At the Q3 2024 Investor Call, Elon Musk discussed the future of autonomy. One question that came up was what about FSD Hardware 3? Today, Hardware 3 has been lagging behind Hardware 4, now dubbed AI4.
Given what has been previously said at We, Robot, Elon and Tesla fully believed that autonomy - Unsupervised FSD and Robotaxi, would be possible on HW3. Now, that statement has been backtracked. Elon and Tesla’s top-notch engineers are no longer sure whether HW3 will be capable of meeting the expectations of a safe, autonomously driven vehicle.
With AI 5 entering into production in 2026, even AI4 has a short lease on production life. But what does that mean for HW3 vehicles today? Let’s dig in.
Tesla Will Upgrade HW3 If Needed
Elon has confirmed for the first time that if Tesla can not make autonomy work on HW3, they will upgrade the affected vehicles. That upgrade, of course, would be free for customers who purchased FSD on their HW3 vehicles. For the early Model 3 that came with Hardware 2.5, owners should also be able to get a free upgrade to newer hardware after they purchase FSD. Elon didn’t go into a lot of detail, but it’s not clear whether FSD subscribers would also get a free upgrade if needed, but it sounds like they would.
There are a few things to note here.
Elon didn’t provide a date for this potential future upgrade or any expectation of when HW3 will be officially considered legacy. Elon said that Tesla isn’t 100% sure whether FSD would be possible on HW3. Tesla’s approach to FSD will now be to make it work on HW4, then backport or find ways to make it work on HW3. At some point, it sounds like they may determine this to not be possible.
It’s in Tesla’s best interest financially to delay that decision as long as possible and instead move HW3 owners to AI4 or newer hardware through free FSD transfer opportunities.
However, if Tesla decides that HW3 doesn’t have enough compute power, there will always be a large number of vehicles that need to be upgraded. The Tesla drivetrain—motors and batteries—are built to last, and with less than 2% annual degradation being tracked by third parties, we can expect to see 2018 Model 3s still on the road in 2030 and beyond.
There is some chance that HW3 does not achieve a safety level that allows for unsupervised FSD
What’s the Upgrade?
Here’s the thing—Hardware 3 has lower-resolution cameras and uses a different wiring harness. AI4 and beyond use a unified harness and improved cameras. On the earnings call, Elon said that the upgrade would be an inference computer upgrade only.
That means better and faster processing and an improved FSD experience for users. It can also save Tesla money by having the AI team spend less time backporting FSD to HW3.
No Camera Upgrades
The unified wiring harness and the cameras in HW3 vehicles will remain since Tesla doesn’t see them hindering progress. The harness in HW3 vehicles isn’t capable of carrying more data or power, making upgrades to cameras or hardware difficult.
Tesla is already approaching autonomy-level capabilities on Hardware 3, so in their eyes, it's just a matter of improving the models and decision-making rather than increasing the raw pixel count coming in. According to Tesla, there will be no camera upgrades.
We’re not sure how much of an impact this will have on the robotaxi or Unsupervised FSD, but given that the refreshed Model 3 Highland didn’t come with the bumper camera last year alongside the Cybertruck, it may not be necessary.
HW 3.5 Upgrade
Many users are speculating that HW3 will be upgraded to HW4, but that is unlikely to be the case. As we mentioned, HW4 has a different wiring harness and cameras and those won’t easily fit into a HW3 vehicle due to space and power constraints.
Instead, Tesla will likely create a new inference chip and board made specifically for HW3 vehicles. It’ll need to be as powerful as HW4’s computer but much more efficient.
Tech progresses quickly, and what was once cutting-edge in 2017 is now left behind in the dust. So, this process of getting an HW4-capable computer working with the constraints of an HW3 vehicle will get easier the more time goes on. Tesla will likely start engineering the process in the future, using smaller transistors with a smaller process node, newer chipset-style processor designs, and overall better energy efficiency.
One thing to look out for is redundancy. This lets the FSD computer work on two separate chips, making sure they both reach the same conclusion before the vehicle acts on it. Redundancy helps with errors due to component failures, errors in processing or other issues. Hardware 3 was built with redundancy in mind, but Tesla has since removed it in order to use both nodes for processing power instead of redundancy. If and when Tesla releases the HW3 retrofit computer, it’ll be interesting to see if they include this back in.
When?
Right now, Tesla isn’t even sure whether an upgrade for HW3 will be needed. It sounds like that may be the case, but for now, Tesla isn’t for sure. They simply want to reassure owners that an upgrade will be available for HW3 if needed.
Tesla also doesn’t want to have to upgrade vehicles twice, so this upgrade will be the absolute last-ditch effort to get HW3 vehicles up to a safe level of autonomy. Even Tesla can’t be sure what it will take to completely solve autonomy yet, so they can’t build an upgrade until they know what it’ll take.
Don’t expect a HW3 upgrade before FSD is solved. Once Tesla knows the computing power and potentially other hardware required, then they can start thinking about retrofitting vehicles that don’t meet those requirements. Our best guess is that a HW3 upgrade is still years away.
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Another quarter has passed, and that means it’s time to submit questions and vote for Tesla’s Q2 2025 Earnings Call. While Q1 was a tough quarter for the company, Q2 saw some recovery in sales, although there’s still some work to be done.
However, there’s always a lot to be excited about during Tesla’s Q&A session, where we usually learn a lot about future software improvements and upcoming vehicles. We may hear more about FSD Unsupervised, Robotaxi, or the more affordable vehicle, or its upcoming larger 6-seater Model Y, the Model Y L. Tesla also mentioned a potential FSD price hike back in the Q1 2025 Earnings Call, so that could be something that is brought up as well.
Tesla’s Q2 So Far
Tesla has already released their Q2 2025 Production and Delivery numbers, which were up from Q1 of this year, but still down compared to Q2 last year.
Production
Deliveries
Model 3/Y
396,835
373,728
Model S, X, and Cybertruck
13,409
10,394
Total
410,244
384,122
How to Submit & Vote
Tesla lets shareholders submit a question that will be voted on and may be answered during the Q&A session. To submit your own question or vote on an already submitted question, you’ll need to be a verified shareholder. You can go to Say’s platform and link your brokerage accounts.
Once it is verified, you’ll be able to log in and vote your shares on your own question, or on someone else’s question.
Here’s the link to get started on Say’s Tesla Q&A. You must submit your questions and votes by July 23rd, 2025, at 4:00 PM EDT.
Top Questions So Far
Unsurprisingly, people have already been submitting questions, and here are the top ones so far.
Can you give us some insight how robotaxis have been performing so far and what rate you expect to expand in terms of vehicles, geofence, cities, and supervisors?
What are the key technical and regulatory hurdles still remaining for unsupervised FSD to be available for personal use? Timeline?
What specific factory tasks is Optimus currently performing, and what is the expected timeline for scaling production to enable external sales? How does Tesla envision Optimus contributing to revenue in the next 2–3 years?
Can you provide an update on the development and production timeline for Tesla’s more affordable models? How will these models balance cost reduction with profitability, and what impact do you expect on demand in the current economic climate?
Are there any news for HW3 users getting retrofits or upgrades? Will they get HW4 or some future version of HW5?
When do you anticipate customer vehicles to receive unsupervised FSD?
And here are some other ones we found interesting:
Have any meaningful Optimus milestones changed for this year or next and will thousands of Optimus be performing tasks in Tesla factories by year end?
Are front bumper cameras going to be necessary for unsupervised full self driving? If so, what is the companies plan to retrofit vehicles that do not have them?
Will there be a new AI day to explain the advancements the Autopilot, Optimus, and Dojo/chip teams have made over the past several years. We still do not know much about the HW4.
Earnings Call Details
Tesla will hold its earnings call on Wednesday, July 23rd, at 4:00 PM EDT. It's still early for an access link, but we’ll make sure we have a link up on the site before the earnings call that day.
If you do miss the earnings call, no worries. We will provide a full recap following the call, and we’ll also do some in-depth dives into what was said and what we know.
Tesla’s Summer Update, 2025.26, has finally launched, bringing with it a batch of interesting new features for some, and a bunch of quality-of-life improvements for everyone else.
Grok AI Assistant
The star of the Summer Update is Grok, xAI’s conversational AI assistant, which has now landed in Tesla vehicles. For now, it's available in any Tesla that has an AMD processor and is potentially coming to Intel-based vehicles in the near future. The feature is also only available in the U.S., but it’s expected to expand to other regions — hopefully soon.
Grok is in its first iteration as an in-vehicle assistant, and for now, cannot control the vehicle, which means that Tesla’s voice command system is still intact. However, there is a lot it can do already. Grok is activated by pressing and holding the voice button (right scroll wheel on older vehicles), while a short press of the button is still reserved for voice commands. Grok will support a wake word in the future, letting you activate it without pressing a button.
You don't need to sign into Grok to use it in your Tesla!
It can't currently control anything in the car, but it does seem context aware that it is in a vehicle. pic.twitter.com/IpatR7sjiJ
Once Grok is open, which can also be done by tapping the Grok app icon, users can tailor the AI personality according to their preferences by selecting a persona and voice of their choice.
There are also several other settings for Grok under the settings button. You can enable NSFW mode, Kids Mode, or disable access to your vehicle’s location.
Grok has contextual awareness of your vehicle location, which means it can provide relevant answers to questions like “Where should I go for dinner?”
Logging In Not Required
Grok is free with Premium Connectivity, or if you’re using your phone’s hotspot feature or connected to WiFi, so anyone can try it for free. In fact, you don’t even need to log in to start using Grok. However, logging in adds some additional features.
If you’d like to log in, you can do so by scanning the QR code in the vehicle, which will provide chat management and transcripts, SuperGrok access (if you pay for a subscription), and better privacy control.
Tesla has added a new Light Sync feature that pulses the vehicle’s ambient lighting in sync with the music being played. This option is turned on under Toybox > Light Sync. There are also a few options, including the ability to match the ambient light colors to the album’s artwork, instead of using your selected color.
In addition, in Park you can enable Rave Cave when parked, which cranks up the ambient lighting brightness to the maximum.
Dashcam App Update
The Dashcam app now allows you to adjust playback speeds, just like the older Dashcam Viewer, which is still used on Intel-based vehicles.
In addition to adjusting playback speed, you can now adjust the video view so that it’s displayed without being obstructed by the buttons at the top (video below). The difference is small, but could be useful if you’re trying to see something slightly out of view or that’s hidden behind the top Dashcam buttons.
While the Cybertruck has also received the updated Dashcam Viewer with this update, it does not have the new B-pillar camera recordings like other HW4 cars.
Sentry Mode is getting one of the best uses of the vehicle’s ambient lighting that we’ve seen so far. The ambient lighting will now slowly pulse red while Sentry Mode is activated to grab someone’s attention, instead of just relying on the vehicle’s display.
While you can disable Sentry Mode sounds, we’d love to see an even more stealthy Sentry Mode that also disables the ambient lighting and screen, allowing the vehicle to record without anyone being aware.
Since the ambient lighting is being used in this case to make people more aware of a feature, Tesla could also use it in other modes, such as Dog Mode.
There are a lot of potential uses for ambient lighting. Tesla can make it glow while the vehicle is charging, with the brightness potentially related to the vehicle's charge level.
When you navigate to a Supercharger, new icons in the charger list will indicate locations that require valet service or pay-to-park access.
Upon arrival at the location, a notification will appear on your screen, displaying important details such as access codes, parking restrictions, level/floor information for parking garages, and restroom availability. This information will also be available on the site card in the navigation.
Equalizer Presets
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Tesla has moved the audio settings from the music player, directly into the vehicle settings — making them much easier to find. In addition to creating a new “Audio” section in settings, you can now create and save equalizer presets.
Each preset can have a name, custom EQ settings, and a setting for immersive audio.
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Onboarding Guide
Not a Tesla App
Tesla has introduced a new Onboarding Guide for new owners. The guide covers driver settings, touchscreen use, steering wheel and seat setup, and how to control key portions of the vehicle, including lights, wipers, and Autopilot features.
The Onboarding Guide is automatically initiated when a new owner accepts delivery of a Tesla, or can be manually initiated at any time by going to Controls > Service > Onboarding Guide.
This appears to only be available for the new Model 3 and new Model Y.
In typical Tesla fashion, this 2025.26 update is rolling out gradually in small waves initially. Three waves have already gone out, so all signs are looking good for it going into a wide release soon.
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