Elon Musk Verifies Tesla FSD Will Improve In Next Update By Axing Green Light Confirmation

Featured Image Credit: CleanTechnica

Elon Musk verified that Tesla would ax Full Self-Driving’s (FSD) green light confirmation protocol in the next OTA software update. He confirmed the speculation on Twitter.

CleanTechnica broke the news about Tesla dropping FSD’s green light confirmation protocol in an article. Elon Musk confirmed the story through a tweet shared by the site. Currently, Tesla drivers still need to verify that the car can drive through green lights by pressing on the gas pedal. After the update, Tesla vehicles will not need confirmation from drivers, bringing the EV automaker closer to achieving autonomy in its fleet. However, there are exceptions to the rule, as stated in the Release Notes.

Confirmed

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2020

According to @TeslaOwnersofMA, the FSD capability will launch in Tesla’s 2020.24.5.1 OTA software update. The Release Notes for the update states: “…version (2020.24.5.1) to your vehicle shortly. This software update contains an improvement to our new Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control feature. Your vehicle will no longer require driver confirmation to continue through green lights while there is a lead vehicle ahead of you and not in a turn lane. Every driver is responsible for remaining alert and active when using Autopilot and must be prepared to take action at any time.”

Tesla recently released its 2020.24.5 OTA software update, meaning the FSD improvement could launch in the near future. 2020.24.5 did introduce camera improvements, including Cabin Camera. Now the camera found inside Tesla vehicles can be enabled by drivers.

If you have FSD you’ll love what’s coming in 2020.24.5.1 you’ll no longer need to provide confirmation to your @Tesla to proceed through green lights (so long as there is a lead vehicle). Now the stop line will be green to indicate the car will go through. @Model3Owners

— 🔋 TeslaOwnersofMA 🔋 (@TeslaOwnersofMA) June 19, 2020

The Cabin Camera was linked to Tesla’s Robotaxi Network before. When the in-cabin camera was first discovered by Tesla sleuths, Elo Musk had shared that it was inactive. He also explained that it was meant to monitor/prevent vandalism in a robotaxi in the future.

The Cabin Camera feature, together with the drop of greenlight confirmation, reveals that Tesla is making significant steps towards releasing FSD or at least a feature-complete version of it. In TSLA’s Q4 2019 Earnings Call, Elon Musk was hopeful that Tesla could release a feature-complete FSD in 2020.

“Well, I mean, to be precise, I said I was hoping it would be feature-complete with both FSD by the end of last year. We got pretty close. It’s looking like we might be feature-complete in a few months. The feature-complete just means like it has some chance of going from your home to work, let’s say with no interventions. So, that’s -- it doesn’t mean the features are working well, but it means it has above zero chance. So I think that’s looking like maybe it’s going to be couple of months from now. And what isn’t obvious regarding Autopilot and Full Self-Driving is just how much work has been going into improving the foundational elements of autonomy. The -- like the core autopilots in Tesla or Autopilot software and AI team is just is I think very, very strong in making great progress. And we’re only beginning to take full advantage of the Autopilot hardware and the FSD hardware,” Musk said.

Tesla May Activate Cabin Cameras For Model 3 & Model Y In Next Software Update https://t.co/nQbNL7MFzF pic.twitter.com/r1e00VGzrg

— Tesmanian.com (@Tesmanian_com) June 18, 2020

“So I think it’s -- the apparent progress, as seen by consumers, will seem to be extremely rapid, but actually what’s really going on my head it seems like that is just having the foundational software be very strong and we’ve got really strong foundation. And then a really fundamental thing is moving to video training. So in terms of labeling, labeling with video in all eight cameras simultaneously. This is a really, I mean in terms of labeling efficiency, arguably like a three order of magnitude improvement in labeling efficiency. For those who know about this, it’s extremely fundamental, so that’s really great progress on that.”

So far, Musk’s words during the Q4 2019 Earnings Call seem to ring true. Tesla Autopilot--and in extension FSD--has indeed seen rapid progress since the beginning of 2020, and it's only the middle of the year. It will be interesting to see how much Tesla Autopilot and FSD grow from now until the end of the year.