Tesla Starts Rolling Out FSD 12.5.1.5 to Customers With HW3 Vehicles (2024)

Late last night Tesla started rolling out update 2024.26.20 which contains the latest FSD v12.5.1.5. This release comes on the heels of version 12.5.1.4 which was in employee testing just the day before.

Hardware 3 Support

With this update, Tesla is once again supporting HW3 vehicles in the latest FSD release. HW3 vehicles haven’t been supported since FSD 12.4.x which was only rolled out to a small portion of the fleet before the update was pulled in favor of FSD 12.5.

FSD 12.5 Features

As soon as FSD 12.5 was released to HW4 late last month, it was praised for its extreme smoothness and human-like driving. Some of the features from FSD 12.4 will also be new for HW3 owners such as nag-free FSD, which eliminates the need to add torque to the steering wheel under certain conditions.

Differences from HW4

After we broke the news that FSD 12.5 was being tested on Tesla employee vehicles with HW3, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Autopilot lead, replied to our article going over some of the differences between HW3 and HW4 FSD. He mentioned that HW3 will run a smaller AI model compared to HW4, but he expects FSD performance to be similar due to other factors. HW4 also features much higher-resolution cameras, so it’ll be interesting to see if those are playing a role in the smoothness of FSD 12.5. Ashok also talked about what Tesla needs to do to have HW3 run the same FSD model in the future.

Roll Out

This appears to be a standard Tesla rollout so far. This update has already gone out to customers outside of the early-access group, but the rollout remains small as usual. If major issues aren’t found, we expect to see the update go to additional vehicles tonight or tomorrow. Since most HW3 owners are still on FSD 12.3.6 with update 2024.20.9, this will be a massive update for them, not only in terms of FSD capability and the nag-free feature but also in terms of vehicle features such as YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Parental Controls and much more that’s included as part of Tesla’s Summer Update. Keep an eye on our statistics pages to follow the rollout.

Yesterday was a big news day for Tesla, with several things hitting the newsfeed all at once. A lot of new stuff for Canadians, who are all quite pleased to see the return of the referral program to Canada, as well as 1.99% Financing for the Model Y.

There’s also some interesting news on the Actually Smart Summon front.

Canadian Referrals

The Tesla Referral Program, which recently launched in the United States, has now arrived in Canada just a few short days later. There aren’t any differences in terms of reward availability or anything else, but there are some conversions of funds to look at.

Referrers in Canada will earn $650 CAD ($480 USD) per referral while providing a discount of $1300 ($964 SUD) CAD for those being referred. That’s slightly less than the USD equivalent, but that’s just the conversion rate fluctuation.

We’re happy to see the referral system launch in Canada so quickly after it launched in the United States – this is also good news for other markets like Europe and China, which may also get similar programs soon.

1.99% Financing in Canada

Another big win for Canadian Tesla customers is the arrival of 1.99% financing for the Model Y in Canada. For those who have been waiting on the edge to get a good deal to buy a Model Y, now is your chance.

1.99% financing is available for all terms of 60 months and under. 72 months has a special term of 2.99%, 84 months at 3.49%, and 96 months at 3.99%. This is a huge bonus in comparison to other rates, which have regularly been at or above 5% for all interest rate terms in Canada.

These special financing terms are only available on the Model Y but are available on any variant, including the Rear-Wheel Drive, Long Range, and Performance models.

Smart Summon Code

The last item, but one of the most exciting nevertheless, is that new Smart Summon code strings have appeared in the latest version of the Tesla app. One of the most important things that was noticed by @Tesla_App_iOS on X was that there are no new debugging strings – meaning we could be receiving Actually Smart Summon in a beta format sometime soon.

In addition, the app contains new strings such as “autopark_summon_reversing_for_forward_visibility”, which may be tied to the upcoming reverse capabilities of FSD.

We expect the new version of Summon to be first available in an upcoming FSD release, such as FSD 12.6 in the next few months.

Chris Zheng, who has previously leaked accurate Tesla news from Tesla China, has posted on X a few unique leaks for Project Juniper – the upcoming Model Y refresh.

So far, we’ve seen a fewleaksofProject Juniperand some fantastic concepts of the vehicle, but nothing firm regarding specs. Let’s see what Chris has for us here – he mentioned the leaks are available here (Mandarin).

Juniper Leaks

Chris mentions that there will be an “adjustment” to the battery size of the new Model Y. We’re not sure whether this means a larger or smaller battery, or a different battery chemistry or size, but in all likelihood, a larger battery would make sense. This is in line with the 10% range improvement we saw on the Model 3 Highland Refresh, which we expect to once again see on the Model Y Juniper Refresh.

The second item of mention is a new, unique 7-seat design intended for China. This one is specifically for China and will be different from the version that is expected to be available in North America and Europe. It seems that Tesla intends to produce 20,000 units of this unique Chinese 7-seater model per month.

It seems the 5-seater Juniper is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2025, while the 7-seater will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2025. That’s quite a gap, but we’re sure the performance variant will land somewhere in the middle of that timeframe.

FSD on Hold

The last item that Chris mentioned is that the FSD test that was supposed to take place in China has been placed on hold. He doesn’t provide details, but we knew that initial testing was supposed to take place sometime this year after Tesla received approval to start testing FSD in China.

As the release of the redesigned Model Y approaches, leaks and additional information are expected, but for now checkout our wishlist for Tesla’s upcoming model.