Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) program has marked its fourth anniversary, evolving from an advanced driver-assist system into a contender that could soon rival leading autonomous robotaxi services in the market.
Launched in October 2020, the FSD Beta program was initially restricted to a select group of Tesla owners participating in the company’s early access program. This group played a crucial role in providing valuable real-world data, aiding the development of the FSD system.
Currently, the program is referred to as FSD (Supervised), a designation that indicates it is a step closer to achieving fully autonomous driving. Elon Musk has hinted at future developments, referring to the next version of FSD as “Unsupervised FSD.”
HBD FSD https://t.co/e3Za2TDC4Y
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 23, 2024
Tesla’s Q3 2024 Update Letter highlighted a significant milestone, revealing that FSD users have collectively surpassed 2 billion miles driven. Notably, about half of these miles have been accumulated with FSD V12, indicating an increase not only in the number of users but also in the frequency of system usage.
During the third quarter earnings call, Musk indicated that FSD’s upcoming iteration, V13, is expected to enhance the system’s capabilities significantly. “(FSD) Version 13 of FSD is going out soon. We expect to see roughly a five- or sixfold improvement in miles between interventions compared to 12.5. And actually, looking at the year as a whole, the improvement in miles between interventions, we think will be at least three orders of magnitude. So, that’s a very dramatic improvement in the course of the year, and we expect that trend to continue next year,” he stated.
Musk further noted that the internal expectation for Tesla’s FSD to achieve longer miles between interventions than human drivers is projected for the second quarter of next year, with a strong likelihood of realization in the third quarter.
