Tesla’s next major software update ‘version 9.0’ is now set for a release in August and it will include the first ‘full self-driving features’ for Autopilot 2.0 vehicles, says CEO Elon Musk

Version 8.0 came back in 2016.

It was Tesla’s most significant over-the-air software update at the time. It featured a user interface refresh, a few new features, and several improvements related to Autopilot.

Almost two years later, it looks like Version 9.0 is also going to bring a similar important update to Tesla’s software.

Musk announced on Twitter last night that the version 9.0 is coming in August and that it would even include the first “full self-driving features”:

That issue is better in latest Autopilot software rolling out now & fully fixed in August update as part of our long-awaited Tesla Version 9. To date, Autopilot resources have rightly focused entirely on safety. With V9, we will begin to enable full self-driving features. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2018

It doesn’t necessarily mean that Tesla’s vehicle will be able to drive autonomously, but that Tesla will start releasing features under the “Full Self-Driving Capability” package available for Autopilot 2.0 cars.

Last week, Musk said that Tesla should be releasing the Enhanced Autopilot’s On-Ramp/Off-Ramp feature in the next couple of month.

Enhanced Autopilot is a $5,000 package available for Autopilot 2.0 cars and Tesla also offers an additional $3,000 package called ‘Full Self-Driving Capability’.

While the option is currently available to purchase, Tesla notes that “Self-Driving functionality is dependent upon extensive software validation and regulatory approval, which may vary widely by jurisdiction.”

In the meantime, Musk previously said that the capacity of Tesla’s Autopilot would start to differentiate between the Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability packages at some point last year.

That didn’t happen as Autopilot development started to fall behind schedule, but it now looks like it should start to be the case starting with Tesla’s Version 9.0 software update to be released in August, according to Musk.

Tesla already started releasing some significant improvements to Autopilot 2.0 this year – starting with a full rewrite of the system’s neural net released last March and another important update started being pushed to the fleet last week.

Electrek’s Take

Again, I think it’s important to note that unless there’s something Musk is not telling us, the fact that he says Tesla will “begin to enable full self-driving features” doesn’t mean that it will actually drive itself.

If people had issues with Tesla naming its driver assist system “Autopilot”, I can’t wait to see what they are going to say about that.

But like Musk said, Tesla had mostly been focused on safety when it comes to Autopilot development. Now it looks like they will put some resources on actual new features.

Hopefully, version 9.0 also comes with new features unrelated to Autopilot. Musk has been promising a lot of new features to owners on Twitter lately. It would be nice to see some of them being released this summer in version 9.

What would you like to see in Tesla version 9.0. Let us know in the comment section below.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.