A few days ago, Elon Musk tweeted the timeline for the latest version of the FSD beta. While discussing version 10.8, he also added a cryptic line about ‘holiday fun’.
This was the only provided information, hence, it has left the Tesla community to speculate about what features will potentially qualify as ‘fun software’. Here is Tesla’s ‘FUN’ Christmas Software Update this week according to TechAU.
Vertical visualization of objects
It is possible that in these last few months, members of the FSD team have been working on just this. When we explode this out, it’s fairly obvious to see why this will be important to Tesla.
Initially rending more of the vertical space will enable drivers to gain additional confidence that the car understands the environment around it.
This would be easy to see trees and bushes that overhang the road, or overhead signs, and even traffic lights and speed signs that show the car understanding the correct orientation of these.
Moreover, Tesla vehicles have a great understanding of their own dimensions and the space required for them to fit in and with a similar sense of self-preservation, Semi should avoid the low-hanging obstacles.
In fact, if Tesla has the ability to leverage object persistence and depth information derived from the computer vision AI, it’s possible they could render objects outside this field of vision which would be a neat party trick.
The best visualization of this to date is this tweet from Tristan, where the data from the car could show the roof of a parking garage.
Smart Shift to the Model 3 and Model Y
When the Tesla Model S got updated it came with a new software feature called Smart Shift. This deals with the issue created by removing stalks as they added the Yoke. It works by automatically determining the direction you’d like to travel and automatically shifting you into that gear.
This has been discussed in relation to Tesla’s ability to deliver it to the Model 3 and Model Y which seems likely, even if you do still have driving stalks.
Tesla also deploys more of that self-preservation tech that we see from Karpathy’s talk, where a Tesla would not proceed when an object is detected.
FSD Beta visualizations to production build
With each update to the visualizations, the call gets louder to deliver those FSD graphics to the production software available around the world.
With the same hardware capabilities (HW3), the car can render curbs, lanes, and even roundabouts in a much more accurate way, highlighting the drivable space available to the car and ultimately you as a driver.
Updated Model S/X UI draggable components
With the refreshed Model S and Model X, we saw a 17″ horizontal touch screen added, replacing the previous vertical orientation. With this came far more real-estate than the 15″ version in the Model 3 and Y. These extra pixels have been put to good use with a new branch of the software that allows users to reorder icons, and a slide-out quick-access control panel to common functions.
It is possible Tesla will update the production build to include these changes in functionality.
Track mode for Model S refresh
Buying the most expensive car Tesla makes should in theory deliver the most features of any of their vehicles. The big exception to that is Track Mode which is suspiciously missing from the Model S Long Range and Plaid. Although it’s not clear how many people want to drive their Model Y, owners of the mid-sized SUV are also without Track Mode.
After Tesla upgraded the Track Model to V2 in the Tesla Model 3 Performance, we saw what’s possible in terms of control over the operation of the vehicle.
Sonic the Hedgehog
While we don’t know when Musk did confirm a new game is on its way to Tesla vehicles and that’s the famous Sonic the Hedgehog.
Christmas Light Show
The Model X is famous for having the ability to perform a Christmas song where the windows roll down, the music plays, the lights flash and the falcon wing doors open in time to the music. While no other models will be able to do the doors, it seems possible Tesla will offer a similar Christmas mode to the other models.
While we’re talking about software, the release notes for FSD Beta 10.7 have made their way to the internet, despite that release never going to the general public. There are many Tesla employees that would be running this development version of the software, which explains how the detail made its way to the internet.
