Tesla owners whose cars operate on its 2019 Hardware 3 system might have to trade in their vehicles to experience the company’s unsupervised full self-driving mode, CEO Elon Musk told investors as his company reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, April 22.
Why Hardware 3 Can’t Support Unsupervised FSD
Tesla’s Hardware 3 is an AI computer installed in its cars since 2019, originally intended to power the company’s Full Self-Drive software. But Musk said the older hardware simply doesn’t have enough memory bandwidth to run the system properly.
“Unfortunately, Hardware 3 — I wish it were otherwise, but Hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD,” Musk told investors on the live call. “We did think at one point it would have that, but relative to Hardware 4, it has only 1/8 of the memory bandwidth of Hardware 4. And memory bandwidth is one of the key elements needed for unsupervised FSD.”
“It’s just generally a thing that’s needed for AI,” Musk added. “If you’re doing an autoregressive transformer, memory bandwidth is the choke point.”
What Tesla Is Offering Hardware 3 Owners
For customers who purchased FSD, Musk outlined two options: a discounted trade-in on a car with Hardware 4, or a hardware upgrade — but the upgrade requires replacing both the onboard computer and the cameras.
“So for customers that have bought FSD, what we’re offering is essentially a trade-in — like a discounted trade-in for cars that have AI4 hardware, and we’ll also be offering the ability to upgrade the car, to replace the computer. And you also need to replace the cameras, unfortunately, to go to Hardware 4,” Musk said.
Musk acknowledged the logistics of upgrading older cars would be challenging, requiring what he called “micro factories or small factories in major metropolitan areas” because service centers alone would be too slow and inefficient.
“So we basically need like many production lines to make the change,” Musk said. “And I do think, over time, it’s going to make sense for us to convert all Hardware 3 cars to Hardware 4 because that’s what enables them to enter the Robotaxi fleet and have unsupervised FSD.”
The remarks come as Musk has been touting Tesla’s forthcoming pivot to producing mostly autonomous vehicles. “Over time, it’s going to make sense for our whole lineup to be autonomous vehicles of different sizes,” he said. “In fact, long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster.”
Is Tesla’s Full Self-Drive Actually Autonomous?
Cars equipped with Tesla’s Full Self-Drive are generally considered capable of Level 2 autonomy — not the full autonomy the product name implies — according to the California Learning Resource Network.
“Despite its name, ‘Full Self-Driving,’ Tesla FSD is not a Level 5 autonomous system,” the website noted in a February 2025 post. “Currently, it is generally considered to be a Level 2 system with advanced capabilities, verging on Level 3, but not fully meeting its requirements.”
Tesla’s own Model 3 owner’s manual states that Full Self-Driving “requires a fully attentive driver” and warns that drivers “must remain attentive and be ready to take over at all times while Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is engaged.”
What Federal Regulators Are Watching
NHTSA launched an investigation into Tesla’s Full Self-Drive system in October 2024, examining crashes where vehicles with FSD engaged experienced reduced roadway visibility from conditions such as sun glare, fog, or airborne dust.
NHTSA said it launched the probe after receiving four reports of such crashes. “In one of the crashes, the Tesla vehicle fatally struck a pedestrian. One additional crash in these conditions involved a reported injury,” the agency said.
The FSD investigation is one of five probes NHTSA currently has open related to Tesla vehicles.
