Photo: u/techdash
While Tesla has been subtly encouraging owners of its older vehicles to upgrade to HW3, the hardware system for Full Self-Driving (FSD) features, the vehicle company is now making another push in that direction, according to a recent post on Reddit.
Tesla owners with HW2.5 may be asked to upgrade to HW3, according to the source code discovered by u/techdash on Tesla’s website.
Owners of Tesla’s electric vehicles manufactured before or during November 2019 may be encouraged to receive the upgraded hardware retrofit, along with the potential to have to pay for FSD.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on the Tesla upgrades page javascript source for any insight on the upcoming FSD subscription,” explained u/techdash. “I had previously noticed that HW3 would likely be needed to subscribe, which raised the question, what about those with the older computer?”.
“I’m now also seeing that there will be an upgrade path for owners with the older computer. It’s not clear what it will cost, but it does appear you’ll be able to get the hardware upgrade to then be able to subscribe,” explained the user.
“There appear to be two reasons why someone would be ineligible to upgrade – not having Autopilot or not having the correct hardware, and it looks as though you’ll be able to get both from the upgrades page to then be able to subscribe for FSD,” added u/techdash.
Tesla Self-Driving HW 4.0 Chip to Start Production in Late 2021: Report https://t.co/eCX5rNvjHI
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) August 18, 2020
In response to the post, u/picard001 said, “I was hoping they’d add an “EAP” subscription (maybe they will) that will allow those with HW2.5 basic summon, highway lane change, etc.” The user continued, “If I have to pay thousands to upgrade to 3.0, I’d like it to come with some free subscription to sweeten the deal.”
After being delayed for several months in Europe, the HW3 upgrade from Tesla even began rolling out to European customers in April of this year. While FSD still is not available to customers in Europe, it’s expected to be in the future.
Tesla also recently switched from using radar-sensing technology to “Tesla Vision,” a pure camera-based sensor system for Autopilot and, eventually, FSD programming.
