We’ve known it was coming for a while now, but today, those Tesla owners in Canada take the final step before getting the highly anticipated FSD Beta.
A new software update, version 2022.4.5.4 has been seen rolling out to vehicles in Canada and when the installation is done, owners are reporting ‘The Button’ is available to press.
Those following Tesla’s FSD Beta rollout closely will know that the reads ‘Request Full Self-Driving Beta’ will register that vehicle for the program and kick off the Safety Score test.
Safety Score is a program that is used to determine your capabilities as a driver, ensuring only the safest drivers are able to test the Beta software. Typically the Safety Score monitors your driving for 7 days before allowing owners into the program. Given this is the first time we’re seeing the FSD Beta program expand beyond the United States, there could be some differences in this timeline.
Previously Musk had suggested Version 11 of the software would be released on a February/March timeline and previous software updates 10.8, 10.9, 10.10 etc have been on a 2-week cadence. While it is certainly possible that Tesla gives Canadian users a 10.11 release a week from now, it’s also possible this expansion is aligned with the Beta V11 release.
The reason V11 is important is that it contains the long-awaited single-stack which will move the codebase to use a single AI-driven technique to drive the vehicle on both highway and city-streets.
Many will wonder if the software is ready for Canada and earlier today a Tweet from Elon revealed some detail that should provide confidence it has reached a certain level of maturity they’re comfortable with.
Musk says that they’ve had about 60 cars, driven by internal Tesla staff testing in Tesla, following that by saying they’re hoping to go wider (aka public) this weekend. The Safety Score going live is the final step before Tesla customers in Canada receive the beta.
As someone who has purchased the FSD Package for my Model 3 in Australia, I’m watching the first international growth in the Beta program with real interest. Once this gets in owner’s cars and we see YouTube videos from Canadians, we’re likely to get a great picture of how well Beta deals with the variances in road rules, road markings, and signage.
We know Canada was chosen as the first location outside America as its road systems are closely aligned. This raises the question of how long it will take Tesla to learn the differences in other countries like Australia.
Tesla is likely to learn a lot from the Canada expansion and depending on how it goes, may roll to additioanl counties in the months ahead. If this country-specific learning takes 2 months per country, then we can project forward to understand how far away Beta would be from the markets Tesla currently services. If the Canda experiment lasts for the rest of 2022, then we have a real problem, as the city-street support, would then be multiple years away.
I can’t wait, as FSD is one thing I am most excited about.