Legacy HW3 to HW4 Upgrade (AI3 to AI4)

Karoshi

New member
Sep 3, 2023
5
4
3
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

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 18, 2022
1,839
306
83
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.

 
  • Like
Reactions: RNHurt and acmem

Rfried4987

New member
Sep 26, 2024
16
14
3
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.
 

pongajim

New member
Oct 22, 2022
19
6
3
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.

Many of us in the Aerospace industry quite familiar with sensor systems don't believe the HW3 cameras can do the job after seeing the first Teslas. Look at the screen, the car can't see more than a few hundred feet ahead and HW4 cameras are not much better. You can't process what you don't have. Your eyes can easily see a half mile ahead or more and the brain makes many early decisions based on that when driving. FSD gets too close to the problem before it decides to intervene. This is already a problem as fsd uses the brakes a lot. I never use the brakes because I can see ahead. And the higher the speed, the larger the problem becomes.
Suggest Tesla reinvents the entire fsd package, cameras and all to a HW5 configuration that fits the 3 and 4 as well before it's too late. Here is the smartest bunch on the planet and this could end up being the equivalent of the Hubble fiasco.