Tesla’s next-generation Full Self-Driving software is officially operating on public roads sooner than expected. During the Q2 earnings call on Wednesday, executives revealed that the retrofitted Model Y vehicles currently offering autonomous rides on the Robotaxi network are already running early builds of FSD v15.
Tesla AI Chief Ashok Elluswamy gave an update on the fleet’s progress during the call, noting that “the Robotaxi program has been operating extremely well, especially in terms of safety. The program has had an impeccable safety record. We have driven more than 380,000 mi of unsupervised Robotaxi, now across six cities in two different states.”
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“The currently operating Robotaxi fleet is already running early versions of the v15 FSD software,” he added. “As we continue to complete our work on v15, we will see that the car is going to be ridiculously safe and capable.”
Elluswamy noted that Tesla had targeted seven major improvement tracks over v14 for v15, and they’re all being developed in parallel. He clarified that the Robotaxi fleet is currently running early FSD v15 builds, but even these versions already have about 40% of those planned improvements, with internal benchmarks hitting their objectives.
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Hardware 4 Validation and Scaling Up
This is good news for consumer vehicles. The Model Y units currently serving as driverless taxis rely on standard Hardware 4 (HW4/AI4) suites, with the only notable upgrades being the “Project Halo” communications units strapped to the rear window and a dedicated washer for the rear camera.
FSD v15 is slated to launch publicly later this year or early next year. It will bring 10x more parameters than current FSD builds, which should equate to a major improvement in performance and decision-making. Tesla previously confirmed that FSD v15 will run on HW4 vehicles, but seeing it perform on Model Y fleet cars offers some welcome reassurance to consumers that their vehicles will get it.
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However, the same isn’t true for older Hardware 3 (HW3/AI3) vehicles. Tesla has said HW3 won’t be able to achieve unsupervised autonomy, so it isn’t expected to receive FSD v15. Instead, it looks like FSD v14 Lite, which started rolling out publicly this week, will be the end of the line for legacy vehicles until Tesla starts offering hardware upgrades to make them capable of running more advanced FSD models and achieving true autonomy.
Paving the Way for Broader Robotaxi Deployment
Seeing early FSD v15 software out in the wild could mean faster Robotaxi expansion ahead. Tesla launched unsupervised Robotaxi rides in three new cities just this month — first in Miami, and then in Orlando and Tampa just this week.
Tesla previously noted it would wait for FSD v15 before really ramping up Robotaxi expansion into new cities. Now that Model Y robotaxis are officially running early v15 builds, wider commercial availability might be right around the corner.