Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the upcoming version of the Full-Self Driving (FSD) software, set to be launched in about five weeks, will be the “second biggest update” to the system since late 2023.
The comments came in reaction to William Blair’s analyst Jed Dorsheimer, who praised the Robotaxi experience, speaking with CNBC after testing it last week.
The analyst said in a new note released on Tuesday that he had “experienced a glimpse of the future,” comparing the ride-hailing service with competitors Waymo and Zoox.
“Multiple times we drove past Waymo and Zoox vehicles outfitted with their complex sensor suite that stick out like a sore thumb,” he wrote.
“In contrast, the robotaxis blended in with all the other Teslas on the road; we felt inconspicuous flowing with the traffic,” Dorsheimer added.
Dorsheimer was later on CNBC, where he detailed a bit more of his ride with Tesla‘s robotaxi.
“Our experience was surprising. I mean, the Tesla drove much more autonomously, it felt a lot more like a person was driving,” he said. “It was very comfortable, there were no safety issues that we had in any of our rides.”
The analyst said he also trialed Waymo through Uber in the Texas’ capital. When taking about Tesla, he said he was “expecting something that was more like Waymo.”
“I’ve taken many Waymo rides, it still feels somewhat robotic, you know, when you are entering a intersection or taking a left, it feels as if the computer is thinking is it sensing things out, which it is is doing,” Dorsheimer added.
“The stark difference is Waymo uses LiDAR and uses laser in addition to cameras and vision,” the analyst noted, “whereas Tesla is vision only and using its neural net, much more like a person.”
Earlier this year, Waymo‘s co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told CNBC she sees LiDAR as a crucial safety feature.
“I think it’s been really important for us to prove out the safest path to doing this,” Mawakana said, commenting on the camera-based Tesla Vision system. “For us, there’s no reason to eliminate aspects that make it safe.”
Commenting an X post with the CNBC clip, Musk noted that Dorsheimer 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.”
Last week, Tesla announced that its FSD system was able to drive 362 miles (582 km) without requiring any human intervention.
The EV maker is preparing to unveil a new version of the FSD by the end of September “if testing goes well”, according to CEO Elon Musk.
The ride-hailing service launched in Austin in late June and is currently operated through a fleet of altered Model Ys, which feature a new, fully autonomous-grade version of full-self driving.
Musk said in June that this newer version of the software would “merge to main branch soon.”
He also wrote on X earlier this month that “Tesla is training a new FSD model with ~10X params and a big improvement to video compression loss.”
Over the past weeks, Musk has said the FSD software will have a “step change improvement” as the company prepares to publicly release its robotaxi service, also scheduled for next month.
Additionally, the company’s first vehicle “that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house was delivered on June 27 — a day ahead of the schedule given by the CEO.
The FSD is available for purchase in the US, with a single payment of $8,000, or as a monthly subscription of $99.
Tesla has launched a version of the system in China earlier this year and is still “awaiting regulatory approval in Europe,” according to Musk, who has reaffirmed it during the latest earnings call.
On Wednesday, the company released a new video on X showing that it has started testing the system in Japan.
