Tesla's ‘Full Self-Driving' Beta Coming This Week

Tesla may be in all of the electric headlines because of its bizarre price cuts on the Model S, but the automaker's CEO announced some big news in a tweet last week. Before we get into that, we should go back to where it started. During Tesla's annual Battery Day earlier this September, Musk claimed that a private beta test of the brand's Full Self-Driving suite would come out in the next few months. With October coming down to an end, it turns out that Tesla's ahead of schedule with its beta test.


Limited Full Self Driving Testing Coming Soon


In a recent tweet, Musk claimed that a limited release of the automaker's Full Self-Driving suite would be out on Tuesday, October 20. "Limited FSD beta releasing on Tuesday next week, as promised. This will, at first, be limited to a small number of people who are expert & careful drivers," says the tweet.


There's no word on how Tesla will choose these "expert and careful drivers," and since the automaker got rid of its public relations department, there's no way to check. With Tesla really pushing to become a staple in the YouTube world, we have a feeling that a few well-known influencers will get to test the beta system.


Another major part of picking drivers is their location. Not a lot of states in the U.S. offer fully autonomous vehicles on the road, so we're sure location will play a large role in where the limited beta trial will be available.


How Autopilot Has Evolved


At the Battery Day presentation, Musk provided a little information on how Tesla updated Autopilot to help get the limited beta test available. "We had to do a fundamental rewrite of the entire Autopilot software stack," said Musk at the battery event. "The sophistication of the neural net of the car and the overall logic of the car is improved dramatically."


Full Self-Driving is a more advanced version of Autopilot, which has received multiple upgrades to increase its capabilities over the years. Automatic lane changes, automatic traffic light, highway driving assistance, and stop sign control were all recently added. The most recent update came in October and brought the ability for Teslas to automatically drive through green lights without needing a leading car.


We should point out that there are zero fully autonomous vehicles on the market today. Just because Tesla calls its system Autopilot and Full Self Driving doesn't mean that it really is. Tesla's been under a lot of heat from various government agencies around the world because of the Autopilot name, but continues to stick with it.