for your vehicle.
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Tesla has updated their referral program, and there are quite a few interesting changes to boot. There are now bigger discounts for buyers and bigger rewards for referrers, and it seems that the referral program has also had its cap reset.
The updated program has rolled out to North America - so both Canada and the United States. The changes are not active in Europe, China, or other regions - but keep your eyes out. Tesla will probably enable the new rewards in the coming days.
New Referral Discount
The new referral discount now provides $2,000 USD off your vehicle purchase, and includes any of Tesla’s vehicles - including the Cybertruck in the United States.
For Canadians, it's $2,600 CAD off your purchase, but the Cybertruck and Model 3 are exempt.
Inventory vehicles are included in the discount, which means you could potentially score a demo vehicle for several thousand dollars off right now. Used vehicles are not eligible for the discount.
In conjunction with the 0% Financing if you purchase FSD, now is one of the best times to purchase a new Tesla, especially with both the US and Canadian Federal EV Rebates potentially ending next year.
New Referral Reward
The reward is also much higher - $1,000 USD in the United States, and $1,300 CAD in Canada. That’s the highest the referral reward program has ever been, and it’s quite a big set of rewards. You can now obtain up to $10,000 USD or $13,000 CAD off your next vehicle purchase, or put it towards Tesla Shop Accessories, Supercharging, or even Tesla Service.
Interestingly, the program also says that referrers have the chance to win an invite to an upcoming special Tesla event. Given we just had We, Robot, the next event could be the launch of the Model Y Juniper or the $25,000 next-gen car.
Referral Reset
If you had maxed out the original referral program, it also seems that your referral count has now been reset. The updated program is once again a 10-referral limit, which will reset again either once Tesla updates the referral program, or a 12-month cycle rolls over.
Tesla has published a 16-post series covering a wide range of unique scenarios against which the company tests each FSD release. Tesla’s VP of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, also provided some additional context, which we’ll cover below.
These scenarios could be difficult for a regular driver to respond to and are a good demonstration of FSD’s capabilities. Let’s take a look at all the different scenarios that Tesla regularly tests against. According to Ashok, these tests are only one of 10 ways Tesla validates their software. These tests were done against FSD v12.5.6.3, the HW4 build that’s on approximately 20% of the fleet.
We’ve embedded each video below and also provided some additional information.
1. Reverse Cut-in (Occluded)
Every FSD release is rigorously tested, including rare and adversarial scenarios on closed courses — Here's 16 examples:
This first test is for a car reversing out of a parking space, while occluded (vision blocked) by another car or obstacle. In the test, the Model Y notices the incoming car and then brakes with space left over.
In this video, it's hard to even spot the car on the right that’s “peeking” forward—it's occluded by bushes on the side of the road. FSD notices and stops in time to let the other vehicle safely pass.
An incoming vehicle that takes a left turn to enter the same lane of travel as FSD - spotted, stopped, and then continuing smoothly. In the second shot, you can see FSD left a considerable amount of space to let the vehicle cut in.
This is honestly one of the most common scenarios on a highway - someone cuts in while obscured into your lane of travel. Once again, FSD does its thing with plenty of space to spare.
FSD’s path planner plans an overtake around a stationary vehicle here, sees the oncoming traffic, and politely waits its turn to continue. This is another everyday scenario, especially on urban and suburban streets.
There are a surprising number of people who don’t know how stop signs work. However, FSD does know how they work and also knows what to do if others act unpredictably. This is one of the best demonstrations of FSD’s capability to react quickly and effectively to unpredictable behavior on the roads.
Another overtake scenario, but this time the vehicle being overtaken throws open its door into traffic. Not necessarily the wisest of moves, but humans are unpredictable. Good to see Tesla working to save its vehicles from both hitting the door or having the door hit with its new Blind Spot Monitoring While Parked feature.
This scenario is another common one - someone is taking a right turn, and you expect them to complete the turn, but instead, they slam on the brakes. Here, you can see the vehicle’s Forward Collision Warning goes off due to the sudden reduction of distance between the Tesla and the vehicle in front of it. FSD still manages to brake in time before Automatic Emergency Braking kicks in.
This one is pretty clean-cut - someone takes a left turn even though you’re on your way through the intersection. This particular accident is one of the most common - 53% of cross-path accidents involve a left turn through an intersection where a side impact will be lethal. FSD can make a big difference - over 8,000 people die in North America alone in this particular scenario.
Here, FSD smoothly reacts to an object on the road as the vehicle ahead dodges it. We’d love to see this scenario done with different types of objects or debris, as this is another common item - especially with roadkill on country roads. A good demo of FSD’s collision avoidance maneuvers too!
Taking it one step further, FSD successfully notices, slows down, stops itself from hitting the bouncing cone, and then makes it around safely. If you’ve ever seen someone strap something down in the bed of a pickup and forget to say “This ain’t going anywhere” - this is that exact scenario.
Another high-speed occluded cut-in, this time for a vehicle making a U-Turn from an oddly shaped intersection. FSD started braking the moment the first couple pixels of the Model Y were beyond the bush occluding vision. With a human’s reaction time, this would have resulted in a T-bone.
Ashok Elluswamy mentioned that this is possible because of low latency and high intelligence - combined together, it enables FSD to make a threat assessment and decide what to do, very quickly. It also considers the potential of a rear-end collision - and there is collision avoidance baked into that decision-making.
Similar to the cone cut-out, this one happens at 73mph (117km/h)! FSD sees the car dodging, notices there’s an obstacle, and moves out of the way without dropping speed.
Another common scenario - in fact, the number one reason why pileups occur on highways is the harsh, sudden braking of vehicles in front. FSD once again notices and comes to a safe stop here.
Tesla has been previously greatly criticized for its ability to come to a safe stop for children playing on the road. Here, Tesla is demonstrating its capability of doing so - once again with highway speeds of 73mph.
And to really make the point - it can do it with a crossing child too. Tesla has made a strong commitment to safety for vulnerable road users, and this is a good way to show how it works.
That’s a lot of unique scenarios that Tesla tests against - and each and every build has to be vetted against this huge list of different safety tests in order to ensure that the build that ends up in customer hands is as safe as possible. With FSD v13 looking like it's coming soon, we’re excited to see where this takes Tesla next.
With Musk announcing that FSD v13 is coming soon, it really is starting to feel like Unsupervised FSD and Robotaxi could be pushed out sometime next year.
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