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Tesla FSD Owners Face Costly Hardware Upgrades

24 Apr

Summary

Older Teslas require new hardware for full self-driving.
Owners may need trade-ins or costly computer/camera replacements.
New microfactories are planned nationwide for upgrades.

Tesla FSD Owners Face Costly Hardware Upgrades

Owners of Tesla vehicles who purchased the full self-driving software package but possess older hardware will require a significant and potentially costly retrofit effort. According to Elon Musk during the Tesla Q1 2026 earnings call, vehicles equipped with Hardware 3 (HW3) lack the necessary capabilities for unsupervised full self-driving.

Tesla is offering customers with FSD a choice: either a discounted trade-in for a vehicle with the newer AI4 (HW4) hardware, or a replacement of the car's computer and cameras to upgrade to HW4. This extensive upgrade process will require Tesla to establish numerous microfactories nationwide to accommodate the millions of vehicles needing this enhancement.

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