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Tesla FSD Beta 10.2 starts rolling out to new testers with perfect Safety Scores

Credit: Tesla Raj/Twitter

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After a slight delay this weekend, Tesla has formally started the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta 10.2. The update is being pushed not only to the company’s existing group of FSD Beta testers; it is also getting released to a new batch of owners who have earned a perfect rating in the company’s Safety Score system. 

Amidst social media posts from veteran FSD Beta testers who have been part of the program for the better part of a year now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that FSD Beta 10.2 is being rolled out to cars that have received a Safety Score of 100 for the past 100 miles. This would likely result in a great number of new testers, as numerous Tesla owners have been working really hard to qualify for the rollout of FSD Beta 10.2. 

FSD Beta 10.2 was initially set to be released on Friday midnight to about 1,000 new owners with perfect safety scores. According to Musk, the rollout of the advanced driver assist system would be held for a few days to see how the program goes, and if it was successful, FSD Beta would be gradually rolled out for owners with a Safety Score of 99 and below. The CEO, however, later clarified that FSD Beta 10.2 would need a couple more days before it was ready. 

Musk followed these up with more tweets about the FSD Beta rollout. Late Saturday, the CEO stated that the Tesla team was working extremely hard over the weekend to ensure a safe release of the advanced driver assist system. Musk did note, however, that he had been informed that FSD Beta 10.2 was a go for a Sunday night release. This was reiterated in another post on Sunday night when Musk assured a longtime FSD Beta tester that the 10.2 update was indeed coming in a few hours. The CEO was not joking. 

Tesla’s Release Notes for FSD Beta 10.2 seems to be identical to previous versions of the advanced driver assist suite, suggesting that the improvements to the system were mostly under the hood. That being said, longtime FSD Beta testers have observed that 10.2 is a significant improvement over the system’s previous iteration. Several zero-intervention drives have already been posted on YouTube, and owners who have been part of the program since last year have described FSD Beta 10.2 as a smooth, confident, and stable build. Reports of a stricter driver monitoring system while FSD Beta is engaged have also been shared online.

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So far, the initial impressions of FSD Beta 10.2 seem to be highly positive. The wider release of the advanced driver-assist system is also evident, with numerous Tesla owners sharing their welcome emails from the company on social media. Overall, the release of FSD Beta 10.2 seems to be a landmark accomplishment for the company. After an extremely cautious 11 months of testing FSD Beta with a very limited number of users, Tesla is now gradually testing its advanced driver-assist system with a much larger fleet. This could be of great benefit to the FSD Beta program, as the amount of training data for Tesla’s neural networks would likely see a massive rise soon. This should pave the way for faster updates to the FSD Beta system, which should allow the company to get closer to its goal of attaining true autonomous driving in the future.

Watch a first drive video of FSD Beta 10.2 in the video below. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to tips@teslarati.com to give us a heads up. 

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla teases new market entrance with confusing and cryptic message

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla teased its entrance into a new market with a confusing and what appeared to be cryptic message on the social media platform X.

The company has been teasing its entrance into several markets, including Africa, which would be a first, and South America, where it only operates in Chile.

In September, Tesla started creating active job postings for the Colombian market, hinting it would expand its presence in South America and launch in a new country for the first time in two years.

Tesla job postings seem to show next surprise market entry

The jobs were related to various roles, including Associate Sales Manager, Advisors in Sales and Delivery, and Service Technicians. These are all roles that would indicate Tesla is planning to launch a wide-scale effort to sell, manage, and repair vehicles in the market.

Last night, Tesla posted its latest hint, a cryptic video that seems to show the outline of Colombia, teasing its closer than ever to market entry:

This would be the next expansion into a continent where it does not have much of a presence for Tesla. Currently, there are only two Supercharger locations on the entire continent, and they’re both in Chile.

Tesla will obviously need to expand upon this crucial part of the ownership experience to enable a more confident consumer base in South America as a whole. However, it is not impossible, as many other EV charging infrastructures are available, and home charging is always a suitable option for those who have access to it.

Surprisingly, Tesla seems to be more concerned about these middle-market countries as opposed to the larger markets in South America, but that could be by design.

If Tesla were to launch in Brazil initially, it may not be able to handle the uptick in demand, and infrastructure expansion could be more difficult. Brazil may be on its list in the upcoming years, but not as of right now.

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Tesla expands crucial Supercharging feature for easier access

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

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tesla supercharger
Credit: Tesla

Tesla has expanded a crucial Supercharging feature that helps owners identify stall availability at nearby locations.

Tesla said on Tuesday night that its “Live Availability” feature, which shows EV owners how many stalls are available at a Supercharger station, to Google Maps, a third-party app:

Already offering it in its own vehicles, the Live Availability feature that Teslas have is a helpful feature that helps you choose an appropriate station with plugs that are immediately available.

A number on an icon where the Supercharger is located lets EV drivers know how many stalls are available.

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

Essentially, when those drivers needed to charge at a Supercharger that enables non-Tesla EVs to plug in, there was a bit more of a gamble. There was no guarantee that a plug would be available, and with no way to see how many are open, it was a risk.

Tesla adding this feature allows people to have a more convenient and easier-to-use experience if they are in a non-Tesla EV. With the already expansive Supercharger Network being available to so many EV owners, there is more congestion than ever.

This new feature makes the entire experience better for all owners, especially as there is more transparency regarding the availability of plugs at Supercharger stalls.

It will be interesting to see if Tesla is able to expand on this new move, as Apple Maps compatibility is an obvious goal of the company’s in the future, we could imagine. In fact, this is one of the first times an Android Auto feature is available to those owners before it became an option for iOS users.

Apple owners tend to get priority with new features within the Tesla App itself.

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Elon Musk’s Boring Co goes extra hard in Nashville with first rock-crushing TBM

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

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Credit: The Boring Company/X

The Boring Company is gearing up to tackle one of its toughest projects yet, a new tunnel system beneath Nashville’s notoriously tough limestone terrain. Unlike the soft-soil conditions of Las Vegas and Austin, the Music City Loop will require a “hard-rock” boring machine capable of drilling through dense, erosion-resistant bedrock. 

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

A boring hard-rock tunneling machine

The Boring Company revealed on X that its new hard-rock TBM can generate up to 4 million pounds of grip force and 1.5 million pounds of maximum thrust load. It also features a 15-filter dust removal system designed to keep operations clean and efficient during excavation even in places where hard rock is present.

Previous Boring Co. projects, including its Loop tunnels in Las Vegas, Austin, and Bastrop, were dug primarily through soft soils. Nashville’s geology, however, poses a different challenge. Boring Company CEO and President Steve Davis mentioned this challenge during the project’s announcement in late July.

“It’s a tough place to tunnel, Nashville. If we were optimizing for the easiest places to tunnel, it would not be here. You have extremely hard rock, like way harder than it should be. It’s an engineering problem that’s fairly easy and straightforward to solve,” Davis said.

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Nashville’s limestone terrain

Experts have stated that the city’s subsurface conditions make it one of the more complex tunneling environments in the U.S. The Outer Nashville Basin is composed of cherty Mississippian-age limestone, a strong yet soluble rock that can dissolve over time, creating underground voids and caves, as noted in a report from The Tennessean.

Jakob Walter, the founder and principal engineer of Haushepherd, shared his thoughts on these challenges. “Limestone is generally a stable sedimentary bedrock material with strength parameters that are favorable for tunneling. Limestone is however fairly soluble when compared to other rack materials, and can dissolve over long periods of time when exposed to water. 

“Unexpected encounters with these features while tunneling can result in significant construction delays and potential instability of the excavation. In urban locations, structures at the ground surface should also be constantly monitored with robotic total stations or similar surveying equipment to identify any early signs of movement or distress,” he said.

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