Tesla has rolled back the latest version of its Full Self-Driving car software, from version 10.3 back to version 10.2.
The Full Self-Driving (FSD) is optional software that enables a number of autonomous driving features in Tesla cars (though it does not really enabled autonomous driving without driver supervision). The company released it as limited beta software to eligible U.S. drivers in October 2020, causing controversy as some experts feared that this puts other traffic participants at risk.
On Saturday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that there was an issue with “left turns at traffic lights” in the 10.3 version of FSD. On Sunday, he followed up by saying that the company is temporarily rolling back FSD to version 10.3.
“This is to be expected with beta software. It is impossible to test all hardware configs in all conditions with internal QA, hence public beta,” he tweeted.
It’s hard to discern what, exactly, the issues are, and given Tesla has no PR department, we have no one to ask. But The Verge points out that some drivers who tested the FSD 10.3 update have seen phantom forward collision warning (FCW) alerts and a disappearing Autosteer option, among other issues.
As Musk puts it, bugs are to be expected with beta software. But when beta software is deployed to actual, real-life drivers on real-world roads, where bugs can cause serious accidents, you have to wonder whether the whole “beta software on public roads” idea is the right way to go.
