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Ordering without FSD=2.5 computers?

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Depends what your sales tax rate is on auto purchase vs other purchases...You might come out behind If the former is lower.

yup. We pay 0% sales tax here in NJ, so that’s 6.625% savings. I’d need a card that does better than that. And even then, I don’t think I would, simply because there’s no better feeling than sticking it to the government.
 
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yup. We pay 0% sales tax here in NJ, so that’s 6.625% savings. I’d need a card that does better than that. And even then, I don’t think I would, simply because there’s no better feeling than sticking it to the government.


7k could knock out a couple of signup bonuses if you can split payment.. or at least one pretty good one if you can't.

So talking like ~$850-900 taken as cash, which beats 6.625% by quite a bit.... and potentially several thousand dollars if you use the reward points for travel instead.

(if you can split payment you're talking like another $500-600 more as cash, or again 2-5 times that used for travel.)
 
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7k could knock out a couple of signup bonuses if you can split payment.. or at least one pretty good one if you can't.

So talking like ~$850-900 taken as cash, which beats 6.625% by quite a bit.... and potentially several thousand dollars if you use the reward points for travel instead.

(if you can split payment you're talking like another $500-600 more as cash, or again 2-5 times that used for travel.)
Valid point if you’re a churner (unless you’ve already hit and run every bonus out there, lol)
 
Just like the reports for China cars, there is no reason to not populate cars with 2.5 computers as long as the inventory is there and they didn't purchase the FSD option. I've had people swear up and down "Elon said everything after April 2019 came with HW3.0!" but it's flat out not true. No matter what anyone says. It's only true (potentially) if you purchased FSD with your car after April 2019.

And on a related note it appears they are catching up on providing 3.0 retrofits, so I believe the priority is to provide 3.0 to the already purchased customers before they are standard inventory on new model cars. I think I heard of someone buying a car in November, ordering FSD in February and getting it installed at the end of February. I wouldn't say they're close to done, and YMMV based on where you live or the supply available at your service center or other factors I can't see, but my "gut feel" says they're pretty close.

But no, I'll tell you, I took delivery of my car in June 2019 and I still have hardware 2.5 -- and I found out by actually looking at the part number. Nowadays you can just see in the software, thankfully.

I will say though with reasonable assurances, you're not missing much (except the actual FSD features) and if you chose to get FSD later on, you shouldn't have to wait too long to get it.

All my references are from this thread: MASTER THREAD: Model 3 HW3 retrofit questions, wait time, issues - tons of posts from February on ordering and delivery, so they appear to be closing the gaps.
 
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I guess I'll never get my HW3 upgrade now.
If you bought it, schedule service in your app, ask for it. No harm. As per the thread above, people are getting lucky. The consensus is that there isn't a VIN restriction anymore, and it's more based upon the speed and availability of your service center.

I doubt anyone is going to reach out to people and say it's available until the service center is quite literally bored. The persistent are being rewarded first. Not saying that's a good thing, but it's real.
 
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I've had people swear up and down "Elon said everything after April 2019 came with HW3.0!" but it's flat out not true. No matter what anyone says. It's only true (potentially) if you purchased FSD with your car after April 2019.

I mean, he literally said that, so it flat out IS true.

Elon Musk April 22 2019 said:
All cars being produced all have the hardware necessary — computer and otherwise — for full self-driving


He didn't say "just the cars that have FSD paid option" he said all cars.

He didn't say "Have the ability to swap in the hardware necessary" he said HAVE it.


I like Elon as much as the next guy- but sometimes he does say things that turn out not to be true. This is one of em.

(and of course he said the same thing about HW2.0 and HW2.5 cars which turned out not to be true either- thus why HW3 even exists)
 
In the US cars that were built after April but still had V2.5 were never offered an upgrade to V3 if they did not elect to purchase FSD. The argument was that it would not provide any benefit.

Yet in China, it appears they have agreed to upgrade cars to V3 regardless of whether FSD was purchased. Actually I’m not even sure if FSD is being offered in China. But in any case it’s a different policy in China than in the US. I suspect that is not going to go over well with US based customers.
 
I mean, he literally said that, so it flat out IS true.

He didn't say "just the cars that have FSD paid option" he said all cars.

He didn't say "Have the ability to swap in the hardware necessary" he said HAVE it.

I like Elon as much as the next guy- but sometimes he does say things that turn out not to be true. This is one of em.

It's also still on their website right now, at least in the UK:

Tesla website said:
Full Self-Driving Hardware
Every new Model 3 comes standard with advanced hardware capable of providing Autopilot features today, and full self-driving capabilities in the future—through software updates designed to improve functionality over time.

Again, it doesn't say "cars with FSD option", it says every Model 3. And it doesn't say can be upgraded to have the hardware, it says comes standard with the hardware and can have FSD added through a software update.

Granted it doesn't say it will come with HW3, it could be something as good or better and still meet what they're selling, but HW2.5 is not meeting the specs they're currently claiming on the website, or what Elon said back in April.
 
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