As I mentioned in my previous FSD v12.5 first impressions report, Tesla (TSLA) has now put the pedal to the metal in deploying Full Self-Driving (FSD) software updates.
In previous years, Tesla would take weeks and sometimes even months to release FSD updates, but things have changed in the last few months. Tesla is constantly rolling out FSD 12 updates and the internal testing span is getting shorter. For example, it took less than 24 hours to roll out FSD v12.5 from employees to external limited testers.
And here we are in the next couple of days, Tesla has already started rolling out FSD v12.5 (2024.20.10) to a wider user base. But there is a caveat, Tesla is allowing only Hardware 4 (HW4)-equipped vehicles to receive the FSD v12.5 update.
Earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla is deploying FSD v12.5 only to Model Y vehicles with HW4 computers. The older HW3 Model Y or any other vehicle wasn’t receiving the new FSD 12.5 update.
However, by checking the latest Tesla firmware tracking data from TeslaFi.com and TeslaScope.com, it’s clear that Tesla is now deploying it to all Model S, X, 3, and Y HW4-equipped vehicles.
According to Musk’s X post above, we can expect that Hardware 3 (HW3) vehicles will get the FSD v12.5 update down the road as Tesla optimizes the code for HW3 cars. It can take from a few weeks to a few months and some point releases in between.
Upon checking data for several vehicles receiving the FSD v12.5 update, I found that the latest deployments included a mix of Model X refresh, Model S Plaid, Model Y, and Model 3 cars. However, Model Y with HW4 still seems to be the winner with the most deployments.
Tesla is also making the shift fast, as of this writing, 529 out of 20,071 data-contributing vehicles have already received the FSD v12.5 update and 137 cars have pending installs. At least 100 vehicles have received the last hour alone as I refreshed the TeslaFi.com software tracking page.
During the Q2 2024 Earnings Call on Tuesday, Elon Musk noted Tesla Full Self-Driving as the “biggest differentiator” from the competition. Although Musk has been overly optimistic about Tesla Autopilot/FSD through the years — v12.5 is apparently a significant milestone in this journey.
As Tesla reduces miles-per-intervention (mpi) during Autopilot drives, Tesla will get closer to full autonomy.
FSD v12.5 combines the highway and city streets software stack (making it single stack). However, we will need to witness more test reviews to observe the impact of single-stack Autopilot/FSD in reducing interventions/disengagements in the coming days and weeks.
Tesla Cybertruck owners are also anxiously waiting for the FSD v12.5 update as Elon Musk promised them. But still, there are no signs of it coming to the Cybertruck. Chuck Cook also owns a Cybertruck and he replied to our query that he’s still waiting on the update. More Cybertruck owners also confirmed that they did not get the update yet.
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