Elon Musk admitted on Tesla's earnings call that millions of owners with Hardware 3 cars (sold 2019-2023) will need expensive hardware upgrades—new computers and cameras—to run a future version of Full Self-Driving without human supervision. This directly contradicts years of public promises that software updates alone would suffice, exposing Tesla to potential legal liability. Tesla is planning to build "micro-factories" in major cities to handle the upgrade volume at scale.
Strategy
Elon Musk admits millions of Tesla owners need upgrades for true ‘Full Self-Driving’
Elon reverses years of promises that Hardware 3 owners could upgrade to true Full Self-Driving via software alone, now requiring expensive hardware upgrades for millions of vehicles and exposing Tesla to potential litigation.
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: TechCrunchBY sys://pipeline
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Elon Musk admits that millions of Tesla vehicles won’t get unsupervised FSD
Tesla admits millions of Hardware 3 vehicles cannot receive unsupervised FSD without costly Hardware 4 upgrades, forcing a complex fleet transition program that requires building regional microfactories.