July 4, 2024
By Karan Singh
Following the recent release of V12.4.2 to employees and early access testers, Tesla has now released V12.4.3 to employees, according to X user Farzad.
While we haven’t received a full set of release notes to compare against, it seems that this update won’t bring much other than bug fixes. We recently took a deeper look at the new features available on V12.4.2 here.
Given how rapid-fire Tesla has begun releasing updates to internal testers, employees, and early-access customers, it seems there could be a couple more iterations of V12.4 before it hits customers, as Tesla tunes FSD.
Why so many Versions and Delays?
While nobody is happy about delays, one needs to keep in mind that Tesla has to keep safety as a priority for FSD releases. If a release goes out wide to hundreds of thousands of vehicles that are unsafe, there could be considerable impacts on people’s lives.
Beyond that, each subversion is Tesla adjusting their AI model, fine-tuning it to be able to better drive in both normal and edge cases. As such, watching these subversion releases go by is a good thing – at the end of the day, we’ll end up with a better, safer product.
Every version also has to be tested internally first among their dedicated ADAS testers, then among employees, and finally with Tesla’s early-access customers. Once all these people give a green light, and most errors and major bugs are addressed, does a release get the green light to go wide.
So, stay tuned for when this release goes out wider than this leak and possibly comes to your vehicle with nag-free FSD.
Subscribe
First Look at Tesla FSD v12.4.2 – The Update That Removes The Steering Wheel Nag [Video]
July 4, 2024
By Karan Singh
Tesla’s FSD V12.4.2 has landed in the wild – at least among early-access customers this week. There have been a few videos and some folks have begun to provide feedback on X, on the update and how it’s going.
For now, it hasn’t gone wide to customers and only early-access testers and employees have it on their vehicles. FSD 12.4.2 is update 2024.15.10 and it’s expected to be available to everyone on update 2024.14 who owns or subscribes to FSD… eventually.
Consistent, Confident
Early-access testers have found FSD V12.4.2 to be considerably more confident, and more consistent when it makes decisions. V12.4.2 seems more confident when making unprotected left turns and encountering construction or complex interchanges.
They’ve also had more consistency and confidence with the Auto Speed feature, which adjusts the vehicle’s speed automatically based on traffic conditions, and also noted that it has improvements with lane selection, which was a larger issue in V12.4.1.
Users have also noted that the Vision-Based Driver Monitoring System is more confident and can see better at night. On V12.4.1, the Vision-Based DMS was unavailable at nighttime, and nags would still occur – but on V12.4.2, this restriction appears to be removed.
Regressions
There are still some regressions, with @DirtyTesLa on X noting that V12.4.2 seems to fail a left turn on an unmarked dirt road that it has previously made.
@WholeMarsBlog also noted that he had one critical safety intervention and that FSD missed a turn onto the highway, noting it was a regression from his experience on V12.4.1. Overall, he has had multiple intervention-free drives.
Overall Conclusions
It seems that besides a few minor regressions, V12.4.2 is shaping up to be a good update. There are improvements to the Vision-Based Driver Monitoring System, as well as improvements to decision-making and lane selection.
It is highly possible that V12.4.2 could be the version that unleashes the floodgates of nag-free FSD.
FSD 12.4.2 takes me 40 miles, needing only 1 accelerator tap the entire drive. pic.twitter.com/Lq96bw5UDI
— Dirty Tesla (@DirtyTesLa) July 2, 2024
Tesla Adds Military Discount – What You Need to Know
July 4, 2024
By Karan Singh
Tesla North America has launched a Military Purchase Program, to honour those who have served in the US military.
Military Purchase Program Benefits
The program offers US military members, including veterans, retirees, active-duty members, and their spouses, $1,000 USD off the purchase of a Model S, Model 3, Model X, or Model Y.
Of note, the program is specifically unavailable for the Cybertruck, or for used car purchases.
Eligibility
The eligibility process is conducted through ID.me, the standard means of verifying service member status in North America. The offer is available to member spouses, as well as retired members and veterans.
You’ll have to go to the Military Recognition page on Tesla’s US site to access the ID.me verification process, and it will allow you to complete your configuration and order after you do so.
No Canadian Equivalent
Sadly, it seems that even though ID.me offers a Canadian Military Identification program, members of the Canadian Armed Forces are not eligible for the discount at this time. In general, most companies offer similar discounts for CAF personnel, as they work alongside American personnel across the globe.
Some Tesla parts are also produced by third-party manufacturers in Canada, and this could be a definite bonus to help represent the Canadian market.