Elon Musk takes FSD Beta V12 on 45-minute rush hour demo while musing over stop sign regulations

Elon Musk took the unreleased Full Self-driving Beta V12 edition for a spin during rush hour, just as Tesla's CEO promised earlier in the week, provided that he could find time for the demo.

The FSD Beta V12 drive took 45 minutes through all the twists and turns that a rush-hour traffic in Palo Alto presents with Elon Musk commenting how much smoother the driver-assist software has become, taking on hard tasks like unprotected left turns with aplomb. "Very intuitive, smooth speed up acceleration and turns," he commented, as they barely had to make an intervention or two throughout the V12 drive, while listening to tracks like Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

With FSD 12, the car parks itself upon destination reach

Upon arrival at its first destination, the Model S parked itself by the curb in a suitable place of its choosing when it reached the address. They then keyed in Zuckerberg's house address according to Google as a mild level prank, and the car took them there as well.

The eight HW3 cameras ran at their maximum of 36 frames per second input which Elon Musk said can be processed faster with pure AI calculations. He also added that the theoretical maximum of the software is to process about 50 frames per second, but in reality road conditions only need to be fed with 24FPS for the FSD V12 software to do its job properly.

FSD 12 can work on Tesla HW3 without Internet connection

He also mentions that the FSD AI is now only fed huge amounts of video in order to discern what it needs to do in different situations, rather than have each road element or situation coded individually like roundabouts or having to recognize each person on a scooter in the bike lane as such. This has allowed Tesla to eliminate hundreds of thousands of lines of code in FSD V12, making it lighter and more nimble, all the while it can still work without data connection on unfamiliar terrain. Musk said that Tesla now has FSD V12 beta testers around the globe, including in places like New Zealand, Norway, Thailand, or Japan.

Regulations still a challenge for FSD V12 development

Assisted in his commentary by what sounds like a chief engineer at Tesla's driver-assist software unit, Musk dished out statistics that the Tesla team has had to deal with on the way to building a realistic FSD V12 driving model. For example, he said that barely 5% of human drivers honor stop signs completely to an actual speed of zero since they usually creep with a few miles per hour while looking around. His commentary companion then had to intervene to correct him that the statistic actually says just 0.5% of human drivers go for a complete zero at all stop signs, while both used it as an example how federal regulations over driver-assist software affect its development and real-life application.

The chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which deals with those regulations just said that the agency is concluding its investigation into Tesla's autonomous driving software behavior and will come up with a decision and recommendations soon. These will likely include more driver engagement and warnings, as one of the recalls that the NHTSA issued over Tesla's driver-assist software was precisely over running stop signs.

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