A Look At Tesla’s FSD Beta

Yesterday, we reported that Tesla’s Full-Self Driving suite started rolling out. If you caught that article early, note that we also updated it with videos and more tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk later on.

Some of those videos were provided by John from Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley. Since the publication of that article, John has shared more videos and also told me more in a Twitter DM about the experience. He noted that Tesla gave him express permission to share his experience.

“Truly an amazing step forward in FSD space, this is a mic drop from Elon/Tesla that FSD is here. I was able to drive from my house to Target and from one supercharger to the next from city streets to highways. It is mind-blowing and it all came from OTA,” he told me in a direct message on Twitter.

In the video above, John shares his overall thoughts. “This is a huge step in making the reality of Full-Self Driving a reality.” He said that he couldn’t really explain what his first experience with it was like but it made him relive his first experience with Tesla’s Navigate on Autopilot. “This is literally opening the gate for what we’ve all been waiting for — for full autonomy.”

He also pointed out that this is beta and that Tesla’s just getting started. “The reality is that they’re the only ones doing this. No one else is doing it.” He brought up Waymo and pointed out that they are great but that Tesla is the only one that has the ability to roll this out to a mass market.

“I literally was able to go from my house to Target. I went from one Supercharger to the next.” John also said that one key thing that people may not think about at first — you need to have a destination address. The car won’t just randomly start driving and go wherever. “You need to tell it where to go. The reality is that it can go down suburb, city streets, it can literally take you from your house to Starbucks.”

“This is groundbreaking,” he said. “This is a huge step to full autonomy.”

In the tweet above, he shared a photo of Tesla’s FSD beta visualization. It looks very similar to a Pac-Man game, with the bright colors and the Tesla seemingly following the blue line. However, one must take into account the full details of this technology in order to understand what it “sees.”

If you were to look at an intersection, you would see the trees, cars, roads, buildings, and whatnot, and you would know what they are. Your brain has to actually process the knowledge and label it, though, including from what you see (or think you see) with your peripheral vision. This is what Elon Musk and the team at Tesla have been able to teach the vehicles to do. One important thing to take note of as you watch these videos is that this is the first release and it is being kept to a small number of Tesla owners for now. We’re expecting a significantly wider rollout within a week or so, but not a full release across the country to all Tesla owners with FSD until perhaps the end of the year, as long as things are going well.

Quick Look at the Software Update

John shared a photo of the FSD beta update, and some of the things the vehicle will be able to do are:

• Make lane changes off the highway.
• Select forks to follow the navigation route.
• Navigate around other vehicles and objects.
• Make left and right turns.

It should be highly stressed that even though FSD is here, it is still in beta and drivers must be able to fully pay attention to the road and be prepared to act or take over. This is true especially around blind corners, crossing intersections, and in narrow driving situations.

Is the Self-Driving Vehicle Race Over?

Although it is still in beta, it truly feels as if Elon Musk and Tesla have won this race. As a very small investor in Tesla [TSLA], to me it feels like “we’ve” won this race. However, it is important to note that it is still in beta, many bugs could pop up, and this is just one major step closer to the finish line of this race — not the end of the race. Elon and his team have overcome many challenges. However, it should be noted that as it rolls out to every single Tesla owner who bought the FSD subscription, there are some who may abuse it.

There are also various federal and state regulations to consider. Yes, Tesla developed the technology and it’s getting closer to complete, but it will not have fully crossed the finish line until it’s been approved by the regulators — those in power who have the authority to make and change laws — and no one really knows how much time that would add to the process.

Worldwide Beta?

Nash, aka TeslaGong, is from Australia and wanted to know if Beta would be available to Tesla owners in Australia. Elon Musk replied, pointing out that Tesla needed to complete testing and needed the approval of regulators.

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