FSD v12 Goes Full AI
Tesla’s next big patch for their Full Self Driving software started shipping to Tesla employees on May 8th, and while CEO Elon Musk says that this version 11.4 has enough major improvements to be called version 12 instead - he says that title is reserved for an upcoming advancement to the network that will change everything about FSD.
End-to-End AI.
AI is a pretty nebulous term in tech these days, but it’s important to note that the current FSD system does not use Tesla’s AI algorithms the entire way through the process.
Elon frames it as an “in and out” function. Currently, Tesla’s FSD AI algorithms take in data from cameras and sensors, and then puts out a 3D map for more standard pathing algorithms to literally take the wheel with.
A new End-to-End approach would let Tesla’s AI manage the whole process - from taking in data to putting out steering and braking.
There hasn’t been much more than Elon’s quick tweet-mention, but this follows in-line with what we know about Tesla’s improvements to their network that was unveiled during AI day back in September 2022.
Back at that event, a big showcase for FSD showed that by making use of new Tesla computing hardware, the company’s engineers were able to begin loading full simulations to train their FSD AI - and could even start planning for taking 3D visualisation off the plate of individual vehicles.
The problem is that a lot of computational power is taken up by using the FSD AI to input the data from a car’s cameras and building a 3D environment for the pathing software. So Tesla’s engineers saw the power of their new hardware for Dojo and their networks, and realised they could allow that work to be done by that gear, rather than make the individual cars handle it.
We can’t know yet how exactly Tesla plans to pull this off, but it definitely seems like they’re closing in on this goal. During the AI Day event, the company’s presenters were very excited about the prospect, and it was hard not to see why.
If version 12 of FSD is able to begin tapping into this sort of setup, then Tesla’s work on their network is progressing very quickly.