Tesla FSD V12.4.1 Goes Out: Exploring No Nags and More [Video] (2024)

With FSD V12.4.1 finally beginning its rollout to select customers as of last night. You’re probably wondering exactly how nags will – or won’t – work for the updated and much-hyped update.

No Steering Wheel Nags

Tesla’s current implementation of no steering wheel nags on V12.4.1 is pretty simple and straightforward. As long as you’re paying attention and looking at the road, you won’t be required to touch the steering wheel. You’ll see a green dot on the screen, letting you know that the enhanced driver monitoring system (DMS) and Vision-Based Attention Monitoring (VBAM) are active.

On the Model S and X, the green dot is on the instrument cluster screen, immediately next to the blue FSD/AP wheel icon. On the Model 3 and Model Y (and Cybertruck, in the future), the green dot indicator is on the top left of the screen, in between the battery indicator and the blue FSD/AP wheel.

However, there are some restrictions baked into this initial implementation. Your eyes cannot be obscured or occluded from the cabin camera. This means that legacy vehicles are ineligible for the new VBAM, along with anyone who installs a physical camera cover for privacy or other reasons.

For the privacy-conscious folks, Tesla has mentioned that cabin camera imagery will not leave the vehicle itself unless you enable data sharing, which is optional. Cabin camera imagery is also not available to view via the API, so third-party integrations cannot view your cabin camera either.

Restrictions

There are some other catches too. The cabin camera is currently unable to see through sunglasses due to the polarization. The car will display “Attention monitoring unavailable, sunglasses use detected” on the screen. This could change in the future as Tesla figures out how to best take advantage of its cabin cameras. However, it can see through regular glasses just fine – so eyeglass wearers, rejoice!

Attention monitoring unavailable, sunglasses use detected

Vehicles that do not have IR lights in the cabin will also not be able to take advantage of VBAM at night – as the cameras in vehicles without IR lights are unable to see at night. Tesla does offer a refit for vehicles to upgrade to IR-capable cameras – put in a service ticket if you’re interested through the Service Menu on the app.

If it cannot find your eyes due to any of these restrictions, the green light will not come on, and the regular wheel nags that you are used to will continue.

Warnings and Suspensions

If VBAM determines that you’re not paying attention – initially a screen warning will appear, telling you to pay attention to the road. This can be dismissed quickly by just reverting your attention to the road ahead of you. You won’t have to touch the steering wheel to dismiss the nag.

However, if you continue to not pay attention and the DMS detects improper usage, you will receive an Autopilot Strikeout, and FSD will disengage. Before a Strikeout occurs, there will be multiple auditory and visual warnings, ensuring you have a few moments to bring your attention back to supervising FSD.

You can receive up to 5 Strikeouts before the FSD becomes suspended. One strikeout will be lifted per 7-day period in which you do not receive a Strikeout. If you hit 5 Strikeouts, it could be up to 5 weeks before you clear all of them! If you receive another Strikeout within that 7-day period after an initial Strikeout, the 7-day period is reset.

Other Changes

Elon Musk has mentioned that V12.4 was supposed to be focused on user comfort, by reducing hard acceleration and braking. According to Musk, it should have a 5-10x improvement between user disengagements.

Early Access owners have mentioned that 12.4 tends to be more assertive and less hesitant when it comes to intersections, stop signs, and parking lots. Owners have also noticed improvements in the “lane dancing”, where FSD V12.3 would stray in between lanes for too long while changing lanes.

Of additional note is that Vision Autopark is slightly faster – but this is the same Vision Autopark speed increase that rolled out to customers who have already received the Spring Update. For everyone else, expect a 2-3x improvement in how fast Vision Autopark changes directions, and how fast it maneuvers in general. As of the Spring Update, it can now park in even tighter spaces.

Another much-appreciated feature is the ability to temporarily increase the sensitivity of Autowipers. As many have experienced, the Autowiper functionality doesn’t always work well. However, with the Spring Update, you can now temporarily increase the sensitivity of the Autowiper system by tapping once on the wiper stalk (or button on stalkless vehicles).

Missed Features

Sadly, some previously announced features were missed out on in this release of FSD V12.4.1. Namely, the key features of Banish Autopark and Park Seek. For the time being, users will still have to disengage FSD and then engage Autopark once they find their parking spot.

Banish Autopark, or “Reverse Summon” was thought to arrive in V12.4 as part of the comfort update according, allowing you to choose a parking spot type preference, exit the vehicle, and then have the car park itself.

Additionally, Park Seek – which would allow FSD to automatically find a parking spot in a parking lot, and then engage Autopark automatically, was initially a confirmed feature, but is not present in this release.

Finally, Hand Gesture recognition was supposed to come in an update “later in May” – but given that FSD V12.4 has missed previous deadlines – no surprise to people familiar with the “2 week policy” – there is no confirmation yet if that feature has made it into this build. It is very possible that the employee in question may have been referring to V12.5 – which is also expected to bring vehicle-to-fleet communication.

Expected Wide Release

Given that it just rolled out to employees yesterday, and then to “OG” FSD Beta owners today, we could expect 2024.15.5 – the version that contains V12.4.1 – to hopefully continue rolling out to customers next week. Everyone with an update under 2024.15.5 - so users on 2024.3.25,2024.8.9, and2024.14.11 – should be eligible to receive this update. The very few vehicles already on 2024.20 with the Adaptive Headlights functionality will have to wait a bit longer!

During Tesla’s shareholder meeting, Elon Musk was asked if FSD transfers could return for existing owners. He hemmed and hawed, but eventually gave in when an audience member asked if they could return for just one more quarter.

Final Chance?

This could be the last chance for FSD owners to transfer their FSD capability to a new vehicle. Elon Musk mentioned that it removes revenue from upcoming vehicle sales. Every time Tesla offers FSD transfers, it impacts Tesla’s potential earnings.

On the flip side, it does incentivize current owners to upgrade to newer vehicles, especially if it’s a limited-time offer. Tesla previously offered FSD transfers in Q3 of 2023. FSD transfers are expected to be limited to North America where FSD software is currently available.

When Will Tesla Offer FSD Transfers

Musk nor Tesla mentioned a timeline for when FSD transfers would begin. Tesla owners looking to upgrade their vehicles would likely wait for this offer to be available before buying their new Tesla. Since this would reduce some vehicle sales, it seems that Tesla wouldn’t want to wait too long before making FSD transfers available again.

FSD Transfers in the Future

While Elon Musk didn’t seem to be too enthused with the idea of continuing transfers but gave in to “just one more quarter”, there could be more down the road.

Musk has said that Tesla has various demand “levers” they can use to increase or slow demand as needed. FSD transfers and Tesla’s referral program are prime examples of those levers. Although Musk says Tesla will only offer FSD transfers one more time, Tesla won’t hesitate to offer it again if they need to increase sales. Tesla faced this situation when the new Model 3 was unveiled in China, but it took several months for it to be offered in North America.

Additional FSD Trials

Elon Musk confirmed that two free weeks of FSD would be given to all vehicle owners whenever a major FSD update hits. We don’t expect another trial of FSD with the upcoming update of v12.4, but perhaps with v12.5 or 12.6, especially if Tesla adds new features such as ‘Actually Smart Summon,’ which will be the first time Smart Summon is available on a vehicle without ultrasonic sensors.

With Tesla’s app update to v4.34 yesterday, it appears that Tesla may be looking to offer a live video feed of the vehicle’s various cameras while you’re summoning your Tesla.

Did you miss the Shareholder Meeting? Want to know what Elon Musk said?

We’ve got an easy-to-read recap for you below, split by sections. We’ll be writing more in-depth about many of these topics over the upcoming days as we unpack all the awesome news!

Robotaxi

• Fleet monetization planning is ongoing.

• Owners will be able to send their cars to the Robotaxi fleet and summon them back when they need them.

• Tesla will take a margin, but most of the income will go to owners.

• Tesla has plans to solve driverless interventions in the future, but expects them to be edge cases of edge cases.

FSD

• Headed towards Unsupervised FSD!

• New subversions are essentially new full versions; 12.4 and 12.5 are massive updates.

• Expect a 2-5x increase in performance between versions.

• Major versions will include a 2-week free trial.

• 10 thousand miles between interventions for some internal builds.

• Hardware 4 training will begin later this year, Hardware 3 will continue to be developed.

• Hardware 5 is 18 months from retail release.

Optimus

• Optimus will be able to do many simple and difficult tasks:

  • Teaching

  • Companionship

  • Babysitting

  • Factory Work

• Tesla expects 2 humanoid robots per person in the future.

• Tesla expects 1000-2000 robots working in its factories by next year, with a limited production run.

• 22 degrees of freedom in the next generation hand, one new major hardware revision coming this year.

Cybertruck

• China and Europe-compliant Cybertruck coming after production is scaled and costs are reduced.

• Foundation series ending soon, non-foundation series starting next quarter.

Semi

• Semi is in low-volume production, high-volume production starting soon.

• Companies are actively choosing Semi due to economic advantages.

• Massive potential impact on carbon emissions

• Big impact on the profitability.

Other New Products

• New products are coming soon, and Tesla is working hard on them.

• Possible 12-passenger van, added to the “To-do” list.

Supercharger

• 58K global sites, and continuing to grow.

• More superchargers deployed this year than the rest of the industry combined.

• Tesla is providing adapters to other car companies and providing them with support for Supercharger access.

• Tesla is moving to fill gaps and relieve congestion where possible.

Battery Production and Stationary Storage

• New 4680 innovations, best cell from a manufacturing and efficiency standpoint.

• 4680 will be a continuing focus to improve over time.

• Tesla has made their battery supply chain stronger and is working on further vertical integration.

• 2023 had 15GWh of Megapack production, 2024 is looking closer to 40GWh.

• 100-200% growth rate in the energy storage market.

• Tesla is constrained by Megapack and Powerwall 3 production, can’t keep up with demand, even as they scale rapidly.

AI and Compute

• AI growth is on a weekly basis, with Tesla taking in video and training on decision-making faster than ever.

• Tesla is not compute-limited for FSD, but scenario-limited.

• There is an AWS-style opportunity for parked vehicles to run distributed inference and compute.

• Tesla intends to introduce LLMs with customizable learning personalities to Optimus and its vehicle lineup.

Investor Facts

• Elon Musk expects $5-10 Trillion valuation for autonomy, and $20 Trillion for Optimus.

• Musk mentioned that Ark Invest has the closest scenario – with Robotaxi releasing in 2025 or 2026, for a 110x valuation increase.

• Elon’s stock award isn’t cash, and he has no intent to cut-and-run and is with Tesla for the long haul to accomplish the mission.

Other Items

• Tesla Home HVAC, with a built-in HEPA filter, humidity control, super-efficient, super-quiet, with Powerwall integration – one day.

• Kids Factory Tour Event – for children under 12!

If you’d like to watch the shareholder meeting, you can view it here, along with all the stockholder vote results.