During the event for announcing the Cybercab, all demo robotaxis were equipped with the new Full Self-Driving version 13. Tesla began to slowly introduce this update to the rest of its vehicles last quarter, fulfilling its promise.
Limited Availability of FSD 13
However, the release isn’t broadly available yet. Currently, FSD 13 is only accessible to a small group of owners who have recent models featuring Tesla’s latest Hardware 4.0 computer already installed.
For those with HW3, “we recently put out the 12.6 version, which is like a mini V13, but it’s a big step up from what they had before,” explained Tesla’s Vaibhav Taneja during the Q4 investor call.
Continued Support for HW3
Tesla hasn’t abandoned its HW3 vehicles entirely, and they are working to adapt FSD 13 to function on those older computers. “We won’t give up on Hardware 3; we are still putting effort into it,” Vaibhav noted, but added that “the updates will lag behind those for Hardware 4.”
There remains some optimism that Tesla will succeed in making FSD 13 compatible with older Hardware 3.0 computers. After all, Elon Musk hinted at an unsupervised FSD rollout for this year during the Cybercab event, and this feature will utilize version 13. If Tesla cannot achieve this, they will upgrade all HW3 computers of customers who bought FSD to the HW4 version, as Elon stated during the Q3 call.
Elon Musk’s Assurance on Upgrades
He reinforced this commitment during the Q4 earnings call, expressing greater confidence that a retrofit will indeed be necessary. When queried about whether Tesla would absorb the costs for upgrading the computers and how it might affect future profits, Elon acknowledged that older vehicles would likely need new computers:
“The honest answer is we’ll have to upgrade the Hardware 3 computers for those who purchased Full Self Driving, and that’s the truth. It will be tough and challenging, but we’ll make it happen. Honestly, I’m kind of relieved that not too many people opted for the FSD package.”
The only puzzle left from his statement is whether Tesla plans to upgrade HW3 vehicles with HW4 computers to support FSD 13 or if a swap won’t be required before FSD 14 comes out.
Future Plans for Cybercab
The Cybercab ride-sharing service is set to roll out to the general public next year, meaning Tesla may have time to sort out FSD 13 compatibility for HW3 users in the meantime. For future updates, owners of the older Tesla models will likely receive a HW4 upgrade at no cost, and Tesla will need to cover the costs involved.
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