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Tesla has given an update on its self-driving roadmap. It confirmed that its FSD v13 update has been delayed into next month and it makes more promises.

Last month, Tesla released its first ‘AI roadmap’, which consisted of a more detailed plan about updates and new features it plans to push through the (Supervised) Full Self-Driving (FSD) program.

It was a welcomed way for us to track progress better. Still, we have already noted several problems with it, such as the fact that Tesla uses “miles between necessary disengagement” as a metric to track progress, and yet, it refuses to share any miles between disengagement data.

Furthermore, Tesla claimed that it completed all its September goals on the AI roadmap despite the biggest one being v12.5, achieving “~3x improvement miles between necessary interventions,” and we have seen no evidence of that happening.

In fact, crowdsourced data, the best available data since Tesla refuses to share any, shows that v12.5 is actually a regression compared to v12.3, the last widely released FSD update:

That’s based on over 40,000 miles of v12.5 data.

In the original roadmap, Tesla stated these goals for October:

  • Unpark, Park and Reverse in FSD
  • v13 with ~6x improved miles between necessary interventions

With October coming to a close today, Tesla has released an update. The automaker says that it accomplished this on its AI roadmap this month:

  • End-to-end on highway has shipped to ~50k customers with v12.5.6.1
  • Cybertruck build that improves responsiveness
  • Successful We, Robot event with 50 autonomous Teslas safely transporting over 2,000 passengers

“End-to-End network on highway”, which constitutes using neural net controls for highway driving instead of just city streets, was supposed to happen back in September, but instead, Tesla has only been able to push it to a limited number of customers in October.

As for what’s coming next, Tesla now says that “end-to-end highway driving” is coming next week, but only for Tesla owners with HW4:

“Full rollout of end-to-end highway driving to all AI4 users, targeted for early next week, including enhancements in stop smoothness, less annoying bad weather notifications, and other safety improvements.”

For now, HW3 owners are stuck with this:

Improved v12.5.x models for AI3 city driving

Tesla also notes that “Actually Smart Summon will be released to Europe, China and other regions of the world” without a clear timeline.

Finally, Tesla comes back to v13, which the automaker now claims will include these improvements:

  • 36 Hz, full-resolution AI4 video inputs
  • Native AI4 inputs and neural network architectures
  • 3x model size scaling
  • 3x model context length scaling
  • 4.2x data scaling
  • 5x training compute scaling (enabled by the Cortex training cluster)
  • Much improved reward predictions for collision avoidance, following traffic controls, navigation, etc.
  • Efficient representation of maps and navigation inputs
  • Audio inputs for better handling of emergency vehicles
  • Redesigned controller for smoother, more accurate tracking – Integrated unpark, reverse, and park capabilities
  • Support for destination options including pulling over, parking in a spot, driveway, or garage
  • Improved camera cleaning and handling of camera occlusions

Tesla added about v13 in its updated AI roadmap:

We have integrated several of these improvements and are already seeing a 4x increase in miles between necessary interventions compared to v12.5.4.

Interestingly, Tesla originally said it would be a “~6x improvement in miles between necessary interventions” in September and during its earnings call just last week, Elon Musk said it would be a “5-6x improvement.”

As for the new timeline for v13, Tesla is now targeting a wide release at the end of November:

This lays the foundation for the v13 series, and we are targeting to ship v13.0 to internal customers by the end of this week. Most of the remaining items are independently validated and will be integrated over November in a series of point releases. We are targeting a wide release with v13.3 with most of the above improvements for AI4 vehicles around Thanksgiving!

As you can see, it’s also again only for HW4 owners.

Electrek’s Take

My key takeaways here are: HW3 owners are screwed. Even though there was some progress with Elon finally admitting that HW3 might not be enough for unsupervised self-driving, we are still far from an actual resolution.

HW3 development is now falling months behind HW4 without even a clear timeline for catching up, and Tesla is only talking about maybe having to develop a retrofittable computer for HW3.

As for the pace of improvement, v13 is now at least a full month behind schedule, and we don’t know if it will actually result in a meaningful improvement in miles between disengagement. Even if it does, Tesla needs about several more updates that bring order of magnitudes improvements in miles between disengagement.

Considering the fact that v13 is now scheduled to come 8 months after v12 and 4 months after v12.5, the pace of improvement looks to be nowhere near what Tesla needs it to be to achieve its stated goal of 600,000 miles between critical disengagement by Q2 2025.

At this stage, it remains a pipe dream, in my opinion, which is based on the best data available. I will change my mind as more data comes in.

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China overhauls EV charging: 100,000 ultra-fast public stations by 2027

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China overhauls EV charging: 100,000 ultra-fast public stations by 2027

China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.

The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.

The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.

China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.

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To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.

To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.

The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.

As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.

Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles


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Two charged in $650 million global crypto scam that promised 300% returns

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Two charged in 0 million global crypto scam that promised 300% returns

A U.S. Justice Department logo or seal showing Justice Department headquarters, known as “Main Justice,” is seen behind the podium in the Department’s headquarters briefing room before a news conference with the Attorney General in Washington, January 24, 2023.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Federal prosecutors have charged two men in connection with a sprawling cryptocurrency investment scheme that defrauded victims out of more than $650 million.

The indictment, unsealed in the District of Puerto Rico, accuses Michael Shannon Sims, 48, of Georgia and Florida, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, 57, of New Jersey and Florida, of operating and promoting OmegaPro, an international crypto multi-level marketing scheme that promised investors 300% returns over 16 months through foreign exchange trading.

“This case exposes the ruthless reality of modern financial crime,” said the Internal Revenue Service’s Chief of Criminal Investigations Guy Ficco. “OmegaPro promised financial freedom but delivered financial ruin.”

From 2019 to 2023, Sims, Reynoso and their co-conspirators allegedly lured thousands of victims worldwide to purchase “investment packages” using cryptocurrency, falsely claiming the funds would be safely managed by elite forex traders, the Department of Justice said.

Prosecutors said the pair flaunted their wealth through social media and extravagant events — including projecting the OmegaPro logo onto the Burj Khalifa, Dubai’s tallest building — to convince investors the operation was legitimate.

A video posted to the company’s LinkedIn page shows guests in evening attire posing for photos and watching the spectacle in Dubai.

Read more CNBC tech news

In reality, authorities allege, OmegaPro was a pyramid-style fraud.

When the company later claimed it had suffered a hack, the defendants told victims they had transferred their funds to a new platform called Broker Group, the DOJ said. Users were never able to withdraw their money from either platform.

The two men face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The Justice Department, FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations led the multiagency investigation, with help from international partners.

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Tesla forced to refund $10,000 FSD payment and 0% interest on Cybertruck

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Tesla forced to refund ,000 FSD payment and 0% interest on Cybertruck

Tesla is starting to experience some consequences for misleading Full Self Driving customers – at least that’s the finding of one arbitration ruling that has Tesla refunding one customer $10,000 plus legal fees for failing to deliver on their promises. Find out more on today’s legally challenging episode of Quick Charge!

An arbitration “court” found that Tesla misled customers with its Full Self Driving product, and has now been forced to refund at least one person’s $10,000 payment (plus legal fees) for the not-quite autonomous driving software. France, too, is piling on claims of deceptive business practices – but there’s some good news for FSD fans! If you’re still willing to pay for it, Tesla will thrown in 0% financing on a brand new Cybertruck.

Check out the relevant links, below, to learn more.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.


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