Blog Model S Owner Surprised with Hardware 3 Retrofit

Tesla is reportedly retrofitting vehicles with its next-generation Hardware 3 computer that the company says will make autonomous driving possible.

Tesla owner Sofiaan Fraval shared on Twitter that his 2018 Model S P100D went into the the Tesla service center to replace a HEPA filter and came out with a new, more powerful computer.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1171894922259107840

“Performed the retrofit for the Full-Self Driving computer. Test drove and verified operation,” Tesla wrote in the service report. 

Fraval’s Model S was previously equipped with Hardware 2.5 and MCU v2. His car build date is April 2018.

Fraval noted that the retrofits are only available for Model S and Model X vehicles for now and owners are not yet able to request the swap.

All new Tesla vehicles come equipped with the new hardware, which includes a Samsung-built chip that has 21-times the performance of the previous Tesla hardware powered by Nvidia.

Tesla has emphasized that the chip is purpose-built for enabling vehicle autonomy.

Anyone else received a retrofit?

 

[vickh]

wow. What's the cutoff build month that qualifies?

 

[electronblue]

They also did the computer retro-fit. My Model S is a 2019, took delivery in April. I cut an pasted the verbiage from the service order:
Concern: Full Self-Driving Computer Retrofit (Model S and Model X Group 1)

Well I’m glad Tesla is starting with the group that has been waiting the longest!

No, wait...

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Did the upgrade improve the ability of the S to sense vehicles in blind spots? I rarely use autopilot when there is much traffic, as the sensors don't seem to sense other vehicles until they are very close to my S.

Based on what Elon said, currently HW3 doesn't currently get you anything over HW2.5, and might even be a slight step back.

However, it means you are no longer blocked from getting a future OTA which would start to take advantage of HW3.

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Well I’m glad Tesla is starting with the group that has been waiting the longest!

No, wait...

The oldest HW2.5

 

[nimrooz]

HW 2.5 did come in last half of 2017 or early 2018 if I remember correctly. Because right after I took delivery of mine in June 2017 I learned about hw2.5.

 

[run-the-joules]

Well I’m glad Tesla is starting with the group that has been waiting the longest!

No, wait...

They are absolutely going to screw over the HW 2.0 folks, I suspect.

 

[run-the-joules]

However, it means you are no longer blocked from getting a future OTA which would start to take advantage of HW3.

Exactly why it's very important that they upgrade people as fast as is practical. If they start releasing HW3-only features while people are still waiting for upgrades, that's going to be a pretty crappy customer experience.

This is also exactly what I expect to happen: People who paid first watching other people using the features their money was used to develop, while they themselves wait to get the hardware upgrade that will allow them to use those features.

 

[Ludalicious]

Note that the "FSD Computer Retrofit" is not the temporally proximal concern of the customer in these two cases, but of the general concern of the responsibilities of the corporation to the contracts they already made with many of their customers. The language of saying there was a concern there is easily confused with it being a present fore concern of the customer, and doesn't avoid treating the customer as not the owner of their own destiny (which is a triple negative; using only one negative, I could more pointedly say "Tesla avoids treating the customer as the owner of their own destiny"). While only a very slight point, it is entirely consistent with the pro-monarchy attitudes of Tesla the corporation in general, and it is a glaring linguistic sign of that attitude.

They really need to fix that language.

Thank you for posting it! It is great evidence they are barely starting to update their products as contracted.

---

A somewhat different topic, but since it's slightly related and I'm already posting about this, I'll go ahead and make a prediction: I think it is likely that Tesla will continue to slowly ramp up the roll out of the retrofits. Now, the fact that I have to do something almost akin to looking at tea leaves to figure out what Tesla is doing is part of what I'm talking about, but at least there they have slightly less obscene excuses like proprietary advantage in competition. While in this case it is said that Tesla is belatedly adhering to a subset of their self driving promises, there have been accusations against them for over-promising in the past. Normally I think that's just bad predicting on the part of Elon, but it does make me slightly wonder if pro-monarchists are so sick of competition that they prefer to compete corruptly, and makes me wonder if Elon intentionally (or "unintentionally (intentionally) fooled himself and") lied about it. That doesn't help the anti-short case very much, even though the shorts are crazy lunatics that lie about pretty much everything with rare exception. Let's see how they roll this out, for example. If it goes as I predict, this will be plausible deniability that they tried to defraud customers with false advertising, but that they'll probably have to continue to make better on some of their prior false advertising.

There. I'm being honest and gracious.

What the hell you rambling on about.....

 

[TaoJones]

Disgraceful.

As a two-time early adopter who’s been lied to more than once via various misrepresentations, and as a 2.0 owner who paid for FSD 2.5+ years ago with zero verbiage at the time to indicate that we’d get “less than”, sign me up as a class representative should this mess continue to go sideways.

Remember the faked December 2016 video done with MobilEye hw and 17 attempts? That’s what I expect. Stop sign reaction and the car parking itself around corners. Call it what you want.

Bonus would be restoring the AP1 functionality of reacting to speed limit signs rather than AP2’s still very broken reliance upon equally broken databases.

 

[run-the-joules]

Remember the faked December 2016 video done with MobilEye hw and 17 attempts? That’s what I expect. Stop sign reaction and the car parking itself around corners.

Was it confirmed to be faked? I’ve kinda assumed so for a while since I lost my ability to give the benefit of the doubt, but never navigated the threads about it.

I believed it at first, though. Hook, line and sinker one of the main reasons I paid for FSD back when I was younger and stupider.

But yes, that’s the functionality we were promised. Anything less should absolutely result in Tesla refunding or being on the losing end of a lot of lawsuits.

 

[TaoJones]

Was it confirmed to be faked? I’ve kinda assumed so for a while since I lost my ability to give the benefit of the doubt, but never navigated the threads about it.

I believed it at first, though. Hook, line and sinker one of the main reasons I paid for FSD back when I was younger and stupider.

But yes, that’s the functionality we were promised. Anything less should absolutely result in Tesla refunding or being on the losing end of a lot of lawsuits.

The video was not a first take, to put it generously.

Yep - back then the promise of FSD w no future hardware other than the board along with taking included supercharging away forever - both statements made at the time - prompted many of those with GRV agreements and those without to purchase new cars at that time.

Unless our 2.0 cars are made right with whatever wiring, sensor and camera upgrades may or may not be required, along with that new board and corresponding firmware, many former fans and current shareholders of Tesla are going to demand being made whole. And that’s a very long list.

 

[run-the-joules]

The video was not a first take, to put it generously.

Yep - back then the promise of FSD w no future hardware other than the board along with taking included supercharging away forever - both statements made at the time - prompted many of those with GRV agreements and those without to purchase new cars at that time.

Unless our 2.0 cars are made right with whatever wiring, sensor and camera upgrades may or may not be required, along with that new board and corresponding firmware, many former fans and current shareholders of Tesla are going to demand being made whole. And that’s a very long list.

and a LOT of people immediately upgraded from AP1 cars *explicitly* for those promises. One of my friends has a Oct or Nov 2016 Model S that replaced his early 2016 one for that reason. His love of Tesla has certainly taken a beating.

 

[blackbird101]

Did the upgrade improve the ability of the S to sense vehicles in blind spots? I rarely use autopilot when there is much traffic, as the sensors don't seem to sense other vehicles until they are very close to my S.

Haven't had the opportunity to test it yet. I'll let you know though.

 

[blackbird101]

You purchased FSD?

To clarify: I purchased the Model S during the recent March, April, May, 2019 price reduction fiasco. "FSD" was not an option when I ordered but Enhanced Auto Pilot was, which I did order. While my car was being built, they reduced the pricing on new purchases by about $8,000 and included EAP in that reduced price. They also added FSD for an additional cost. In order to make things right, since I had already paid the $8,000 premium, they added FSD as a "Due Bill". The computer that was "retrofitted" last week was for the FSD capability.

 

[Edgewood Dome]

Since the FSD computer Upgrades have now started, Tesla should start with the oldest cars purchased with FSD and HW 2.0. Tesla should send out a notice to those car owners letting them know to schedule the replacement. I'm one of those having traded in my early vin 2013 S85 for a new HW2.0 car JUST BECAUSE of the video Tesla showed of FSD and the promise my new car would have everything needed for FSD and that it would be ready in just a month or two. It has now been 974 days and one cancelled Service Apmt to provide the FSD computer.
If they continue replacing on Newer cars without replacing it on mine, I'm looking for a Class Action Suit to join.

 

[Bmac]

MX100D purchased 9/29/2017 and yes, FSD was purchased. Had in service for 2nd year maintenance, Van Nuys, CA Service Center 9/9 - 9/12. Asked about HW3, Van Nuys had no information.

Same here - Purchased 75S end of Sept 2017, manufactured July 2017. In for annual service last week. Rep acknowledged the swap-out would occur but was not specific on any dates.

 

[NHK X]

HW 2.5 did come in last half of 2017 or early 2018 if I remember correctly. Because right after I took delivery of mine in June 2017 I learned about hw2.5.

I think it was the 3rd week of August 2017 if I remember correctly. I ended up with one of the first HW2.5 builds.

 

[NHK X]

The video was not a first take, to put it generously.

Yep - back then the promise of FSD w no future hardware other than the board along with taking included supercharging away forever - both statements made at the time - prompted many of those with GRV agreements and those without to purchase new cars at that time.

Unless our 2.0 cars are made right with whatever wiring, sensor and camera upgrades may or may not be required, along with that new board and corresponding firmware, many former fans and current shareholders of Tesla are going to demand being made whole. And that’s a very long list.

Do you have a source for that?

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Since the FSD computer Upgrades have now started, Tesla should start with the oldest cars purchased with FSD and HW 2.0. Tesla should send out a notice to those car owners letting them know to schedule the replacement. I'm one of those having traded in my early vin 2013 S85 for a new HW2.0 car JUST BECAUSE of the video Tesla showed of FSD and the promise my new car would have everything needed for FSD and that it would be ready in just a month or two. It has now been 974 days and one cancelled Service Apmt to provide the FSD computer.
If they continue replacing on Newer cars without replacing it on mine, I'm looking for a Class Action Suit to join.

While I can sympathize with your viewpoint, swapping HW2.5 modules in S&X is "low hanging fruit" for Tesla because it is supposed to be a quick and simple board swap (plus a not so simple software reload and verify). So don't interfere with them doing this and getting those upgraded, running approximately from oldest to newest.
Eventually they will get around to Model 3 and then eventually to our car. I expect we will be last since I just paid for FSD.

Apparently HW2 -> HW3 is more complex and requires a lot more effort to upgrade. So the real issue is whether Tesla have designed the HW2 ->HW3 upgrade and all that goes with it, and when are they going to start distributing upgrade kits and instructions to the Service Centers as a parallel effort to the HW2.5 -> HW3 upgrades.
That's the real focus here, so the questions for Tesla are:
- Have they proven (internally) they can upgrade HW2 -> HW3 ?
- Do they have a guide documenting how the mechanics are to do the upgrade? If not, when?
- When will the upgrade kits be first made available in the Service Centers?
- At what rate will they be doing these upgrades?

 

[emmz0r]

Sometimes it wouldn't hurt to do what's right instead of doing what's most easy for them...