It appears Elon Musk lied about all Teslas being able to do full self-driving. The computers aren't powerful enough.
In 2016, Musk said that all vehicles in production going forward would have "all the hardware necessary for full self-driving capability."
The exact meaning of "full self-driving" has evolved over the years to mean complete hands off like a robotaxi with level 4-5 driving even with no one in the car.
Cars from 2016 to 2019 had the HW2.5 computers. 2029 to 2023 had HW3. In 2023 to 2024, vehicles had the HW4 computer that really can do the job. Tesla hopes.
In January of 2025, Musk admitted that the HW3 computers couldn't handle the job.
Musk thinks that he only has to fix the cars where the owners bought the full self driving package, which would be 500,000 cars, figuring in a cost of $500 million. But he forgets the 2016 promise that all cars would be capable, whether the package was subscribed or not.
Tesla took the claim off their site last year and changed the language of the FSD package.
So Tesla needs to either replace the HW2.5 and HW3 computers, or compensate the owners. Which would be cheaper? If it cost $1,000 to replace the computer, the owners might not be happy but only getting $1,000 in return and ask for more. After all, they've been sold a bill of goods. Promises made, promises not kept.
In 2022, a judge ordered Tesla to upgrade an owners self-driving computer so that they could subscribe to Tesla's full self driving program without any additional cost. So there's a precedent that owners purchasing from 2016 on can use.
The cost of the labor and the hardware could easily overshoot the $1,000 estimate. It'll overload the service centers. And it might not even work. Different computer, different connections, different size, who knows what we're looking at?
Musk seems to think that he can get away with just upgrading the people who bought the full self-driving package. This is going to go through the courts. Buying a car understanding that full self-driving would be available and then told that you have to pay for the computer is called false advertising.
There are already several lawsuits against Tesla for its full driving claims, and that was before Musk admitted that the HW3 computers couldn't do the job. The way things are going, nobody knows if the HW4 computers will do the job either.
The cameras, forward facing radar and ultrasonic sensors changed over time as well. That's why it's not guaranteed that the new computer is going to work in an older car.
This is going to cost Tesla big time. 4 million car owners are going to be unhappy with any deal that is made. Is the computer upgrade going to work? How long will the car be in the shop? Offering a better deal to buy back the car isn't going to help. Expect to see lots of lawsuits. It's going to cost Tesla billions.
Besides the folks that hacked the crosswalk sound system, you need to go to TeslaRegretSyndrome.com. They have a phone number of (866) EFF-MUSK.
The automated attendant on the phone number is a total crackup. These folks have done a great job of putting this together.
Just one more nail in Musk's money pot.
They actually had real street clinics that could take the Tesla logos off the cars and replace them with other manufacturers' logos. You can get instructions on the phone number if you can stop laughing long enough.
Tesla is having problems. The TakeDown protests were huge. This recall is going to hurt Musk. It'll get bigger than he thinks is going to happen. Lawsuits are proceeding. Now there is a way to laugh about Tesla with TRS, Tesla Regret Syndrome.
As I said about Musk too many times, it couldn't happen to a Nazier guy.
