Tesla FSD Tester: V13.2 Is 'Unbelievable, Incredible' But Still Has Bugs

FSD still has a long way to go before it makes something like a fully autonomous robotaxi real, but the progress is easy to spot.

FSD 13.2

Photo by: AI DRIVR (YouTube)

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Dec 8, 2024 at 10:00am ET

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The latest version of Tesla FSD impresses another reviewer who put it through a stress test in a new video.
FSD version 13.2 has new functions, like starting when the car is parked or autonomously looking for parking at the end of the planned route.
Tesla wants to launch its fully driverless robotaxi in 2026 or 2027, which will use the same self-driving software, and it still needs to improve a lot by then.

Tesla has incrementally improved its Full Self-Driving suite over the years, but some new versions have proved better. FSD version 13.2 is one of those versions that marks a more significant leap with its newly added features and general improvements. The biggest news is its ability to move the car out of a parking spot and search for parking at or around its destination.

Version 13.2 has only been rolled out to early-access members of the FSD program, and it's been getting rave reviews. Although testers also praised FSD V12 as a big step forward, V13.2 seems to be a huge leap in comparison. Don’t get too excited, though, because as promising as the new version is, the road ahead until FSD achieves true unsupervised autonomous driving is still long.

Before V13 began being pushed to users, Elon Musk said this new version was “trending to be ~500% better,” hinting that it was a major upgrade over V12. Now, we have to wait and see how it performs once it reaches all those who are part of the FSD program. Gauging how good it is will basically boil down to how many critical disengagements they observe over a set distance and if there are noticeably fewer of them than before.

One video that we previously covered showed that while FSD still has a few bugs to iron out, especially when it comes to finding parking once it’s completed a set route, this is FSD’s best showing so far—driving from point to point is smoother and more confidence-inspiring than before. AI Drivr called it “unbelievable,” “incredible” and “mind-blowing” several times during the almost 40-minute-long drive that they posted a few days ago.

Situations like the right turn followed immediately by a left turn shown at the start of the video would not have been handled as smoothly as V13.2 did. Even though the car had to take a lot into account to perform the maneuver, especially considering how heavy the traffic was—which required extra incisiveness—it did it about as well as a human driver.

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AI Drivr also engaged FSD while their Model Y was parked beside a Supercharger. It was really cool to see the car not setting off immediately as it checked its surroundings and waited for a gap in traffic. Being in the leftmost charging stall right next to a curb, the car could have easily scratched its wheels when it made its left turn, but it detected that and pulled to the right before making the left turn.

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What’s even cooler about that particular instance was that the car changed its route through the parking lot on the fly. While it initially suggested that it would go right after coming out of the parking spot, it actually first made a left and then turned right, giving a glimpse at its neural network-powered decision-making in action on the fly.

It also slowed down enough for speed bumps, which wasn’t always the case with V12, or older iterations. The FSD tester concluded that V13.2 “is freakishly good. By far the biggest step change improvement from any version that has EVER come out. It still has some small weird bugs (refer to video) and also executes some pretty aggressive maneuvers at times (even on ’Standard’ profile) that I think would be a disengagement for the majority of people, but I absolutely love it.”