Elon Musk mentioned Wednesday that tens of millions of Tesla homeowners will want {hardware} upgrades to run a future model of its Full Self-Driving software program that doesn’t require human supervision — after he and Tesla spent years promising that wouldn’t be the case.
The admission may open the corporate as much as authorized challenges from prospects who purchased Teslas on the assumption that the vehicles have been only one software program replace away from having the ability to drive themselves.
Musk mentioned on Tesla’s quarterly earnings name Wednesday that vehicles with the third model of Tesla’s driver-assistance tech, often called “{Hardware} 3,” will want a brand new laptop and new cameras. He additionally mentioned these replacements will probably be so burdensome that Tesla is taking a look at constructing “micro-factories” in “main metropolitan areas” so the corporate’s service facilities don’t get overwhelmed.
“If it’s accomplished simply on the service heart, this can be very gradual to take action, and inefficient. So we mainly want, like many manufacturing traces, to make the change,” Musk mentioned on the decision.
Tesla homeowners with {Hardware} 3 vehicles have spent years bugging the corporate and Musk for a straight reply about whether or not they would be capable of run this superior model of Full Self-Driving — which, it must be famous, Tesla has not but launched, or confirmed it may. Tesla bought these vehicles between 2019 and 2023.
Musk lastly copped to the truth that {Hardware} 3 was inadequate to run extra superior variations of Full Self-Driving in January 2025.
“I feel the sincere reply is that we’re going to should improve folks’s {Hardware} 3 laptop for people who have purchased Full Self-Driving,” he mentioned. “That’s going to be painful and troublesome, however we’ll get it accomplished.”
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
Nonetheless, the corporate’s chief monetary officer, Vaibhav Taneja, made a unique declare simply six months in the past in October 2025 when he mentioned Tesla may still be able to make it work. “We now have not fully given up on HW3,” he mentioned on the time.
Tesla mentioned Wednesday it’ll nonetheless launch barely extra superior variations of the present Full Self-Driving software program to {Hardware} 3 homeowners. However Musk was unequivocal that upgrades will probably be wanted for something extra.
“{Hardware} 3 merely doesn’t have the potential to realize unsupervised FSD,” he mentioned.
If you buy by hyperlinks in our articles, we could earn a small fee. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.
