Tesla Owners Get Antsy Waiting for FSD V12.4, Start to Unsubscribe to Receive Latest Update (2024)

Elon Musk mentioned in May that FSD V12.4 was in the final touches stage and would probably start rolling out in mid-May. However, May is now gone and we haven’t heard an update on the FSD V12.4 timeline.

The biggest features for V12.4 include no-nag, an updated strike-out system, automatic parking spot seeking, and a reduction in interventions.

Software Branches

FSD V12.4 was released to employees with update 2024.9.5, which means it’s behind the Spring Update – 2024.14. This means that cars on the Spring Update can’t receive 2024.9.5 – if it eventually goes out to consumers.

Additionally, Tesla has been working on bug fixes for 2024.14 and just announced update 2024.20, which brings Adaptive Headlight support to the United States and Canada.

Employee Rollout

At this point, only employees have received the 2024.9.5 update. User darwizzy333 on Reddit, an employee who received the update on the Early Access Program, originally said that it was unusable, suggesting that it was the cause for the delay. He initially also provided a screenshot of his vehicle running FSD V12.4 but has since taken it down.

After giving specific reasons why FSD 12.4 was unusable a few days ago, today he stated that his cameras were the cause for the issues. After calibrating his cameras, he says that V12.4 is incredible and that his usual commute is now down to zero interventions.

This gives us some hope that Tesla may still release FSD 12.4 to public users, however, it’s not clear what could be causing the delay. Employees are still testing FSD 12.4, so Tesla is either still working on a revision or still plans to release V12.4.

Owners Unsubscribing

Unfortunately, Tesla owners who bought or subscribed to FSD are stuck on the update they’re on until Tesla releases FSD 12.4 or updates V12.4 to be based on a newer software branch. Once you subscribe to FSD, Tesla would like to send you the latest FSD updates, which we call the “FSD track.” The problem is that the latest FSD updates are usually several releases behind Tesla’s main updates. With Tesla’s redesign and beautiful new parked visualization in update 2024.14, owners are having a hard time waiting for the latest features.

Tesla even officially announced update 2024.20 yesterday, which means that users on update 2024.3.25 are now three major updates behind. Some users are now unsubscribing from FSD, not because they don’t enjoy it, but just so they can receive the newer 2024.14 update.

Once an owner unsubscribes from FSD, Tesla no longer has a reason to hold them back on an update and will push the latest update they’re eligible for — currently 2024.14. However, this requires your FSD subscription to expire, which could take several weeks depending on when you renewed. Unfortunately, owners who bought FSD don’t have much of an option.

Elon Musk introduced the Starlink Mini on X recently, and showed off a few of its unique new features.

Specs

The Starlink Mini is about the size of a 14” laptop or Macbook, which means it is ultra-portable and can fit inside a backpack for easy carry. While it doesn’t appear to support power over USB-C, it does come with a 12V barrel jack and RJ45 Ethernet jack, as well as built-in Wi-Fi support. As for the Wi-Fi support, expect Wi-Fi 6 with 802.11ax and 3x3 MiMO support on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. It has also been confirmed to have mesh support, which means you can link multiple Starlink Minis or Starlinks together to create a mesh Wi-Fi network.

Price

The most interesting part of this is the fact that it is expected to cost half of what current Starlink dishes cost – so within the $250 to $300 USD price range. Elon Musk, while unclear, also implied that the subscription price would also be lower for the Starlink Mini, enabling more affordable internet access.

Speed

Of course, with a loss in size also comes a loss in speed – even if it’s still blazing fast. The Starlink Mini seemed to cap out at around 100 Mbps at a latency of 23ms, which is about half as fast as the top speeds for a regular Starlink dish, but with similar latency.

Even with the loss of speed, this is still more than fast enough to play video games and stream 4K video. Perhaps not at the same time, but the Mini is clearly designed for a single user. Interestingly, the Mini supports a Wi-Fi protocol that is far faster than the speeds Elon Musk showed off. Perhaps, internet speeds could get even faster in the future with additional Starlink deployments.

Starlink for Tesla?

The Mini is a good first step for possibly bringing Starlink capabilities to Tesla cars, which Elon Musk confirmed in 2022. Some enterprising users have either suction-cupped or mounted their starlinks to their glass Tesla roofs, or with special mounts for the Cybertruck already. The Mini will be a key item for going camping in your Tesla in the future - perhaps with the new Model Y Air Mattress!

Tesla could one day offer Starlink connectivity in Teslas, either as a backup to cellular connectivity or as a main source. However, Starlink connectivity requires line-of-sight, which likely means that Tesla would still require a cellular connection in their vehicles for times when vehicles don’t have a clear view of the sky. Using Starlink could help lower Tesla’s bandwidth costs and improve connectivity in remote areas.

Interestingly enough, some Superchargers already have Starlink functionality, with a transparent experience of vehicles automatically connecting to Supercharger Wi-Fi for data, including for Software Updates!

Release Dates

Musk mentioned that while the Starlink Mini isn’t available just yet, it will be rolling out to select areas in the next few months. Nothing further has emerged on where these areas are, but we could expect them to be in North America, where Starlink has done most of the new dish testing, such as with the more recent Starlink Flat High-Performance dishes.

Elon Musk confirmed during the Q&A period at Tesla’s Shareholder Meeting that the Cybertruck’s Foundation series is ending shortly and hinted at what’s required for other markets.

This is alongside Elon Musk confirming that the ramp-up for the Cybertruck continues, with Tesla producing over 1,300 Cybertrucks a week now.

End of Foundation Series

Tesla has been shipping the Foundation-series Cybertruck since its release, which came loaded with additional options, including FSD, Foundation-series etching, LED light bar, white interior trim, Powershare installation credit, Premium Connectivity for life, and a host of other smaller goodies.

Elon Musk has confirmed that in the upcoming quarter, Tesla will stop offering the Foundation series for pre-order customers, and will start offering the regular Cybertruck. In the United States, the AWD Dual Motor Cybertruck will become eligible for the Federal EV Tax Incentive, which could be the big step customers need to get into their Cybertrucks.

Canadian, European and Chinese Markets

The Cybertruck is currently not Europe or China-compliant, due to requirements to round the edges in Europe, and additional reasons in China. These policy requirements are difficult to build around, and Tesla intends to only push the Cybertruck to these markets once full-volume production is a go in North America.

At 1,300 units per week, or 67,600 units per year, Tesla isn’t quite close to achieving its full-volume production goals – 250,000 units per year. It could be a couple of years until Tesla hits its volume production goals, and begins working on a foreign-compliant Cybertruck.

Meanwhile, for Canadians, the Cybertruck is currently still awaiting testing and approvals from Transport Canada, due to steer-by-wire regulation issues, and could still be some before its made available to reservation holders.