Tesla’s attempts to introduce full-fledged autopilot on its electric vehicles before the end of the last decade were unsuccessful, and since then, Elon Musk has regularly postponed this event “until the end of the next” every year. This week he admitted that he does not see the point in implementing a full version of FSD on machines manufactured from the fall of 2016 to January 2023.
Image Source: Tesla
The problem is that Tesla previously focused on guaranteed support for full FSD autopilot in all electric vehicles released since the fall of 2016, since they were equipped with the HW3 hardware complex with Tesla’s own neural processors. Before this, the company first relied on components from the Israeli Mobileye, and then for some time tried, following the example of many modern automakers, to cooperate with Nvidia. It is generally accepted that the legendary Jim Keller helped develop Tesla’s own neural processors for autopilot, but one way or another, by January 2023, the company began equipping its electric vehicles with a more advanced version of the FSD complex, which received the symbol HW4.
In addition to more powerful and modern processors, HW4 also provides for the use of more advanced cameras. As Musk had to admit later, the HW3 set of equipment cannot be replaced with HW4, as was the case with the two previous generations of Tesla on-board computers. Speaking at a reporting conference this week, the head of the company explained that implementing a full-fledged FSD for the HW3 hardware platform would require too much effort, and he is not sure that it is necessary to go this route. On HW4 everything turns out simpler, faster and safer, and it is the last factor that is decisive. “If this happens, we will upgrade the cars of those who bought them with HW3 for free, since we included the possibility of upgrade when developing the system,” said Elon Musk.
However, in its current form, the HW4 system cannot be installed in those vehicles that are equipped with the HW3 generation complex. Accordingly, if Tesla decides, as a gesture of goodwill, to provide all owners of electric vehicles of this brand, released from the fall of 2016 to January 2023, with access to the full version of FSD, then it will have to release a compatible set of equipment. At the Tesla event, its CEO Elon Musk also expressed hope that FSD will be safer than the average driver by the second quarter of next year, and also reminded that the company’s self-driving taxi service will become available to residents of California and Texas next year.