FSD 12.5 may allow you to go hands-free while wearing sunglasses

Tesla will improve the new driver monitoring system with the FSD 12.5, allowing you to go hands-free while wearing sunglasses. Full Self-driving (FSD) is a self-driving technology that drives your Tesla to a destination and maneuvers through traffic. It can detect obstacles and objects in real-time but needs a driver behind the wheel to take control in a complex situation.

When FSD is engaged, the driver should stay attentive to the road and surroundings. The company previously tracked this behavior using wheel torque. However, it lacks accuracy and causes unnecessary warnings.

FSD 12.4 has addressed this issue by introducing a vision-based driver monitoring system. It uses the cabin’s camera with a new driver attention detection algorithm for improved observations.

After this update, the driving experience has improved, and customers can go hands-free for a longer duration. Despite this major change, FSD still requires you to follow some guidelines to enjoy a hands-free ride.

That only works when the cabin has clear and continuous visibility of the driver’s eyes. That includes when the camera should not be locked, the cabin should have sufficient light, and the driver is looking forward. The system also prohibits covering eyes with sunglasses, a hat, or other objects when FSD is enabled.

In his user experience shared on social media site X, user @ID_AA_Carmack wrote that the FSD has improved with recent releases. However, he said that hands-off with sunglasses is not an option. As mentioned above, FSD 12.4 vision could be halted with sunglasses.

On that, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk replied that this issue would be fixed with 12.5. Unfortunately, he didn’t mention when the version will rollout for customers.

This will be a major improvement in the camera-based driver attention monitoring system. You can check other FSD features that are coming with this release below.

Tesla FSD 12.5: Release Date and Features