Elon Musk: Tesla Version 9 Software Arriving In August With "Full Self-driving Features"

On Sunday, Elon Musk announced in a tweet that Tesla is set to release Version 9 software in August which will enable “Full Self Driving Features.” The features will be available for Autopilot 2.0 vehicles.

That issue is better in latest Autopilot software rolling out now & fully fixed in August update as part of our long-awaited Tesla Version 9. To date, Autopilot resources have rightly focused entirely on safety. With V9, we will begin to enable full self-driving features.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2018

Tesla will get the new software update after two years as Version 8 was announced back in 2016, which brought a revamped user interface, a set of new features and significant improvements to Autopilot.

Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot package can be purchased at $5,000 for Autopilot 2.0 cars and on the top of that, an additional package for “Full Self Driving Capability” will cost $3,000.

The tweet said that the new v9 update would “enable full self-driving features,” which does not necessarily mean that Tesla will be able to operate autonomously. There are many rules and regulations which require attention before Tesla can actually drive on its own.

It might take some time to incorporate full self-driving features in cars, but with this release, we can expect partial autonomous driving where the driver can release steering wheel in certain situations where minimal risks are involved.

After his tweet, Tesla’s official website added a new “Autopilot” webpage which explicitly states that “Please note that Self-Driving functionality is dependent upon extensive software validation and regulatory approval, which may vary widely by jurisdiction. It is not possible to know exactly when each element of the functionality described above will be available, as this is highly dependent on local regulatory approval”.

With mishaps caused due to self-driving cars including Uber’s infamous fatal self-driving crash making rounds on headlines lately, it would be interesting to see how Tesla will ascertain that the full self-driving features are safe for passengers as well as other people on roads.

What do you expect from Tesla’s version 9 software update and full self-driving features?