Gary Zhou 
Key Points
- 🚗 Elon Musk tested an unreleased version of Tesla Full Self-Driving suite known as v12 Alpha build.
- 🌟 He referred to its performance as “mind-blowing.”
- 📅 The v11.4.6 Beta version has already started rolling out to non-employees.
- 🔜 Musk hinted that v12 might shed the “beta” label, indicating it’s a major step towards “Full Self-Driving.”
- ❌ The v12 build is not fully-autonomous driving, but it shows significant improvement over previous versions.
- 🧠 The improvements are the result of hundreds of millions of miles of driving data and the Dojo supercomputer rollout.
- 📅 The v12 build might not be available for public use for at least a few months.
- ⏰ Musk’s aggressive timetables for feature releases make 2024 a safer estimate for v12 release.
Elon Musk was impressed by the performance of the unreleased Tesla Full Self-Driving v12 Alpha build, which he tested recently. After the rollout of the latest Full Self-Driving Beta, version v11.4.6, to non-employees, Musk shared his positive feedback about the yet-to-be-released v12 Alpha build. He described the performance as “mind-blowing.”
Approximately a month ago, Musk began generating excitement around the 12th version of the Full Self-Driving suite. While it’s not quite ready for public release, he mentioned the possibility of it reaching customers later this year. However, Tesla is taking a cautious approach, refining the software before its official rollout.
The significant aspect of Musk’s remarks is that he indicated version 12 would mark a pivotal moment: it would be the first Full Self-Driving version to drop the “beta” label. This move would symbolize Tesla’s strong confidence in the suite, allowing it to be officially known as “Full Self-Driving.”
Where things get challenging with this, however, is that it does not mean the suite will be capable of fully-autonomous driving, but rather it would only be an improvement from past iterations of the FSD suite and not necessarily a commitment that the company had “solved” FSD, as Musk has said for many years.
Instead, it would hint toward a drastic change that has been the culmination of hundreds of millions of miles of driving data and the rollout of the Dojo supercomputer, which is expected to accelerate the improvements of the FSD suite.
Nevertheless, the v12 build of the Full Self-Driving suite will obviously be the most accurate and robust to date but don’t expect to see it for at least a few months.
Although Musk has stated it could be out by the end of the year, the CEO usually has aggressive timetables for the release of features, so 2024 might be a safer estimate of when it could be released.
