Unsupervised FSD on HW3 (AI3): Tesla CEO promises free hardware upgrade

Tesla has confirmed that all HW3 that may not be able to run unsupervised Full Self Driving (FSD) will get a free hardware upgrade.

Full Self Driving enables cars to drive automatically in public and it takes feed from the onboard camera and processes it in real-time for maneuvering. It can detect on-road objectives, hazards, and pedestrians and respond accordingly.

However, the current version requires a drive to supervise these automatic maneuvers.

The concept of unsupervised fully autonomous FSD has been dreamt of from the beginning but achieving this milestone is still a big challenge.

FSD has spent years training the system and gathering computing data to advance in self-driving. It recently unveiled Cybercab, an ambitious autonomous robotaxi vehicle.

At the event, the company used an unsupervised FSD to demo ride visitors. The company remains consistent on unsupervised FSD rollout for HW4 (AI4) vehicles but the status for HW3 (AI3) is unknown.

That led many HW3 customers to wonder what would happen to their vehicles, which were bundled with FSD capability.

Earlier today, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk said there are some changes that HW3 may not support unsupervised FSD due to incompatibility with the new safety level. If that happens, Musk promised to upgrade all of the HW3 cars for free.

That’s a major announcement for HW3 owners, which should ease some of these concerns about the incompatibility with the new FSD version.

Incompatibility

Over the past year, Tesla tested many FSD 12 builds but the difference in rollout for AI4 and AI3 cars was certain. AI4 brings the latest hardware and technologies in new Tesla EVs, while AI3 represents a generation old.

The company is prioritizing these newer models for FSD rollout and testing. Meanwhile, the EV maker has achieved some progress in advancing the HW3 code, which is managed separately.

Both hardware is now running the latest FSD 12 version but the update rollout for both models varies.