Elon Musk Details FSD Upgrades, Slowed Robotaxi Rollout

InnovationTransportationElon Musk Details FSD Upgrades, Slowed Robotaxi RolloutByBrad Templeton,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Brad Templeton, who was early at Waymo, covers transportation's futureFollow AuthorApr 22, 2026, 09:34pm EDTApr 22, 2026, 09:43pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.AUSTIN, TEXAS. - JUNE 27: A driverless Tesla Robotaxi, with a man serving as a safety monitor in the front passenger seat, rolls along Laguna Drive in Southeast Austin, Friday, June 27, 2025. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)Houston Chronicle via Getty ImagesTesla’s quarterly earnings call began with good news, moderately beating analyst estimates for earnings and revenue. There was news about many other fronts, but this article will focus on news regarding Tesla FSD and Tesla’s robotaxi offering.It’s been clear that Tesla is rather poor at predictions about how these products will do, and if or when they will get deployed. It is necessary with all companies to look at what they actually do rather than what they say, but with Tesla there is another complication--sometimes the company will do things not because they are ready, but because the CEO insists it is time.Upgrades for owners of older “HW3” carsTesla cars purchased prior to late 2023 have Tesla’s older processor and camera hardware. Later cars have HW4 hardware. Their HW5 chip (more commonly called AI5) has now been taped out and will probably go into production in 2027, but it will be primarily for the Optimus robots and other products. Musk stated that the HW4 chip is sufficient for the cars, but the HW3 chip is not.However, many customers purchased cars with HW3 and bought the lifetime FSD package when Tesla promised that the car had all the hardware needed to do real (not supervised) self driving. I am such a customer. For those customers, Tesla wil...