Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
This is a show where we discuss the critical Crossroads, The
Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink.
I'm your host, Will Walden. Tesla is changing the way that
people drive their vehicles. The full self driving software
is set to include hand gesture recognition in its upcoming
updates. Now this feature is showcased in
a video Tesla's X account where FSD version 12 responded to a
pedestrian's hand gestures. Now Elon Musk confirmed that
this capability would be improved in version 12.4 and
further enhanced in 12.5. Gesture recognition has been
part of Tesla's plans for many years.
Elon Musk mentioned hand gesture recognition in 2021 and the goal
is for FSD to adapt safely to new and unique situations, such
as following a police officer's instructions or also
understanding a cyclist's hand signals.
Now, Boris Johnson, the former UK Prime Minister, recently
experienced FSD version 12 while navigating the crowded streets
of Los Angeles. He was accompanied by his wife
and child, Johnson, and they tested the vehicle through
complex intersections, heavy traffic, and among pedestrians
with a Tesla assistant present now after approximately 45
minutes of driving, Johnson expressed his approval at the
end of about 45 minutes. I feel like he driving text
examinator, except that I want to tell the car that has passed
with flying colors. During his drive, Johnson
encountered a situation where a hotel staff member gestured to
him. The car did not respond to the
gesture, even with FSD 12 Point 3.6 and a Tesla official confirm
that this would be addressed in the next update, expected to be
ready by the following month. It's not entirely clear whether
the Tesla employee was referring to FSD 12.4, which was scheduled
to roll out to the public later in the week, or to the
subsequent major release 12.5, according to Musk, and version
12.5 is anticipated to handle more complex scenarios and
introduce vehicle to fleet communication.
Now, solving FSD involves addressing challenges that have
never been tackled before. Tesla's approach with FSD and AI
has evolved over time. Initially, the focus was on
reading Rd. signs for autonomy. Now the system relies on
recognizing patterns based on millions of examples without
needing to understand each specific sign.
And for hand gestures, Vehicle will not need to know the exact
meaning of each gesture, Instead, it will recognize how
to react based on previous examples.
Tesla trains its AI by feeding it millions of instances showing
various situations and how humans respond.
Now Tesla's continuous video processing and extensive fleet
data collection contribute to the ongoing improvement of FSD.
This year Tesla is expected to spend $12 billion on AI
development primarily aimed at enhancing FSD.
Now must claim that the next update to Tesla's supervised
full self driving FSD software would result in a 5 to 10 times
improvement in miles per intervention and if accurate,
this would mark a significant advancement of Tesla's self
driving technology. Musk discussed the forthcoming
FSD updates with the first being 12.4 which was expected to be
released to employees over the weekend and delimited external
beta testers the following week, and Musk estimated the roughly 5
to 10 times improvement in miles per intervention compared to
12.3 now. Achieving such an improvement
would represent a major step in the development of Tesla's self
driving system. While Tesla does not publicly
really lease FSD program data, version 12.3 already
demonstrated A reduced driver intervention.
Further improvements could elevate the system's performance
significantly. I must also commented on the
release of 12.5 expected by late June, predicting further
improvements in miles per intervention and a single stack
system eliminating separate code bases for highway and city
driving. Previously, version 11 was
claimed to be a single stack integrating both driving
environments. The anticipated FSD 12.4 is set
for internal testing with employees and limited external
testers. Several enhancements are
expected, similar to the performance lead from version 11
to version 12, and version 12.4 will focus on user comfort by
minimizing hard accelerations and sudden breaking.
And according to Musk, it will be moving closer to Tesla's goal
of announcing a Robo Taxi service by August 8th, 2024.
The steering wheel mag will be removed by FSD 12.4 with the
camera based driver monitoring system taking over, enabling a
hands free experience. This improvement will benefit
owners with cabin cameras equipped with infrared lights,
though the steering wheel mag may still be used as a fall back
mechanism. Another key feature potentially
included in 12.4 is Banish Auto Park, previously known as
Reverse Summon. This feature allows users to
select a parking spot, exit the vehicle, and have the car park
itself, and with its inclusion and 12.4 is not confirmed, Musk
has indicated that driverless parking is forthcoming.
Additionally, Tesla will soon automatically seek parking spots
upon arriving at a destination entering auto park mode in
parking lots. This feature aligns with Musk's
recent announcements on X and hand Gesture recognition has
been featured in various videos, though Musk caution against
expecting this in the current FSD version.
However, a Tesla employee indicated it would be included
in an update next month. They recently added FSD 12 point
3.6 to 12 or 2024.14 branch with updates 2024 dot 14.5 and 2024
dot 14.6. Now this suggests that the next
FSD version will also be based on 2024.14, available to any
vehicle on this branch. And for users on update 2024,
point 3.25, this means they will receive all features from
updates 2024.8 and 2024.14, making it a substantial update.
Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
I really do appreciate your support.
If you could take a second and hit this subscribe or the follow
button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
miss an episode and each episode is about 10 minutes or less to
get you caught up quickly. And please, if you want to
support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stage Zero and
please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you
tomorrow.