A wide release of the Tesla Version 9.0 software update is expected by the end of this week, according to a tweeted response from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Going over final tweaks tonight. Hopefully in wide release end of week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 25 September 2018
The original plan was to start beta testing around the middle of September and then do a wider rollout via an OTA update to the rest of the fleet. However, delays with development builds earlier this month prevented that from happening.
Now, it seems that the company may skip the beta testing and opt for a full public release this week. While that’s not necessarily a wise move, we’re unaware of whether or not Tesla has been privately testing the V9.0 Tesla software update over the past couple of weeks. That’s not very Tesla-like, but having the public test out their update certainly is.
An unrelated update earlier this month “broke” Autopilot and AEB, leaving many Model 3, Model S and Model C owners unsure of when the fix was coming. If there are still any bugs in the software, we hope that V9.0 will have addressed them by now.
Musk wasn’t exactly confirming this week’s release because he used the word “hopefully”, so don’t get your hopes up until the software update drops. The company is currently focused on deliveries matching production numbers, so we won’t be surprised if the public release for v9.0 gets pushed to October. The priority right now is to deliver strong production and delivery numbers for the third quarter, which ends on September 30, 2018.
As for what to expect in version 9.0 of the Tesla software, we covered that in another article that you might like to read:
4 Weeks to Tesla Firmware v9.0: What to Expect, and Timeline for AP Hardware 3
One final point to note is that only rudimentary FSD features are expected in v9.0. And even those might be bundled with Autopilot, such as the ‘Drive On Nav’ feature that lets the car do automatic lane changes based on your destination and current position. True FSD is still a couple of years away, and it requires the upgraded Hardware 3.0 that will presumably be powered by the in-house AI chip that Tesla has been working on. Version 10 of the Tesla software might have FSD, but that’s just speculation at this point.
