Elon Musk says Tesla's FSD Beta 9.2 software 'not great', working to improve the system

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday said the electric-car maker was currently in the works to improve the much-awaited update of its cars’ self-driving software. However, to the surprise of many, Musk called the firm's latest release of the experimental driver-assistance software, FSD Beta 9.2, “actually not great”. The CEO’s critical comment of the system follows the launch of a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system by the US federal vehicle safety authorities.   

Elon Musk critical of Tesla self-drive software update

In a tweet, Musk noted that the Tesla Autopilot/AI team is in the works to further improve the system. “FSD Beta 9.2 is actually not great imo, but Autopilot/AI team is rallying to improve as fast as possible. We’re trying to have a single stack for both highway & city streets, but it requires massive NN retraining,” he tweeted.

The billionaire’s company which sells a Full Self-Driving capability (or FSD) package for $10,000 or $199 per month in the US came under the scrutiny of US safety regulators recently after a series of accidents were recorded to be caused by these cars. However, the company does imply that the premium driver assistance system does not make Tesla electric cars safe without an attentive driver behind the wheel. Currently, the self-driving beta version 9.2 is only available to select drivers who previously purchased FSD and Tesla employees for testing.

Musk recently touted Tesla’s prowess with autonomous systems and components at the Tesla AI Day. At the event held last week, the electric car makers showed off their artificial intelligence systems. The company also showed a custom chip for training these AI networks in data centres. Tesla informed that the chips were meant to train models for automatically identifying a variety of obstacles on-road and study the same with the help of video feeds recorded by cameras inside these self-driving cars. FSD also promises to enable a Tesla vehicle to automatically change lanes and move into open parking spaces.

US opens formal probe into Tesla Autopilot System 

The US traffic safety board, on 16 August, opened a formal probe into Tesla's Autopilot system, after a series of reports of collisions with parked emergency vehicles hit the bulletin. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had identified 11 crashes since 2018 in which Tesla's cars, which appeared on Autopilot or Traffic-Aware Cruise Control vehicles, have hit other cars with flashlights, flares or cones of warning of hazards. The investigation covers Models Y, X, S and 3 and 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that Tesla has sold in the US from the 2014 through 2021 model years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as part of the probe, reported that around 17 people were injured as part of these accidents.  

(IMAGE: AP)