Tesla nonetheless doesn’t have a strong pathway for tips on how to give {Hardware} 3 automobiles Full Self-Driving (FSD) capabilities, primarily based on what Elon Musk stated in the course of the firm’s newest earnings name. The automaker has recognized for fairly some time that its automobiles outfitted with {Hardware} 3 aren’t able to unsupervised FSD, regardless that the corporate constructed the system particularly to present its automobiles the power. Tesla used {Hardware} 3 on automobiles manufactured from 2019 till early 2023 earlier than {Hardware} 4 shipped.
Throughout an earlier earnings name again in January 2025, Musk admitted that the corporate was “going to should improve folks’s {Hardware} 3 pc for people who have purchased Full Self-Driving.” At Tesla’s newest earnings name, Musk stated that {Hardware} 3 “merely doesn’t have the aptitude to attain unsupervised FSD.” Tesla thought it might be capable to at one level, however {Hardware} 3 apparently has 1/eighth the reminiscence bandwidth of {Hardware} 4. Musk defined that reminiscence bandwidth is “one of many key components” wanted for unsupervised FSD.
Tesla will probably be providing to improve and exchange the computer systems and cameras on older automobiles, nevertheless it doesn’t have a concrete plan in place but. “I do assume over time it’s going to make sense for us to transform all {Hardware} 3 automobiles to {Hardware} 4,” he stated. To take action at service facilities can be extraordinarily gradual, Musk has admitted. Round 4 million automobiles or so have {Hardware} 3, although not everybody has paid for FSD. Nonetheless, to have the ability to exchange its automobiles’ {hardware} effectively, Musk stated Tesla goes to should arrange “microfactories or small factories in main metropolitan areas.” He didn’t give any indication that Tesla has already began constructing these microfactories, although, and even that building is already scheduled to start. He did say that within the meantime, the corporate goes to be releasing FSD model 14 for {Hardware} 3 across the finish of June.
Musk additionally stated throughout the identical earnings name that Tesla’s Fremont manufacturing unit will begin manufacturing the corporate’s humanoid Optimus robots in late July or August. The Tesla CEO is thought for saying extremely optimistic and aggressive timelines. Tesla made the choice to kill off its Mannequin X and S automobiles earlier this 12 months, in order that it will probably convert its Fremont facility into an Optimus manufacturing unit. The final Mannequin S and X automobiles will probably be rolling off the manufacturing line in Might, which supplies the corporate only a few months to dismantle the power’s present tools and put new ones in place.
