The highly anticipated and long-awaited Tesla FSD Beta Version 9 is finally here! The new update began rolling out to members of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta program during the wee hours of the early morning. This allowed for those of us who slept through the newsworthy event to wake up to videos and photos of the newest version of FSD Beta — V9. The excitement of the beta testers made the weekend even brighter.
FSD beta release notes!
-Makes lane changes on city streets.
-Navigates around other vehicles and objects
-Makes right and left turnsVia @teslaownersSV pic.twitter.com/kz9IVwLRef
— The Tesla Show (@TheTeslaShow) October 22, 2020
Tesla provided Release Notes for the new FSD Beta update and the first thing Tesla emphasized was the importance of safety. It asked that members of the FSD Beta program exercise caution while operating the newly updated software.
“Full Self-Driving is in early limited access Beta and must be used with additional caution. It may do the wrong thing at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road. Do not become complacent.
“When Full Self-Driving is enabled, your vehicle will make lane changes off highway, select forks to follow your navigation route, navigate around other vehicles and objects, and make left and right turns. Use Full Self-Driving in limited Beta only if you pay constant attention to the road, and be prepared to act immediately, especially around blind corners, crossing intersections, and in narrow driving situations.”
The release notes also mentioned speed assist improvements which leverage the vehicle’s camera to detect speed limit signs in order to improve the accuracy of the speed limit data for highways. In the tweet below, Tesla Raj shared additional photos detailing FSD Beta V9’s driving visualization improvements and cabin camera.
Release Notes pic.twitter.com/VOi9DX0QFT
— Tesla Raj (@tesla_raj) July 10, 2021
Tesla noted that the driving visualization was improved to better support FSD capabilities. When FSD is engaged, the instrument panel displays an expanded visualization showing the additional surrounding information. The apps on either side of the instrument panel are temporarily dismissed. The driving speed, Autopilot availability, Autopilot speed setting, and detected speed are moved to the bottom of the instrument panel.
Tesla also updated the cabin camera and it can now determine when a driver isn’t attentive and provide audible alerts to remind them to pay attention to the road when Autopilot is engaged. This snazzy little update is pretty awesome and will definitely help prevent future careless accidents.
Videos
One beta tester, Eli Burton with My Tesla Adventure, shared his video on YouTube and noted in the comments that he would do another one during the daytime when there were more people out and about.
At 1:59 into the video, the updated version of FSD Beta predicted the splitting lane while it was still outside of visible view due to the curve in the road, Milano commented. “You can absolutely see the quality of the birds-eye view predictions that Andrej Karpathy talked about in his latest presentations. I’m surprised how well it works. That stuff is hard to train neural networks for. … Amazing!”
One thing I took notice of was the smoothness compared to the other Beta versions. The car seemed a bit more confident with more fluid moves than before. Kim Paquette shared her videos on Twitter and noted that FSD Beta was handling Wesley Street. She explained that she’s tested this area before and that it was “crazy narrow.”
#FSDBeta handling Wesley street! pic.twitter.com/wGMm2gP4eB
— Kim Paquette 💫🦄 (@kimpaquette) July 10, 2021
One thing Earl, @28DelaysLater, who some random CleanTechnica writer helped get added to the FSD Beta testing group, noticed was the new UI. He also tweeted that “V9 is much more human in a good way. Car properly finds the turn lane in a way that makes sense. Much better. Very hopeful for V9.”
Really love the new UI. pic.twitter.com/lqhgicXqSn
— 🤯v9 Earl of FSDBeta🤯 (@28delayslater) July 10, 2021
#FSDBeta v9 is much more human, in a good way.
Car properly finds the turn lane in a way that makes sense. Much better. Very hopeful for v9 pic.twitter.com/qT8eV3UIg3
— 🤯v9 Earl of FSDBeta🤯 (@28delayslater) July 10, 2021
TesLatino shared that he finished two 5.0 mile drives with the new FSD Beta 9. He noted that he’d publish the footage if it’s not too dark. He added a clear photo of the visual, and it’s stunning.
I just finished two 5.0 miles drives with the new #FSDBeta 9.0. If the footage is not too dark, I will publish it soon. Mind if car view below. pic.twitter.com/tVlrAzZi63
— TesLatino 🚀 a.k.a. Rafael – Lover, not a hater. (@TesLatino) July 10, 2021
John of Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley described the new Tesla Vision visualization as a Picasso artwork, and I have to agree. He added that Tesla Vision is much smoother than anything prior to the new update and that both Elon Musk and Andrej Karpathy knew what they were doing when making the switch from radar to Tesla Vision.
The Tesla Vision visualization is like Picasso artwork. pic.twitter.com/jaqSOXkPnX
— Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) July 10, 2021
John also shared that after 45 minutes of test driving in Tesla Vision, his thoughts were that it was very smooth and that the new visualization is a lot simpler and more artsy. He added that it makes a lot more correction in real-time, which means fewer disengagements. “Proud of Elon Musk and the Tesla Autopilot Team.”
After 45 minutes of test driving in tesla vision my thoughts: 1) very smooth 2) new visualization is a lot more simple and artsy 3) it makes a lot more corrections real time so less disengagements. Proud of @elonmusk and @tesla autopilot team.
— Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) July 10, 2021
I think it’s really exciting to see technology advancing right before my very eyes and to be here to document it while sharing the excitement of many of my friends who are beta testing the software. I want to echo what John said — Elon Musk and the Tesla team did a spectacular job. While many worried about the switch from radar to vision, the team fully knew what they were doing. By the way, it’s Nikola Tesla’s birthday. Perhaps it was fate being ironic that Tesla’s newest version of FSD Beta released today.
Wow. Just tried pure vision on the highway for the first time.
It’s even better than the radar fusion system. Following feels smoother and lane changes are better since it’s not just tracking what the front radar is bouncing off of $TSLA @elonmusk
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) July 10, 2021
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