Even when you order a model new Tesla and pay the additional $15,000 so as to add the so-called Full Self-Driving Beta software program, no Tesla is definitely able to self-driving. And that received’t change within the close to future, both. Over-the-air updates could enhance what present Teslas can already do, however upcoming {hardware} adjustments are nonetheless going to depart present house owners behind.
InsideEVs studies that Tesla plans to improve the pc it makes use of in future autos to at least one it calls {Hardware} 4. It will likely be extra highly effective than the present {Hardware} 3 system and must be extra succesful, as properly. With out lidar, we’re undecided how Tesla plans to securely get to Stage 3 functionality, nevertheless it’s in all probability protected to imagine that {Hardware} 4 will probably be higher than {Hardware} 3 even when it’s nonetheless not adequate to deal with true self-driving.
But when house owners who paid for FSD need the most recent {hardware} replace, they’ll have to purchase a brand new Tesla. When Elon Musk was requested about retrofitting older vehicles with {Hardware} 4, he stated the corporate has no plans to take action. “The price and issue of retrofitting {Hardware} 3 with {Hardware} 4 is sort of important. So it could not be, I feel, economically possible to take action,” stated Musk.
Musk then went on to make some wild, unsubstantiated claims about Teslas utilizing {Hardware} 3 nonetheless being safer than human-controlled vehicles:
{Hardware} 3 is not going to be nearly as good as {Hardware} 4, however I’m assured that {Hardware} 3 will up to now exceed the protection of the typical human. So how will we get in the end to – let’s say, for argument’s sake, if {Hardware} 3 might be, say, 200% or 300% safer than people, {Hardware} 4 may be 500% or 600%. It will likely be {Hardware} 5 past that. However what actually issues is are we bettering the typical security on the highway.
Citation needed, Elon. Citation desperately needed.
While current Tesla owners will probably be disappointed they’re being left behind on the hardware front, it’s not terribly surprising that a car company would be more focused on future products than retrofitting older vehicles with the latest computers. But at the same time, when you sell customers a product that you insist will eventually be capable of driving itself, it shouldn’t be surprising that they’d get mad when they hear that won’t actually ever happen.