It appears that Tesla may be preparing to roll out some subscription-based services soon. Based on the observations of a Wales-based Model 3 owner who performed some reverse-engineering on the Tesla mobile app, it seems that the electric car maker has added a new “Subscribe” option beside the “Buy” option within the “Upgrades” tab, at least behind the scenes.

A screenshot of the new option was posted in the r/TeslaMotors subreddit, and while the Tesla owner in question, u/Callump01, admitted that the screenshot looks like something that could be easily fabricated, he did submit proof of his reverse-engineering to the community’s moderators. The moderators of the r/TeslaMotors subreddit confirmed the legitimacy of the Model 3 owner’s work, further suggesting that subscription options may indeed be coming to Tesla owners soon.

Did some reverse engineering on the app and Tesla looks to be preparing for subscriptions? from r/teslamotors

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite has been heavily speculated to be offered as a subscription option, similar to the company’s Premium Connectivity feature. And back in April, noted Tesla hacker @greentheonly stated that the company’s vehicles already had the source codes for a pay-as-you-go subscription model. The Tesla hacker suggested then that Tesla would likely release such a feature by the end of the year — something that Elon Musk also suggested in the first-quarter earnings call. “I think we will offer Full Self-Driving as a subscription service, but it will be probably towards the end of this year,” Musk stated.

While the signs for an upcoming FSD subscription option seem to be getting more and more prominent as the year approaches its final quarter, the details for such a feature are still quite slim. Pricing for FSD subscriptions, for example, have not been teased by Elon Musk yet, though he has stated on Twitter that purchasing the suite upfront would be more worth it in the long term. References to the feature in the vehicles’ source code, and now in the Tesla mobile app, also listed no references to pricing.

The idea of FSD subscriptions could prove quite popular among electric car owners, especially since it would allow budget-conscious customers to make the most out of the company’s driver-assist and self-driving systems without committing to the features’ full price. The current price of the Full Self-Driving suite is no joke, after all, being listed at $8,000 on top of a vehicle’s cost. By offering subscriptions to features like Navigate on Autopilot with automatic lane changes, owners could gain access to advanced functions only as they are needed.

Elon Musk, for his part, has explained that ultimately, he still believes that purchasing the Full Self-Driving suite outright provides the most value to customers, as it is an investment that would pay off in the future. “I should say, it will still make sense to buy FSD as an option as in our view, buying FSD is an investment in the future. And we are confident that it is an investment that will pay off to the consumer – to the benefit of the consumer.” Musk said.

Tesla has started rolling out update 2020.36 this weekend, introducing a couple of notable new features for its vehicles. While there are only a few handful of vehicles that have reportedly received the update so far, 2020.36 makes it evident that the electric car maker has made some strides in its efforts to refine its driver-assist systems for inner-city driving.

Tesla is currently hard at work developing key features for its Full Self-Driving suite, which should allow vehicles to navigate through inner-city streets without driver input. Tesla’s FSD suite is still a work in progress, though the company has released the initial iterations of key features such Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control, which was introduced last April. Similar to the first release of Navigate on Autopilot, however, the capabilities of Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control were pretty basic during their initial rollout.

2020.36 Showing Speed Limit Signs in Visualization from r/teslamotors

With the release of update 2020.36, Tesla has rolled out some improvements that should allow its vehicles to handle traffic lights better. What’s more, the update also includes a particularly useful feature that enables better recognition of speed limit signs, which should make Autopilot’s speed adjustments better during use. Following are the Release Notes for these two new features.

Green Traffic Light Chime

“A chime will play when the traffic light you are waiting for turns green. If you are waiting behind another car, the chime will play once the car advances unless Traffic-Aware Cruise Control or Autosteer is active. When Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control is activated, a chime will play when you can confirm to proceed through a green traffic light. To enable, tap Controls > Autopilot > Green Traffic Light Chime.

“Note: This chime is only designed as a notification. It is the driver’s responsibility to observe their environment and make decisions accordingly.”

Speed Assist Improvements

“Speed Assist now leverages your car’s cameras to detect speed limit signs to improve the accuracy of speed limit data on local roads. Detected speed limit signs will be displayed in the driving visualization and used to set the associated Speed Limit Warning.

“As usual, to adjust Speed Assist settings, tap Controls > Autopilot > Speed Limit.”

Footage of the new green light chime in action via @NASA8500 on Twitter ✈️ from r/teslamotors

Amidst the rollout of 2020.36’s new features, speculations were abounding among Tesla community members that this update may include the first pieces of the company’s highly-anticipated Autopilot rewrite. Inasmuch as the idea is exciting, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stated that this was not the case. While responding to a Tesla owner who asked if the Autopilot rewrite is in “shadow mode” in 2020.36, Musk responded “Not yet.”

Improvements to Tesla’s driver-assist suite are poised to accelerate in the near future, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk providing a brief yet exciting update on the ongoing Autopilot rewrite. According to Musk, the upcoming rewrite will usher in a lot of new functionality all at once, and it will also pave the way for improvements to the company’s labeling software. 

Musk’s recent update came as a response to Tesla owner-enthusiast @WholeMarsBlog, who asked about the status of the company’s Autopilot rewrite. Musk’s response was optimistic. “Going well. Team is kicking ass & it’s an honor to work with them. Pretty much everything had to be rewritten, including our labeling software, so that it’s fundamentally “3D” at every step from training through inference,” he wrote. 

The CEO’s mention of 3D labeling is notable. In an interview on the Third Row Podcast last April, former Tesla Autopilot engineer Eshak Mir provided some details about the company’s ongoing work with its driver-assist system. According to engineer, the Autopilot rewrite actually started with 3D labeling, which improved the labeling accuracy for each frame used to train Tesla’s neural networks. Such a system allowed Tesla to “stitch” images together that are retrieved from vehicles. 

Interestingly enough, Mir’s mention of “stitched” training images for Tesla’s neural networks seem to be referenced in a patent from the electric car maker. Titled “Systems and Methods for Training Machine Models with Augmented Data,” the patent described a novel process that would allow the company to process these images quickly. This is done through the use of “cutouts” that could train neural networks in an optimized manner. 

Musk followed this up by elaborating that the upcoming Autopilot rewrite will allow the company to introduce several new features. Musk did not specify if these new functionalities will be distributed to the entire fleet, or if they are only unique for owners who have purchased the Full Self-Driving suite. That being said, the CEO noted that such upgrades will likely be ready for release in the next 2-4 months. 

The idea of an upcoming Autopilot rewrite is quite exciting. A rewrite of Autopilot, after all, was responsible for one of the most notable updates that were rolled out back in March 2018, v8.1 2018.10.4. Prior to the rollout of this update, Autopilot’s behavior was quite inconsistent at best, with Tesla owners complaining of jerky steering during lane changes, among other things. 

Yet with the rollout of v8.1 2018.10.4, Tesla community members were pleasantly surprised to see massive improvements in Autopilot’s performance. Amidst the positive reactions from the electric car community, Tesla AI Director Andrej Karpathy expressed his gratitude, explaining that the update was the result of a fairly extensive rewrite. Considering that the upcoming Autopilot rewrite hinted at by Elon Musk seems to be far more extensive, it would be very exciting to see just how well Tesla’s driver-assist suite could perform in the coming months.