A couple of weeks after hinting that Version 14 of Tesla‘s Full Self Driving (FSD) was scheduled to be deployed “by the end of the year,” Elon Musk said on Thursday that it will be rolled out in the first days of October.
The update is being released on the previously scheduled timeline, as the CEO announced in August that it would come out this month.
“Version 14.0 goes into early wide release next week,” Musk wrote on X, adding that it will release “14.1 about 2 weeks later and finally 14.2.”
Tesla‘s chief executive teased that “the car will feel almost like it is sentient being by 14.2.”
On August 21, Musk had written on X a list of upcoming main events across his companies, where it was included that the V14 would be released “next month.”
Speaking at the ‘All-In Summit’ earlier this month, the CEO reaffirmed that “Version 14 will be the biggest upgrade in Tesla software since version 12,” as the EV maker is “increasing the parameter count by an order of magnitude.”
“These are all software updates that will go out, so just over the air (OTA) updates. Your car is sentient by the end of the year,” he concluded then.
In early August, the chief executive had already teased major improvements coming with the V14, stating that “once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less.”
Later in the month, the CEO commented on a clip of William Blair’s analyst Jed Dorsheimer, who praised the Robotaxi experience on CNBC after testing it, saying that the analyst experienced the version 13 of the software — while teasing a major update with the launch of V14.
“(He was just on version 13). Version 14 of Tesla self-driving feels sentient,” the chief executive wrote on X, adding that it is “the second biggest update to Tesla AI/Autopilot ever after V12. It feels alive.”
In August, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA launched an investigation on Tesla regarding potential delays in reporting vehicle crashes that involve advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) or self-driving vehicles.
Tesla‘s FSD is available for purchase in the United States, with a single payment of $8,000, or as a monthly subscription of $99.
Earlier this month, the system was also launched in Australia and New Zealand for HW4 vehicles.
On Thursday, the company discontinued Enhanced Autopilot in both Oceanian countries. For Tesla drivers with HW3 vehicles (for which the software is not yet available), the function still exists.
In China, where Tesla launched the FSD earlier this year, the EV maker is reportedly facing lawsuits from unsatisfied customers, who claim that the software cannot deliver the advertised features because of hardware limitations.
While reporting its second quarter earnings results, the company said it is working toward a “broader release” of the software in China, the world’s largest market for new energy vehicles.
The system is pending regulatory approval in Europe with the company expecting the Dutch market to be one of the first to allow the usage of the technology.
