It has been almost ten years since Elon Musk has been promising that Tesla vehicles on the market will benefit from autonomous driving. And suddenly, at the end of January 2025, the CEO of the company finally admitted that this is not the case. Worse, models equipped with FSD, logically expected to have this functionality, will not actually benefit from it. Explanations.
An old unfulfilled promise
During a conference call at the beginning of 2025 where he was speaking to the company’s main shareholders, Elon Musk indicated that the company’s cars equipped with hardware 3 will need to be upgraded to support the autonomous driving software currently under development. And the billionaire added: “I think the most honest answer is that we will have to upgrade the Hardware 3 computer of those who have purchased Full Self-Driving. It will be painful and difficult, but we will do it.”
This statement is likely to provoke a reaction from Tesla customers. The company has been offering an autonomous driving option for many years at a high cost in the United States. Customers were hoping to benefit from this feature once it was launched, but it seems that this will not be the case.
For those following this issue, this turn of events is not so surprising. Elon Musk has been talking for a long time about the arrival of autonomous driving, to the point where it has almost become a kind of running gag.
Also, it is worth noting that back in 2019, with the arrival of Hardware 3 on Tesla vehicles, drivers with a vehicle running on Hardware 2.0 and Hardware 2.5 had to switch to Hardware 3 to hope to benefit from it. Legal actions for “misleading advertising” had also been initiated, as reported by JV.com.
Is Tesla in trouble?
Elon Musk’s remarks suggest that Tesla is currently in crisis management mode. While the company seems to have learned lessons from its legal disputes, it may still have to spend millions to honor its commitments to its customers, according to a specialized website.
However, can we really talk about a resolution? The models currently coming out of the factories are equipped with Hardware 4, but autonomous driving is still unavailable. Customers who paid a high price to get it early have no choice but to hope that this technology will live up to expectations when it is finally deployed. This is a situation to monitor.
