Legacy HW3 to HW4 Upgrade (AI3 to AI4)

[Karoshi]

With a legacy Model S, we have always been told that HW4 was not possible on our older cars, but Elon said that was incorrect and it is possible to upgrade.
Even though he said that that would be a free upgrade if FSD was not possible on HW3, how about just letting us pay for an upgrade regardless? I would pay for that upgrade

 

[Not a Tesla App]

With a legacy Model S, we have always been told that HW4 was not possible on our older cars, but Elon said that was incorrect and it is possible to upgrade.
Even though he said that that would be a free upgrade if FSD was not possible on HW3, how about just letting us pay for an upgrade regardless? I would pay for that upgrade

It's an interesting possibility, but what's the point of upgrading if you don't have FSD? Do you plan on subscribing instead?

Keep in mind that the upgrade will not be to "HW4," but something capable of running FSD Unsupervised. It could be less or more powerful than HW4. Some items, such as the cameras, wouldn't be upgraded, which is especially interesting with Tesla's planned improvements to FSD v13, where they plan to start processing HW4 camera feeds at full resolution and at 36 FPS.

Tesla To Upgrade HW3 Cars if Needed: What To Expect

Tesla confirms Hardware 3 vehicles may need an upgrade for autonomy, with a computer replacement but no camera upgrades. No date or timeline yet, but read on.

www.notateslaapp.com

 

[Rfried4987]

I think it depends on the requirements of the software, if the cameras will need to be upgraded. Swapping out the cameras isn't that big a deal though the current setup for hw3 uses 8 and hw4 is 12 i believe, so they would need to design retrofits, and of course the current hw4 design would need to be reworked as a retrofit model. What I could see them doing is building retrofits if you paid in full for FSD, or gave you the option to transfer your FSD to a hw4 vehicle and give you some kind of credit on top of that, but only if you paid in full. If you just subscribed monthly, you would probably need to pay for the upgrade.

What I honestly can't believe is they would design a version of hw4 that couldn't be retrofitted in the first place. How could they not have the foresight that it would not be a problem, or do they really think people will just dispose of their cars after a couple of years.