Tesla owners with Hardware 4 (AI4) vehicles just received some reassuring news about the future of Full Self-Driving.
Elon Musk has confirmed that cars equipped with Tesla’s current-generation AI4 hardware will be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving (Unsupervised) without needing any additional hardware upgrades. The clarification came in response to growing speculation online about whether AI4 vehicles might eventually require newer chips to support true autonomy.
The confirmation was brief but unambiguous. After an X user noted that anyone using AI4 today can already see that better hardware isn’t necessary for unsupervised driving, Musk replied with a simple “Yup,” effectively settling the debate. The exchange reinforces Tesla’s position that AI4 has sufficient headroom to handle the company’s autonomy ambitions as they transition from supervised to fully unsupervised operation.
This is an important distinction as Tesla continues to advance its AI roadmap. While AI5 — Tesla’s next-generation in-house chip — is nearing production and promises up to a 50x performance improvement over AI4, Musk’s comments make clear that AI5 is not a requirement for unsupervised FSD in customer vehicles. Instead, AI5 is expected to power future vehicles, robotics platforms like Optimus, and large-scale training clusters.
The situation is notably different for older Hardware 3 (HW3) vehicles. Tesla has long maintained that HW3 owners will need to upgrade their hardware to access unsupervised Full Self-Driving once it becomes publicly available. That stance remains unchanged, even as Tesla continues testing unsupervised FSD internally on its Robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas.
That said, HW3 cars aren’t being left behind entirely. Tesla has confirmed it is working on an FSD 14 “Lite” version for HW3 vehicles, and recent patent activity suggests there may still be ways to extend the useful life of older hardware without physical chip replacements.
For AI4 owners, however, Musk’s latest confirmation provides welcome clarity. As Tesla inches closer to a broader rollout of unsupervised autonomy, it appears that vehicles sold today with AI4 are already equipped with everything they need — no surprise hardware swap required.
