full-self-driving tesla ai-safety autonomous-vehicles

Tesla admits HW3 owners need upgrades for true 'Full Self-Driving'

Elon Musk admits millions of Tesla owners need upgrades for true 'Full Self-Driving' | TechCrunch

techcrunch.com

April 22, 2026

2 min read

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

44/100

Summary

Millions of Tesla owners will require hardware upgrades to utilize a future version of the Full Self-Driving software that operates without human supervision. This statement contradicts previous claims that such upgrades would not be necessary.

Key Takeaways

Elon Musk announced that millions of Tesla owners will require hardware upgrades to use a future version of Full Self-Driving software that operates without human supervision.
Tesla's Hardware 3 vehicles will need new computers and cameras for the advanced Full Self-Driving capabilities, contradicting previous assurances that software updates would suffice.
Musk acknowledged that upgrading Hardware 3 will be a challenging process, prompting Tesla to consider establishing micro-factories in major cities to manage the workload efficiently.
Tesla plans to release slightly more advanced versions of Full Self-Driving software for Hardware 3 owners, but Musk confirmed that true unsupervised Full Self-Driving is not possible with the existing hardware.

Read original article

View story →

Coverage & discussions

Hacker News · techcrunch.com

Tesla admits HW3 owners need upgrades for true 'Full Self-Driving' ↗

Community discussions

Hacker News discussion ↗

Historical count: 5 · 5 saved in sample · Historical sample

Analysis ready

Community Sentiment

Negative

Positives

Users who have experienced both HW3 and HW4 report a significant improvement in driving capabilities, suggesting that HW4 offers a more natural and reliable self-driving experience.

Concerns

Tesla's repeated claims that HW3 had all necessary hardware for Full Self-Driving have been called into question, raising concerns about transparency and trust in the company's promises.
Many users feel misled by Tesla's marketing, believing that all Teslas would receive hardware upgrades for FSD without additional costs, which now appears to be untrue.
The ongoing delays in delivering true Full Self-Driving capabilities have led to skepticism about Tesla's commitment to its promises, with some users labeling it a 'bait and switch'.