It is well known that Tesla tests big features ahead of releasing them to the general public in what is called the Early Access Program. Tesla’s Early Access Program is invite only and testers get detailed information of what Tesla wants them to test.
I’ve had access to a few videos of a Model 3 running 2019.28.3.11 - an Early Access only release. As always, I want to share what I think is interesting in these videos with you. These new videos showcase a few features that I expect will be released to the general public under the version 10 of the firmware, hopefully in a couple of months.
Enhanced Summon
In this video Enhanced Summon seems to be less hesitant about turns and reaches a max speed of 6mph/9kmh which is much better than the previous version that only got up to 3mph/4.5kmph. Even in Kim’s video that I shared in Tesletter’s issue 75 Enhanced Summon only gets to 4mph/6kmph.
If you ask me, if Tesla gets this feature anywhere close to useful it is going to be a huge PR machine for them. Imagine how many people would talk about the car driving by itself at the mall parking lot. From what I have heard from our source, the route that the car takes can be improved but in general this version much better than before.
Better Autopilot and driving visuals
Pinch and zoom
This one is going to be exclusive for Model 3 owners since the Model X and Model S IC screens are not touch screens - honestly, I don’t think having a touch screen behind the steering wheel would be very helpful either. Autopilot sees the world in 3D (duh!) and now Tesla is rendering all that information on the screen. While this feature may not add much, I think that the ability of knowing what Autopilot sees or doesn’t see behind you is pretty nice. Also, the amount of attention to detail that Tesla has put in the rendering blows us away. For instance, as you rotate the car at night the stars reflection on the roof rotate with it.
Better visualization of Navigate on Autopilot changing lanes
I really like the new visualization, it is more clear where the car wants to go and letting the driver know that is important. With their usual attention to detail, you can even see the rearview mirrors in the car silhouette that indicates where the car is going.
I don’t think this is just a better visualization, the car seems to be smoother when changing lanes and it acts faster.
The car is now recognizing and displaying oncoming traffic
I don’t know if the car was able to recognize the fact that there was oncoming traffic in previous versions but for sure displaying it is new.
The new software now being tested under the Early Release program shows oncoming traffic. Now a better video pic.twitter.com/nv9sodFos2
— Tesletter (@tesletter) September 5, 2019
The car now renders pickup trucks
It may not seem like this one makes a big difference but knowing the car knows what’s around would give the driver a better understanding of Autopilot. In the video, note how the car renders the pickup truck as an SUV until more cameras pick it up and actually figure out that it’s a pickup truck.
All in all, it seems that Tesla has been working on better Autopilot and better visualizations. I’m really excited about what is coming to our cars and I hope you are too!
If you are new here and you are interested in Tesla, subscribe to Tesletter, a weekly newsletter about Tesla.
What the acronym?
As Tesla fan I find myself sometimes having to remember what are all those acronyms, here is a list of the ones you can find in this issue.
- v10 - Version 10 of the software, still pending release on Sept. 5th 2019
- AP - Autopilot
- IC - Instrument Cluster
- PR - Press Release
Have questions? Reach out at contact at tesletter dot com
Getting a Tesla soon? Use my referral code http://ts.la/ignacio9266
