Marina Lyubimova
⬤ Tesla (TSLA) drew notice when it issued Full Self-Driving v14.2; the version digit hides a large jump in ability. Although the label moves only from v14.1 to v14.2, the car now behaves far better on every type of road. Tesla plans to issue v14.3 soon and people close to the work say that step may prove larger still.
⬤ v14.2 carries a new vision stack that digests images at high speed - the car interprets the scene around it with higher accuracy than before. Drivers report that the car now reads hand signals from cyclists or traffic officers more reliably than many humans manage. Tesla has already released seven separate builds under the v14.2 banner, a sign that the neural network receives daily refinement.
⬤ The cadence of Tesla's releases resembles a sprint, not a stroll. The gains packed into v14.2 exceed what the industry expects from a decimal upgrade and market observers who follow Tesla's software first plan have taken note. Inside the company the next build, v14.3, is already in view - anticipation grows, even though the firm keeps both content plus date private.
⬤ Discussion of v14.2 and the coming v14.3 underlines the central role of steady software updates in Tesla's strategy. Quicker sight surer gesture recognition and a stream of small revisions show that Tesla treats autonomous driving as a core strength. If Tesla keeps shipping large improvements through code alone, investor mood toward both electric vehicles but also driverless technology may shift.
Marina Lyubimova
