Tesla (TSLA) released FSD (Supervised) v12.4 to internal employees earlier this week. This version has yet to be rolled out to beta testers outside the company (rollout expected this weekend).
As Elon Musk previously stated, this is the version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software that gets rid of the annoying nags. These audio-visual messages generated by the car are meant to alert a Tesla driver if the vehicle senses inattentiveness.
Tesla has removed these in FSD v12.4 but with certain conditions. Tesla vehicles equipped with this Autopilot software update will only remove nags if the cabin camera can successfully monitor if the driver is paying attention on the road. The automaker calls it “Vision-Based Attention Monitoring”.
Tesla Autopilot safety mechanism will still be monitoring if the driver has his hands on the wheel or not. If all of the safety conditions are met, the Tesla vehicle will not generate nags.
The automaker has introduced an improved Strikeout system with FSD v12.4. If a Tesla driver running on FSD (Supervised) is not following the attentiveness requirements, the person will receive a Strikeout. With a certain number of strikes, the driver/vehicle will be suspended from using Autopilot/FSD (refer to FSD v12.4 (2024.9.5) Release Notes below).
The cabin camera of a Tesla vehicle can easily monitor a driver’s facial and eye movements. A Tesla hacker once revealed what a cabin camera can see inside the occupant’s cabin. This allows a Tesla vehicle to actively monitor the driver’s state of attention or any hurdles to his vision like sunglasses, caps, etc.
Tesla installed the interior cabin camera in its Model 3 sedan for the first time. Later on, as the new models arrived and existing ones received design-refresh changes, a cabin camera was installed across the vehicle lineup. Only older Tesla Model S and X vehicles don’t have a cabin camera to monitor the driver/passengers inside the vehicle.
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, FSD v12.4 (2024.9.5) will also unify the different branches of the software into one. Currently, there are groups of Tesla vehicles that are on older versions of FSD Beta for example v11.1 and v11.4.6, etc.
Musk said in a post on X earlier this week that Tesla owners having different FSD (Supervised) versions across the fleet will be a rare phenomenon after v12.4 is rolled out.
“Should be very rare after the 12.4 rollout. We have to sync up vehicle software (way too many hardware variants) with FSD,” he wrote.
FSD (Supervised) v12.4 (2024.9.5) Official Release Notes
Vision-Based Attention Monitoring
When Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is enabled, the driver monitoring system now primarily relies on the cabin camera to determine driver attentiveness. This enhancement is available on vehicles equipped with a cabin camera and only when the cabin camera has clear and continuous visibility of the driver’s eyes (e.g., the camera is not occluded, there is sufficient cabin illumination, and the driver is looking forward at the road ahead and not wearing sunglasses, a hat with a low brim, or other objects covering the eyes). Outside of these circumstances, the driver monitoring system will continue to rely on a combination of torque-based (steering wheel) and vision-based monitoring to detect driver attentiveness.
If the camera detects the driver to be inattentive, a warning will appear. The warning can be dismissed by the driver immediately reverting their attention back to the road ahead. Warnings will escalate depending on the nature and frequency of detected inattentiveness, with continuous distraction leading to a Strikeout.
Cabin camera images do not leave the vehicle itself, which means the system cannot save or transmit information unless you enable data sharing.
Autopilot Suspension
For maximum safety and accountability, use of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) will be suspended if improper usage is detected. Improper usage is when you, or another driver of your vehicle, receive five “Autopilot Strikeouts”.
An Autopilot Strikeout is when the Autopilot system forcefully disengages for the remainder of a trip after the driver receives several audio and visual warnings for inattentiveness. Driver-initiated disengagements do not count as improper usage and are expected from the driver. Keep your hands on the wheel and remain attentive at all times. Use of any hand-held devices while using Autopilot is not allowed.
One Autopilot Strikeout will be forgiven for each 7-day period in which you do not receive any Strikeouts. Each time you receive a Strikeout, this timer will restart.
The FSD (Supervised) feature can only be removed per this suspension method and it will be unavailable for approximately one week.
FSD v12.4 Release Notes were first published by NotATeslaApp.com.
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