Tesla will "most likely" begin computer profile upgrades this year – TechCrunch
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will "most likely" begin upgrading older electric vehicles with its new custom chip later this year – a high-performance task that will involve retrofitting hundreds of thousands of Model S, X and 3s.
On Sunday night, Musk tweeted that the upgrades will most likely start at the end of the fourth quarter.
] Musk did not give other details. He said earlier that the upgrade would be free for owners who purchased the complete self-propelled feature, a software package that costs $ 6,000.
Tesla offers two different advanced driver support packages to customers: Autopilot and Full Self-Driving or FSD. Autopilot is ADAS which offers a combination of adaptive cruise control and lane control and is now a standard feature on new cars. FSD includes Summon as well as Navigate on Autopilot, an active steering system that navigates from a ramp on ramp to off-ramp, including switches and lane changes.
While Tesla pays for the FSD software package, the vehicles are not entirely autonomous. Musk has promised that the advanced driver assistants on the Tesla vehicles will continue to improve eventually to reach the fully automatic high-water market.
The custom chip unveiled in April has been called as a necessary hardware upgrade to reach that goal . Since March, new model X and S vehicles have been fitted with the chip. Model 3 followed one month later.
Custom chip was a milestone for the company. However, it still faces the significant challenge of upgrading thousands of so-called "Hardware 2" vehicles, not to mention the continuous development of the software.
Tesla began producing electric vehicles with a robust series of sensors, radar and cameras – called Hardware 2- in October 2016 under the premise and promise that it had the hardware needed to eventually run autonomously without human intervention. At that time, the company also started selling the upgraded full-featured self-propelled package that Musk ultimately wanted to achieve the ambitious goal.
