What to expect from Tesla’s long-awaited FSD version 11

Tesla has started rolling out version 11 of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software to employees and testers after several months of delay. The EV maker hasn’t officially shared FSD Beta V11.3 release notes, but has leaked release notes and beta tester videos have surfaced online, giving us a better idea of ​​what lies ahead.

FSD beta V11.3 promises to allow a Tesla to drive itself completely from A to B through cities and highways by combining FSD and Autopilot capabilities in a single-stack system. Today, drivers can activate FSD on city and residential streets to manage things like responding to stop signs and traffic lights. Motorway driving is available through Autopilot software, which can automate driving tasks such as traffic-aware cruise control and automatic steering in clearly marked lanes.

The latest release enables the Highway FSD beta, which “unifies the on- and off-road vision and planning stack and replaces the legacy Highway stack, which is over four years old,” according to the release notes shared. on Reddit. The notes continue:

The legacy highway stack still relies on multiple single-camera, single-frame networks, and has been configured to handle simple lane-specific maneuvers. FSD Beta’s next-generation multi-camera video networks and scheduler, which enable more complex agent interactions with less lane dependency, pave the way for adding smarter behaviors, smoother control and better decision making.

It’s this ability to make better decisions that has led to additional handling that steers the car away from blocked lanes and generic obstacles like road debris. By relying less on lanes, vehicles also move more easily at freeway lane splits, as the software is programmed to be less strict about centering between lane lines and allow for jerk maneuvers weaker, according to the release notes.

FSD 11 also promises smoother merges and improved speed-based lane change decisions, as well as reduced sensitivity for speed-based lane changes in Chill mode. (Chill mode is one of Tesla’s three driving modes and it provides greater following distance between the Tesla and the car in front, and makes fewer lane changes based on speed. The other two modes are Mean and Assertive.)

Those who got early access to V11.3 said the new software provides a more seamless overall experience, but it’s not entirely free of issues that led to opt-outs. When disengagements occur, Version 11 includes a voice notes feature that prompts the driver to record and send Tesla an anonymous message describing what happened.

Some other Version 11 updates include:

• Extended automatic emergency braking in the event that vehicles cross the path of the car and steal priority – this feature will be active in manual and autopilot operations.
• Improved autopilot reaction time to red light and 500m stop sign runners through increased reliance on an object’s instantaneous kinematics and trajectory estimates.
• Reduced trajectory optimization latency by 20% on average.
• New visualizations with gray road edges and a larger representation of the car’s trajectory.

FSD version 11, coming to a Tesla near you?

CEO Elon Musk had originally promised to get the latest version of FSD for drivers before the end of 2022, but has since delayed exit several times.

At the beginning of February, he tweeted“V11 was more difficult than expected, as it is a major re-architecting of [neural networks] , as well as many other NNs replacing C++. Hoping to ship v11.3 this weekend.

A few weeks later, Tesla released v11.3.2 for limited beta testers, from whom it will collect data before a more widespread release starting in North America. After that, Tesla will adapt the software for EU roads and submit it to regulators, says musk.

Even though customers are eager to try the new FSD version, they might have to wait a bit longer. Last week, Tesla issued a recall of approximately 360,000 vehicles with FSD in the United States (Tesla has deployed FSD to 400,000 vehicles in North America) after a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration analysis found that the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) could allow vehicles to behave unsafely at intersections and cause collisions.

Musk was quick to point out that when it comes to Teslas, a “recall” isn’t exactly the right word, as the company fixes bugs via over-the-air (OTA) software updates, rather than physically recall cars to dealers to be fixed. OTA updates are also how Tesla sends out new builds of FSDs, so it’s entirely possible the company is using version 11 to fix issues reported by regulators.

Tesla disbanded its communications department in 2020 and could not be reached for comment.