Elon Musk Admits Millions Of Tesla Owners Need Upgrades For True ‘full Self-driving’

Elon Musk said Wednesday that millions of Tesla owners will request hardware upgrades to tally a early type of its Full Self-Driving package that doesn’t require quality supervision — aft he and Tesla spent years promising that wouldn’t beryllium nan case.

The admittance could unfastened nan institution up to ineligible challenges from customers who bought Teslas connected nan belief that nan cars were conscionable 1 package update distant from being capable to thrust themselves.

Musk said connected Tesla’s quarterly net telephone Wednesday that cars pinch nan 3rd type of Tesla’s driver-assistance tech, known arsenic “Hardware 3,” will request a caller machine and caller cameras. He besides said these replacements will beryllium truthful burdensome that Tesla is looking astatine building “micro-factories” successful “major metropolitan areas” truthful nan company’s work centers don’t get overwhelmed.

“If it’s done conscionable astatine nan work center, it is highly slow to do so, and inefficient. So we fundamentally need, for illustration galore accumulation lines, to make nan change,” Musk said connected nan call.

Tesla owners pinch Hardware 3 cars person spent years bugging nan institution and Musk for a consecutive reply astir whether they would beryllium capable to tally this precocious type of Full Self-Driving — which, it should beryllium noted, Tesla has not yet released, aliases proven it can. Tesla sold these cars betwixt 2019 and 2023.

Musk yet copped to nan reality that Hardware 3 was insufficient to tally much precocious versions of Full Self-Driving successful January 2025.

“I deliberation nan honorable reply is that we’re going to person to upgrade people’s Hardware 3 machine for those that person bought Full Self-Driving,” he said. “That’s going to beryllium achy and difficult, but we’ll get it done.”

However, nan company’s main financial serviceman Vaibhav Taneja made a different declare conscionable six months agone successful October 2025 erstwhile he said Tesla whitethorn still beryllium capable to make it work. “We person not wholly fixed up connected HW3,” he said astatine nan time.

Tesla said Wednesday it will still merchandise somewhat much precocious versions of nan existent Full Self-Driving package to Hardware 3 owners. But Musk was unequivocal that upgrades will beryllium needed for thing more.

“Hardware 3 simply does not person nan capacity to execute unsupervised FSD,” he said.