In recent release notes of Tesla FSD Beta v11, the automaker states that it adds the capacity to send voice feedback. Further explains what is happening to Autopilot with this new update. This is both an exciting and scary step because it is supposed to merge Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot highway stacks.
FSD Beta enables Tesla vehicles to drive autonomously to a destination entered in the car’s navigation system, but the driver needs to remain vigilant and ready to take control at all times. Since the responsibility rests with the driver and not Tesla’s system, it is still considered a level-two driver-assist system, despite its name. It has been sort of a “two steps forward, one step back” type of program, as some updates, has seen regressions in terms of driving capabilities.
Tesla has frequently been releasing new software updates to the FSD Beta program and adding more owners to it. Since the wider release of the beta last year, there are currently over 400,000 Tesla owners in the program in North America, virtually every Tesla owner who bought the FSD package on their vehicles. However, the bulk of these owners have yet to receive significant FSD beta updates as Tesla was supposed to release v11 to the fleet in November 2022, but the update has been stuck in testing within Tesla’s closed fleet since then.
Wide release
The update is an important step because it includes many new neural networks, as Elon Musk stated, but from a consumer perspective, it’s also important because it is expected to merge Tesla’s FSD Beta software stack primarily used on roads and city streets with Tesla’s Autopilot software stack, which is used as a level 2 driver assist system on highways. It has been delayed several times, but recently, Musk confirmed that a new version (v11.3) is going to a closed beta fleet this week – indicating that it might finally be about to be more widely released.
Now NotaTeslaapp, which tracks Tesla software updates, has obtained the FSD Beta v11.3 release notes, and they contain some interesting information. It stated, “Enabled FSD Beta on the highway. This unifies the vision and planning stack on and off-highway and replaces the legacy highway stack, which is over four years old. The legacy highway stack still relies on several single-camera and single-frame networks and was set up to handle simple lane-specific maneuvers. FSD Beta’s multi-camera video networks and next-gen planner, which allows for more complex agent interactions with less reliance on lanes, make way for adding more intelligent behaviors, smoother control, and better decision making.”
