The wait is almost over for Tesla owners who eagerly wanted to be part of the automaker’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta testing team. CEO Elon Musk has just announced on Twitter that Tesla is expanding its FSD Beta testing program with existing and upcoming versions of the FSD Beta software.
Elon Musk said that with the existing build 8.2, Tesla is actively expanding the number of beta testers by 2X. With the next 8.3 version release, Tesla is planning to expand the number of beta testers exponentially — yes, by 10X.
Reportedly, there were around 1,000 FSD Beta program members before the 8.2 update, after 8.2 there will be 2,000 and with the 8.3 release, there will be 10,000 FSD Beta testers. Comparatively, Waymo has only 600 customers on its self-driving program.
Musk also said that if you want to be part of the FSD Beta testing team, you should get in touch with Tesla to be enrolled. This would be easy for Tesla owners to either contact support from their Tesla phone app or visit a service center.
According to Elon Musk, the FSD Beta build 8.3 has literally around 1,000 improvements. The 8.3 update is currently going under QA checks and it’s going to take two to three weeks before it’s downloadable by the FSD Beta testers. One thing to remember is that FSD Beta is currently only available in the United States.
Download FSD Beta
Elon Musk has said that a “Download FSD Beta” button will be added to the “Service” section of Tesla cars’ center touchscreen display. This will enable owners in the United States and regions with regulatory approval in place to download FSD Beta on demand.
Due to high levels of demand for FSD Beta, adding “Download Beta” button to Service section of car display in ~10 days.
Availability varies by region due to regulatory approval delays and/or Tesla internal development & testing. Note: word “Beta” is used to reduce complacency in usage & set expectations appropriately. All software is first tested internally by Tesla simulation & QA drive teams.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk via Twitter (see tweets below).
We just reported the FSD Beta 8.2 testing videos yesterday and Musk is correct about the AI self-driving software by Tesla is getting mature and more confident on the city streets as in both day & night driving.
Expanding the number of FSD Beta users 10 times also means that the Tesla Neural Nets will receive 10X self-driving data points to train the AI driver — an even more amazing thing happening in the background.
Update: Tesla CEO Elon Musk opened up more about the FSD Beta “Download” button in a late-night tweetstorm on Tuesday (9th March). He said that the QA testing of FSD Beta version 8.3 is most probably going to be completed by the end of next week (around 19th March), this is the time when the FSD Beta Download option will be made public.
To download the FSD Beta 8.3 self-driving software and later versions in the future, a Tesla owner will need to agree to the terms and conditions of the program as well as comply with “careful driving” practices, Musk explained.
FSD Beta for Canada
Tesla owners from Canada have been eagerly waiting since October last year when the Silicon Valley-based automaker introduced the FSD Beta program to a limited number of selected users in the United States.
Now Elon Musk has said that #FSDBetaCanada might come soon. The FSD Beata Canada launch is taking time as there are differences in the U.S. vs. Canada roads infrastructure and markings
Tesla FSD Beta vs. Waymo
Here’s an interesting video of Tesla FSD Beta vs. Waymo completing the same route without a driver in the driver’s seat. It took Waymo 8 minutes to complete the fully autonomous trip and Tesla Autopilot completed the route in 5 mins 12 secs.
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