Tesla (TSLA) has released a detailed roadmap for the release of its upcoming and more advanced Autopilot Full Self-Driving system’s version 13 (FSD v13).
FSD v13 is Tesla’s next big milestone on the path towards Level 5 full autonomy. The update is so important that both CEO Elon Musk and the company’s head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, discussed it during the Q3 2024 earnings call.
Because the automaker has promised exponential improvements in FSD v13 of up to 1000X since the start of this year, Tesla owners are excited and hyped up to try this upcoming FSD Supervised version update.
Tesla AI (the automaker’s FSD/Tesla Vision/neural net team) published a detailed post on X (Twitter) earlier this morning that shows the hype around FSD v13 is totally warranted (read the entire post below).
Tesla has also mentioned some major improvements done to FSD v12.5 in the update announcement.
– Advertisement –Tesla (TSLA) puts out the FSD v13 software rollout roadmap for November.
FSD v13 Rollout Timeline
In the original Tesla FSD 12.5 and v13 roadmap update, Tesla predicted that FSD v13 would be released in October. We were expecting Tesla to release FSD v13 at the end of October. The automaker released another roadmap to give an updated timeline of the upcoming versions and features.
Tesla is planning to release FSD v13 to internal employee testers by the end of this week. “We are targeting to ship v13.0 to internal customers by the end of this week,” Tesla AI (@Tesla_AI) stated in an official X post.
Interestingly, Tesla revealed that Tesla Robotaxi event cars (Cybercabs, Model 3, and Model Y) all were equipped with the FSD v13 self-driving software.
After a couple of weeks of employee testing, Tesla will start to release FSD v13 to external beta testers. The first wave will go out to the original group testers consisting of Tesla YouTubers, retail investors, and social media influencers.
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According to Tesla, the FSD v13 rollout to non-employee public Tesla owners will begin around Thanksgiving (the last week of November). The automaker is targeting FSD v13.3 point-release for the wide release.
“We are targeting a wide release with v13.3 with most of the above improvements for AI4 vehicles around Thanksgiving!” Tesla (TSLA) announced on X (Twitter).
FSD v13 Focuses on HW4/AI4
There is good news for Tesla owners who have the newer (Jan 2023 or later) model cars with the Hardware 4 (HW4/AI4) onboard computer. The improvements listed in the FSD v13 rollout plan shared by Tesla specifically focus on HW4 vehicles.
The specific improvements mentioned in the FSD v13 roadmap for HW4 cars are:
36 Hz, full-resolution AI4 video inputs
Native AI4 inputs and neural network architectures
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And, there is bad news for HW3/AI3 Tesla vehicle owners (2019 – 2023 model year). Apparently, there does not seem to be a way for them to get FSD v13 and its point releases anytime in the near future.
FSD v13.3 will only be released to HW4 cars around Thanksgiving.
Actually Smart Summon (ASS) for China, Europe, and other Regions
In between the lines of the FSD v13 roadmap, Tesla made a big announcement, rolling out Actually Smart Summon (ASS) outside North America.
“Actually Smart Summon release to Europe, China and other regions of the world,” Tesla announced on X.
This is going to be a big development and an exciting feature update for Tesla owners outside the US and Canada.
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Tesla ASS is a subset feature of Full Self-Driving. In a recent OTA software update FSD v12.5.4 last month, Tesla enabled Actually Smart Summon for legacy HW3 cars as well. This will ensure that Tesla customers in China, Europe, and other regions will have access to this feature.
However, regulatory approvals will play a crucial role in deploying Tesla ASS in every region. Since Tesla is not allowed to release FSD Supervised to its customers in Europe, the automaker might bundle ASS with a non-FSD update package with a different sub-version number for other regions.
Video: Tesla Actually Smart Summon official demonstration.– Advertisement –
The New FSD v13 Roadmap
As October comes to a close, here’s an update on the releases
What we completed: – End-to-end on highway has shipped to ~50k customers with v12.5.6.1 – Cybertruck build that improves responsiveness – Successful We, Robot event with 50 autonomous Teslas safely transporting over 2,000 passengers
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What’s coming next:
Full rollout of end-to-end highway driving to all AI4 users, targeted for early next week, including enhancements in stop smoothness, less annoying bad weather notifications, and other safety improvements
Improved v12.5.x models for AI3 city driving
Actually Smart Summon release to Europe, China and other regions of the world
v13 is a package of following major technology upgrades:
36 Hz, full-resolution AI4 video inputs
Native AI4 inputs and neural network architectures
3x model size scaling – 3x model context length scaling
4.2x data scaling – 5x training compute scaling (enabled by the Cortex training cluster)
Much improved reward predictions for collision avoidance, following traffic controls, navigation, etc.
Efficient representation of maps and navigation inputs
Audio inputs for better handling of emergency vehicles
Redesigned controller for smoother, more accurate tracking
Integrated unpark, reverse, and park capabilities
Support for destination options including pulling over, parking in a spot, driveway, or garage
Improved camera cleaning and handling of camera occlusions
We have integrated several of these improvements and are already seeing a 4x increase in miles between necessary interventions compared to v12.5.4.
This lays the foundation for the v13 series, and we are targeting to ship v13.0 to internal customers by the end of this week.
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Most of the remaining items are independently validated and will be integrated over November in a series of point releases.
We are targeting a wide release with v13.3 with most of the above improvements for AI4 vehicles around Thanksgiving!
Author of more than 1500 articles on Tesla, SpaceX, and EVs. His work has been liked and tweeted by Elon Musk and other prominent influencers. You can reach him on Twitter @IqtidarAlii
 shares the FSD v13 rollout roadmap and the list of improvements it plans to release for HW4 vehicles on Thanksgiving. Tesla ASS is coming to China, Europe, and other regions.){kind=link}