Tesla Inc‘s TSLA full self-driving (FSD) driver assistance technology will allow users to use the software while wearing sunglasses starting from its upcoming version 12.5, company CEO Elon Musk told video game developer John Carmack on Saturday.
What Happened: FSD currently does not work well with sunglasses as its attention monitoring system tracks eye movements to ensure users are paying attention to the road and are ready to take over as required.
However, with version 12.5 of the software, this issue should be resolved, Musk told Carmack.
Carmack on Saturday took to X to note that he is feeling ‘very confident’ about his bet on autonomous vehicles with software developer Jeff Atwood after multiple two-hour drives with Tesla FSD. In March 2022, Carmack bet Atwood $10,000 that by January 1st, 2030, fully autonomous vehicles would be commercially available for passenger use in major cities.
Carmack is the co-founder of video game company id Software, and he was the lead programmer of popular games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Quake, among others.
“I now think they will be able to data it across the finish line without any research breakthroughs,” Carmack said about Tesla and FSD. However, Tesla has had its share of breakthroughs, Musk responded.
“Tesla has done so much that would be considered "AI research breakthroughs", but we are laser-focused on making it work, rather than crowing about breakthroughs,” Musk wrote.
Why It Matters: Tesla is attempting to improve its FSD software to enable vehicles to operate without human intervention. However, it presently requires active driver supervision.
Deploying autonomous vehicles hinges on both technological advancement and regulatory approval.
Tesla’s Director of Autopilot software, Ashok Elluswamy, said in April during the company's first-quarter earnings call that regulatory hurdles might be minimal if sufficient data proves the safety advantages of autonomous cars over human-driven vehicles.
Other autonomous car companies have also been clearing the regulatory path for Tesla, Elluswamy said, referring to Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo.
In May, Musk said that version 12.5 of FSD, which is expected to allow users to wear sunglasses when using the technology, will start rolling out in late June. However, there seems to have been a delay as the company started rolling out FSD version 12.4.3 to customers only earlier this month. Some Tesla customers are on further older versions of the software.
It is not clear when the company will start rolling out FSD 12.5.
Tesla did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.
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