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Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

> They were also encouraged by Musk saying that Tesla would deliver v12 not as “beta” software.

> The update is still listed as “beta” in the release notes.

Musk’s statement was that FSD will exit being a beta program in the v12 major version chain, not that that v12.n is not beta.

... So, v1 to v12.x where x is unknown: beta, v12.y where y>x: not beta.

That is a _spectacularly_ weird version scheme, but of course has the benefit that there is no rush; provided they always stick with 12.something, it is always true.

Musk being Musk.

Kinda hate that "Beta" is now mostly a marketing term for "be nice to us". When you're shipping software with potential safety implications to thousands of vehicles in the wild that doesn't seem like a beta in the classic sense. It's just a release that you don't want to be judged too harshly.

What is your suggestion as an alternative program?

“public danger edition” is pretty accurate.

Just don't call it a beta. It's released software at this point. If you want to limit the release to a smaller group of select users you can do that regardless of what you call it.

Edit: If you need a marketing term, Microsoft calls similar releases "Insider Preview Builds"[1]. You don't have to call it that, but this example is a lot more descriptive than "beta". I wonder what Tesla calls actual pre-release software that's not ready to go out to customers. "Alpha"?

[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/

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