For years, Tesla owners with Hardware 3 cars (sold between 2019 and 2023) have waited for a software update that unlocks fully autonomous driving. However, on April 22, 2026, during Tesla’s quarterly earnings call, Elon Musk finally delivered the answer, and it wasn’t the one everyone was hoping.
Musk confirmed that the cars running the company’s third-generation hardware cannot achieve unsupervised Full Self-Driving through software alone; the vehicles need physical hardware upgrades. In other words, about four million vehicles sold globally can’t achieve FSD (via TechCrunch).
Tesla Model 3 UnsplashWhat did Musk actually say about FSD on Hardware 3 cars?
“Hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD,” Musk said on the call. Instead, Tesla’s Hardware 3 vehicles need a new computer and new cameras to unlock the FSD promise (via over-the-air updates) that the company has been making
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