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Elon Musk said Wednesday that millions of Tesla owners will need hardware upgrades to run a future version of its Full Self-Driving software that doesn\u2019t require human supervision \u2014 after he and Tesla spent years promising that wouldn\u2019t be the case.<\/p>\n
The admission could open the company up to legal challenges from customers who bought Teslas on the belief that the cars were just one software update away from being able to drive themselves. <\/p>\n
Musk said on Tesla\u2019s quarterly earnings call Wednesday that cars with the third version of Tesla\u2019s driver-assistance tech, known as \u201cHardware 3,\u201d will need a new computer and new cameras. He also said these replacements will be so burdensome that Tesla is looking at building \u201cmicro-factories\u201d in \u201cmajor metropolitan areas\u201d so the company\u2019s service centers don\u2019t get overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s done just at the service center, it is extremely slow to do so, and inefficient. So we basically need, like many production lines, to make the change,\u201d Musk said on the call.<\/p>\n
Tesla owners with Hardware 3 cars have spent years bugging the company and Musk for a straight answer about whether they would be able to run this advanced version of Full Self-Driving \u2014 which, it should be noted, Tesla has not yet released, or proven it can. Tesla sold these cars between 2019 and 2023.<\/p>\n
Musk finally copped<\/a> to the reality that Hardware 3 was insufficient to run more advanced versions of Full Self-Driving in January 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the honest answer is that we\u2019re going to have to upgrade people\u2019s Hardware 3 computer for those that have bought Full Self-Driving,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be painful and difficult, but we\u2019ll get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> However, the company\u2019s chief financial officer, Vaibhav Taneja, made a different claim just six months ago in October 2025 when he said Tesla may still be able to make it work<\/a>. \u201cWe have not completely given up on HW3,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n Tesla said Wednesday it will still release slightly more advanced versions of the current Full Self-Driving software to Hardware 3 owners. But Musk was unequivocal that upgrades will be needed for anything more.<\/p>\n \u201cHardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n