Elon Musk promises Tesla holiday software update with Full Self-Driving preview

Remember when your car got you nothing for Christmas? If you own a Tesla, that’s all behind you. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that a “holiday software update” is coming for Tesla, bringing an FSD (Full Self-Driving) preview. 

The update will also come with two new games: Stardew Valley and Lost Backgammon, as well as a few other unspecified “things.”

There’s no strict timeline for the launch, but Musk tweeted that the update “needs a few more days of validation,” after which it will be released to a limited number of users, followed by a wide release. 

It’s unclear what “sneak preview” means in the context of FSD, which is a major feature set that Musk has promised will be coming to Tesla cars before the end of 2019. FSD is an upgrade to Tesla’s Autopilot set of features, and enables features such as automated driving on the highway, automated parking, and Summon, which has the car come to you all by itself from, say, a parking lot. Farther in the future, FSD should make Tesla cars nearly fully autonomous, with traffic lights and stop sign recognition and automated driving on city streets. 

The “preview” bit aside, this is a big deal for Tesla. The FSD has been touted by Musk as one of the most important features for Tesla cars, one that will (Musk predicts) eventually turn Teslas into autonomous taxis that will actually earn their owners money while they’re not driving them.