Tesla starts rolling wide Full Self-Driving v11 update: exciting and scary

Tesla is starting the rollout of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) v11 update, which is supposed to be the wider release to everyone who bought FSD in North America.

It is both an exciting and scary step as it is supposed to merge Telsa’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 lies 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 have seen regressions in terms of the driving capabilities.

Tesla has frequently been releasing new software updates to the FSD Beta program and adding more owners to it.

There are currently over 100,000 Tesla owners in the program, but CEO Elon Musk said that FSD Beta would be available to every owner who bought FSD Beta in North America by the end of the year.

Musk linked that wider release to the release of Tesla’s FSD Beta v11 update, which 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.

The CEO has now confirmed that Tesla has started rolling out of FSD Beta v11 late last night.

We don’t have access to the release notes yet, but again, the main new feature is expected to be the merger of the two software stacks.

Electrek’s Take

This is both exciting and scary.

It’s an important step for the FSD Beta program with a more complete product merging city and highway driving, and exciting for those who don’t have access to it yet.

Though I don’t know that it will actually reach everyone who bought the package. Has Tesla upgraded all the cameras and computers it needed to upgrade?

It’s also scary because the FSD Beta is still far from deserving its ‘Full Self-Driving’ name and has been known to have widely varying performance, especially in different markets outside of California.

Tesla drivers testing FSD Beta need to be extremely careful and stay vigilant at all times ready to take control. Please use the system with the most attention possible.

We will report back on the update when we have more details and hopefully, we are able to test it soon.