- PersistentVolumeLastPhaseTransitionTime feature is stable and enabled by default. ([#124969](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124969), [@RomanBednar](https://github.com/RomanBednar)) [SIG API Machinery, Apps, Storage and Testing]

- The `ServiceInternalTrafficPolicy` feature graduates to Beta and enable by default, which enables the `internalTrafficPolicy` field of Service by default. ([#103462](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/103462), [@andrewsykim](https://github.com/andrewsykim))

* Existing PVs are converted to use volume topology if migration is enabled. ([#83394](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83394), [@bertinatto](https://github.com/bertinatto))

- The following features are unconditionally enabled and the corresponding `--feature-gates` flags have been removed: `PodPriority`, `TaintNodesByCondition`, `ResourceQuotaScopeSelectors` and `ScheduleDaemonSetPods` ([#86210](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/86210), [@draveness](https://github.com/draveness)) [SIG Apps and Scheduling]

#### kubelet:

- The Image Locality priority function of the scheduler has been improved and is now enabled by default. With this feature enabled, nodes that have all or a partial set of images required for running a pod are preferred over other nodes, which improves pod start-up time.
- TaintNodeByCondition has been moved to Beta and is enabled by default.
- Scheduler throughput has been improved by ~50% in large clusters (>2000 nodes).

* The following alpha API groups were unintentionally enabled by default in previous releases, and will no longer be enabled by default in v1.8: ([#47690](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/47690), [@caesarxuchao](https://github.com/caesarxuchao))
    * rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1alpha1
    * settings.k8s.io/v1alpha1

* Use inline func to ensure unlock is executed ([#61644](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/61644), [@resouer](https://github.com/resouer))
* Introduce truncating audit backend that can be enabled by passing --audit-log-truncate-enabled or --audit-webhook-truncate-enabled flag to the apiserver to limit the size of individual audit events and batches of events. ([#64024](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/64024), [@loburm](https://github.com/loburm))

- Enabled the `StatefulSetStartOrdinal` feature gate in beta ([#115260](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115260), [@pwschuurman](https://github.com/pwschuurman))
- Enabled usage of `kube-proxy`, `kube-scheduler` and `kubelet` HTTP APIs for changing the logging

- If you are running the cloud-controller-manager and you have the `pvlabel.kubernetes.io` alpha Initializer enabled, you must now enable PersistentVolume labeling using the `PersistentVolumeLabel` admission controller instead. You can do this by adding `PersistentVolumeLabel` in the `--enable-admission-plugins` kube-apiserver flag.  ([#73102](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/73102), [@andrewsykim](https://github.com/andrewsykim))

* kube-apiserver: the `Priority` admission plugin is now enabled by default when using `--enable-admission-plugins`. If using `--admission-control` to fully specify the set of admission plugins, the `Priority` admission plugin should be added if using the `PodPriority` feature, which is enabled by default in 1.11. ([#65739](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/65739), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))