Elon Musk is known for making some pretty bold claims regarding Tesla. The company recently announced news that a fleet of robotaxis is in the works, but who knows when or if those will arrive. Musk’s plans don’t always come to fruition, especially if he’s talking about potential delivery dates and the introduction of new vehicles, like the second-generation Roadster. The latest claim that has Tesla’s CEO backpedaling is about the arrival of full self-driving, a feature that government agencies are closely monitoring.
Tesla
Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle manufacturer largely attributed to driving the EV revolution. Through the Model S and subsequent products, Tesla has innovated and challenged industry conventions on numerous fronts, including over-the-air updates, self-driving technology, and automotive construction methods. Tesla is considered the world’s most valuable car brand as of 2023, and the Model Y the world’s best-selling car in the same year, but the brand’s greatest achievement is arguably the Supercharger network of EV charging stations.
- Founded
- July 1, 2003
- Founder
- Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning
- Headquarters
- Austin, Texas, USA
- Owned By
- Publicly Traded
- Current CEO
- Elon Musk
As noted by Electrek, in the recent Q3 earnings call for Tesla, Musk specifically addressed the question of when self-driving will arrive in Tesla vehicles from the Model 3 to the Model S.
“We are not 100% sure. HW4 has several times the capability of HW3. It’s easier to get things to work on HW4 and it takes a lot of effort to squeeze that into HW3. There is some chance that HW3 does not achieve the safety level that allows for unsupervised FSD.”
A Question Of Hardware
Previously, Musk had said that vehicles equipped with Hardware 3 (HW3) computers would be able to provide full self-driving. This isn’t the most advanced version of the hardware that Tesla currently offers, with HW4 available as the most current iteration. The issue relates to physical space and required nodes, and HW3 simply wasn’t built to accept the level of complexity that Tesla is now realizing is necessary.
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Despite not being the latest and greatest, Musk stated that vehicles with HW3 would be able to handle the task. Unfortunately, he’s changed his tune on that claim. This really shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone as this is tricky technology to perfect and the ability for Tesla to deliver it has been in doubt pretty much from the start.
HW3 Tesla Customers Need Not Worry
His statements on the Q3 earnings call mark the first time Musk has said that HW3 might not be able to manage unsupervised self-driving. The challenge comes from not being able to upgrade HW3 hardware to HW4 hardware in its current configuration. There’s no software fix for this one as the hardware simply cannot do the job.
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The good news is that there is a fix. Musk isn’t simply shrugging his shoulders and ignoring the customers out there who paid for Full Self-Driving and have HW3 hardware that makes it impossible. If the problem can’t be overcome, then Tesla will fix it. “If that turns out to be the case, we will upgrade those who bought HW3 FSD for free,” said the CEO. “And we have designed the system to be upgradable.”
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Exactly when that might happen is still questionable. Since Tesla is still working on all of this, everything is in flux. There’s also the need to make the HW4 system something that can be retrofitted into HW3 cars. This could include the cameras on the HW4 system which have about five times more megapixels. It’s a complex task, but at least the plan doesn’t appear to include leaving HW3 customers out of luck.
Source:
Electrek
