Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta 10.6 reveals focus on vision and precision

By Joey Klender

Posted on December 4, 2021

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta program is getting a new version this weekend with Update Version 10.6, and the release notes show an extra emphasis on vision, object detection, and the precision of movements by the vehicle.

The Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta program is a unique fleet of customer-owned vehicles that receive exclusive access to the automaker’s newest and most robust releases of its semi-autonomous driving program. It features drivers with Tesla Safety Scores of 98, 99 and 100, and will likely expand to lower scores in the future. However, the best way to be included in the program is to achieve scores as close to 100 as possible. Tesla’s FSD Beta updates do not increase the capabilities of the FSD Suite to make the vehicle fully autonomous. Failure to remain attentive at the wheel when using the program can result in expulsion from the Beta fleet, and Tesla has made it evident that they will take relatively no risks in its effort to protect the Beta program’s exclusivity.

Tesla is enforcing strict FSD Beta rules for inattentive drivers

Tesla FSD Beta updates come every two weeks, give or take a few days based on its performance internally. Yesterday, CEO Elon Musk confirmed 10.6 would roll out this weekend, barring any major or significant bottlenecks that would affect the performance of the semi-autonomous driving suite. It rolled out to employees last night and earlier today.

It releases internally today, then rolls out to external beta in a few days if no significant issues are found

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2021

It appears the main concerns of Tesla’s FSD engineers for this release were object detection, visibility, and improving the overall performance of the suite, especially through the accuracy and predictability of its movements. The FSD Beta 10.6 Release Notes were shared on Reddit by u/110110.

• Improved object detection network architecture for non-VRUs (e.g. cars, trucks, buses). 7% higher recall. 16% lower depth error, and 21% lower velocity error for crossing vehicles.

• New visibility network with 18.5% less mean relative error.

• New general static object network with 17% precision improvements in high curvature and nighttime cases.

• Improved stopping position at unprotected left turns while yielding to oncoming objects, using object predictions beyond the crossing point.

• Allow more room for longitudinal alignment during merges by incorporating modeling of merge region end.

• Improved comfort when offsetting for objects that are cutting out of your lane.

The new FSD Beta version should roll out to members of the Beta program in the coming days.

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Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta 10.6 reveals focus on vision and precision