Elon Musk Reveals Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Roadblock: Hardware Upgrade Required
Staff Editor Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Ambitions Hit Roadblock, Musk Admits Hardware Limitations
In a surprising turn of events, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has acknowledged that the company’s current hardware is insufficient to achieve full self-driving (FSD) capabilities. The admission came during Tesla’s latest quarterly earnings call, where Musk described the situation as “absolutely painful and difficult.”
During the call, Musk interrupted Tesla’s Autopilot and AI head, Ashok Elluswamy, contradicting his statements about the capabilities of Hardware 3 (HW3). Elluswamy diplomatically responded by mentioning a “baby” version of FSD for HW3 while the company works on a new version for Hardware 4 (HW4).
This revelation follows earlier hints from Musk during a Q3 2024 earnings call, where he suggested that HW3 might not achieve the required safety levels for unsupervised FSD. He noted that HW4 has significantly more capability than its predecessor, making it easier to implement FSD features.
The CEO acknowledged the need to upgrade HW3 for customers who purchased the FSD package. Musk expressed relief that not many customers bought the FSD package, despite his previous encouragements. Tesla has been offering HW3 upgrades to FSD purchasers since 2018, and Musk reiterated a similar offer for HW4 upgrades, though without specifying a timeline.
This admission marks a significant shift in Tesla’s narrative after years of promoting FSD capabilities. The ongoing delays and hardware challenges have raised questions about the feasibility of Tesla’s FSD promises and underscore the complexities and technological hurdles in achieving true autonomous driving.
As the automotive industry closely watches Tesla’s progress in self-driving technology, this latest development highlights the ongoing challenges faced by even the most ambitious players in the field. The road to full autonomy appears to be longer and more winding than initially anticipated, leaving both investors and customers to reassess their expectations for the future of self-driving vehicles.
