Self Driving Software

Pesala

Not just for nerds, but an understandable presentation on how Tesla’s Full Self-driving software works.

There are several videos on YouTube of the latest FSD Beta in use.

Fully self-driving cars cannot come soon enough. Far too many people die on the roads.

LonM

Fully self-driving cars cannot come soon enough. Far too many people die on the roads.

I'd suggest that a better solution would be to enhance public transport and encourage more efficient private transport like bikes (I appreciate this applies more to urban areas than rural).

Extra SALAMI in our cars would maybe help, if we ever get it working properly in the wild. But fewer cars overall is guaranteed to make the roads safer.

Catweazle

@LonM , I think the same, private individual transport by means of a tonne and a half machine, to transport a 75 kg ass is increasingly meaningless.
It is urgent to expand and diversify public transport instead of clogging the roads more than they already are.

Pesala

Here, in London, public transport is excellent (though expensive), cycling is very dangerous, so the roads are full of cars commuting, shopping, and doing the school run. No one likes travelling on the tube, which is also full of toxic PP2 particles, and Covid-19 infected passengers. People will always prefer personal transport if they can afford it. I can travel free on trains, tubes, and buses at off-peak times, so my experience is very different to that of regular commuters.

Diesel trucks and buses (though London is switching to Hybrid and Battery Electric buses a.s.a.p.) are the worst. The toxic effects of pollution on my breathing motivates me to support Tesla and other EV solutions. One of my supporters died of lung cancer due to pollution. Her husband bought an early Model S so that she could breathe clean air when travelling on London’s roads.

Aciramoto and Aptera are possible alternatives for commuter vehicles.

Pesala

@Catweazle Self-driving robo-taxis will solve that issue. It will be much cheaper than Uber, take you door to door in comfort and safety, and vehicles will be utilised over 90% of the time instead of 5% of the time.

Vehicle ownership will become a luxury for the wealthy, for tradespeople, or for the driving enthusiast. For vacations, people will hire a luxury Camper van or SUV.

These changes will happen sooner than most people think. FSD software is now on the steep part of the S-curve, and is schedule for widespread release (to anyone who wants it) on September 5th, when its price will go up from $12,000 to $15,000.

Catweazle

@Pesala , yes, that is what I mean with improve and diversify the public transport, like robo taxis, and leasing vehicles if you need them, apart from bus and train.

Pesala

@Catweazle It all depends on the software being capable enough. Do watch the videos to see the current progress. When it is ready (not if), many kinds of transport will be disrupted, not only personal cars, but also delivery vehicles, heavy trucks, buses, and taxis.

Pesala

March 8th 2023: FSD Beta v11.3.1 started going out to a limited number of testers. This unifies the vision and planning stack on and off-highway and replaces the legacy highway stack, which is over four years old. (Source: Teslarati) Earlier reports that there are significant improvements, though some features are not yet implemented. Updates required by NHTSA are included.
March 26th 2023: FSD Beta v11.3.3 has started going out to beta testers (Dan Burkland)
April 1st 2023: FSD Beta v.11.3.4 (Dirty Tesla)
April 11th 2023: FSD Beta v.11.3.6 (Chuck Cook)

It may not be too long now before FSD starts rolling out to all users in North America, then to China and Europe.

Catweazle

Pesala

@Catweazle No doubt it would be much easier to box it in with a couple of cars.

There will always be edge-cases like earthquakes and rockslides that are going to cause problems for self-driving cars just as they do for regular cars.

The software could call another robotaxi in case of breakdowns or road-blocks, so that the passenger can safely continue their journey, or the passenger could do it.

Pesala

Since the last post in this thread, Tesla’s Full Self-driving software has moved on enormously.

January 30th 2025: FSD (Unsupervised) is now being used to drive new vehicles 1.2 miles from the Freemont factory to the loading dock. Any time now, this will also start happening at the Texas, Austin Gigafactory.
January 31st 2025: FSD 13.2.6 and 12.6.3 rolling out to Hardware 4 and older Hardware 3 vehicles respectively.
Cybercab is due to be launched as a service in Texas in June. Regulation now seems like the only bottleneck in the US. Different traffic regulations will need to be trained for on roads in China, Europe, the UK, and other countries.