Today, Tesla released the next iteration of the company's full self-driving software, FSD Beta 10.69. This new software brings a number of improvements including solving Chuck Cook style unprotected left turn. And Elon Musk, happy with FSD Beta 10.69 has praised Tesla's AI team.
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Elon Musk Praises Tesla’s AI Team After Solving Chuck Cook Style Unprotected Left Turn With FSD Beta 10.69
If you have been living under a rock, in late 2020, Tesla released the next generation of the company’s full self-driving software called FSD Beta.
This software version is a significant architectural rewrite of Tesla’s Autopilot software and unlike previous iterations of Autopilot, requires merging all images coming from 8 cameras into a vector space that the vehicle uses to execute driving in the real world.
In simple terms, the new software creates a representation of the real world by piecing together images coming from the 8 cameras, and the vehicle uses this virtual representation of the real world to make driving decisions.
The new approach has allowed Tesla to enable vehicles to tackle more complex driving settings such as surface streets, roundabouts, and unprotected left turns, which are currently impossible for Tesla’s previous Autopilot software.
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Tesla initially released FSD Beta to the 3000 or so individuals in the company’s Early Access Program. However, that number has currently grown to more than 100,000 vehicles and Elon Musk has recently said by the end of this year FSD Beta will be running on 1 million Teslas.
Since FSD Beta’s initial rollout in late 2020, the software has seen several upgrades which have improved the smoothness and capabilities of the self-driving software.
Tesla’s last FSD update was FSD Beta 10.12. This iteration of FSD Beta was released at the end of May and has brought with it several improvements getting Tesla one step closer to the goal of having the software completely take over the driving task.
Having said that, FSD Beta 10.12 is still far from a level 5 fully autonomous solution and the software still needs a lot of work to make it fully self-driving.
And last month Elon Musk said “the 3 am oil is being burned” to get the next iteration of FSD Beta out.
And today, all that hard work has paid off and Tesla has started releasing FSD Beta 10.69 to its fleet of vehicles. The release note for FSD Beta lists all the improvements Tesla has made over the last couple of months. And some of the improvements Tesla lists are…
- Improved decision-making for unprotected left turns using better estimation of ego’s interaction with other objects through the maneuver.
- Improved stopping pose while yielding for crossing objects at “Chuck Cook style” unprotected left turns by utilizing the median safety regions.
- Made speed profile more comfortable when creeping for visibility, to allow for smoother stops when protecting for potentially occluded objects.
- Enabled creeping for visibility at any intersection where objects might cross ego’s path, regardless of the presence of traffic controls.
You can read the full list of improvements in the Whole Mars Catalog tweet embedded below.
But, one improvement worthy of further explanation is “improved stopping pose while yielding for crossing objects at “Chuck Cook style” unprotected left turns by utilizing the median safety regions.”
If you happen to be unfamiliar, Chuck Cook is a YouTuber and FSD Beta tester who has been meticulously recording and sharing FSD Beta’s improvements in various scenarios.
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And “Chuck Cook style unprotected left turn” is a wide highway intersection with multiple lanes. When making this left turn, the vehicle needs to make a left turn navigating across traffic going as fast as 60mph.
Due to the width and speed at which vehicles are driving on the highway, making an unprotected left turn at this particular stretch of the road requires the vehicle to traverse oncoming traffic from left to right; stop at the wide highway divider; then wait for the traffic going from right to left to clear, and finally make the left turn.
In previous iterations of FSD Beta, since the vehicle could not stop in the middle of the highway at the divider, then FSD Beta had to wait for traffic coming from both directions to clear before making the turn.
To better understand the situation, you can watch Chuck Cook’s video embedded below showcasing said road and how FSD Beta 10.12 handled the situation.
However, today, after receiving FSD Beta 10.69, Chuck Cook has gone back to the same stretch of road and FSD Beta can now handle the intersection flawlessly.
On FSD Beta 10.69, Tesla has added a new autopilot visualization where a blue line shows how much the vehicle can creep forward to get a better view of incoming traffic. In addition to the new visualization, the software now, when dealing with Chuck Cook style unprotected left turn, can stop at the highway divider, wait for traffic to clear, and complete the turn.
You can watch Chuck Cook’s FSD Beta 10.69 test video embedded below to get a better understanding of how the software has improved.
All the improvements coming with FSD Beta 10.69 make it a great milestone for Tesla’s effort to create a level 5 full self-driving software. Elon Musk also seems to agree with the importance of FSD Beta 10.69 and all the work the Tesla team has put in to make it a reality.
After the software was released to the initial 1000 testers, Elon Musk praised the Tesla team saying “just wanted to emphasize again that our awesome Tesla software/AI team is who really deserves the credit. The talent level at Tesla is incredible.”
There are a lot of people who doubt Tesla will ever achieve full self-driving, so it’s very nice to see FSD Beta make real progress. Having said that, FSD Beta 10.69 is still far from perfect and Tesla will need to put in a whole lot more work to make level 5 autonomy a reality.
And we will be sure to keep you posted as the EV maker works to bring true autonomy to the masses. Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.
So what do you think? Happy with the progress in FSD Beta 10.69? Also, how long do you think it will take Tesla to solve level 5 autonomy? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.
For more information check out: Elon Musk Confirms Tesla Cybertruck Owners Will Be Able To Legally Drive Without A Side-View Mirror
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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