Musk pledges to fix 2019-2023 Teslas that can't fully self drive

Source: Engadget

Hardware 3 Limitations and Upgrade Plans

Tesla does not yet have a solid pathway to give Hardware 3 cars Full Self‑Driving (FSD) capabilities, according to Elon Musk during the latest earnings call. Vehicles equipped with Hardware 3 (produced from 2019 until early 2023) lack the ability for unsupervised FSD, despite being built with that goal in mind.

Musk noted that Hardware 3 “simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD,” citing its memory bandwidth—about one‑eighth that of Hardware 4—as a key limitation. He added that the company will need to upgrade the computers and cameras on older vehicles, but a concrete rollout plan is still pending.

He suggested that, over time, it will make sense to convert all Hardware 3 cars to Hardware 4. However, performing such conversions at service centers would be “extremely slow.” With roughly 4 million cars equipped with Hardware 3 (not all of which have purchased FSD), Musk said Tesla may need to establish “microfactories or small factories in major metropolitan areas” to handle the hardware swaps efficiently. No timeline for building these microfactories was provided.

FSD Version 14 for Hardware 3

In the interim, Tesla plans to release FSD version 14 for Hardware 3 around the end of June. This update is intended to improve functionality on existing hardware, though it will not achieve full unsupervised FSD.

Optimus Robot Production at Fremont

Musk also announced that the Fremont factory will begin manufacturing Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robots in late July or August. The company previously decided to cease production of the Model S and Model X earlier this year to retool the Fremont facility for Optimus production. The final Model S and X vehicles are slated to roll off the line in May, giving Tesla only a few months to dismantle existing equipment and install new tooling for the robot factory.