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This article was published on September 13, 2021

Tesla’s Full Self Driving Beta 10 is here — but that’s not as cool as it sounds

It's reportedly improved, but still prone to serious mistakes


Tesla’s Full Self Driving Beta 10 is here — but that’s not as cool as it sounds

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On Friday, Tesla owners in the Early Access Program got the Full Self-Driving Beta 10 update, which Elon Musk announced a week before.

Naturally, the release was accompanied by Musk’s usual boastful comments:

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A number of FSD Beta 10 ‘testers’ have uploaded their experience on social media, and we can get a glimpse of how ‘mind-blowing’ the self-driving upgrade really is.

Reportedly, there are some improvements

First up, it appears that the Beta 10 features some user interface changes. For starters, the driving visualizations have been cleared up a bit.


For the Model 3 and Model Y, the icons on the left side of the display have been rearranged. For the Model X, time, temperature, and charge level have been removed, while speed and AP have been shifted to the right. 

Perfomance-wise, some drivers mentioned that the software upgrade delivers smoother turns and roundabouts in self-driving mode, with the car making more “confident” decisions than before.


Among them, YouTuber AI Addict praised the software’s performance, as it was able to efficiently navigate — for the first time —  through twisty Lombart Street in San Francisco, without requiring any intervention from the driver.

But…

On Monday, AI Addict posted another video, where he took his ‘updated’ Tesla for a stress test in down town San Jose. Only this time the results weren’t so promising.

Apart from a number of failed turns, the car goes straight into a “Road Closed” barrier, it continuously attempts to enter the bike lane, and it even drives onto the curb.

As with the Beta 9 update, it seems once more clear that, despite some improvements, the software isn’t ready to handle stressful situations while driving in cities.

So, no, my mind isn’t blown by the Beta 10, and unless future updates get significantly more refined, I don’t think they’ll easily justify FSD’s exorbitant $10,000 price tag.

In any case, Elon Musk has hinted that Beta 10.1 might be available as a public option two weeks after version 10. Let’s see what this will bring to the table…


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