Tesla owner says DIY upgrade to HW4 was easy… so why isn’t Tesla doing it?

This one is about Tesla's self-driving hardware, not home energy upgrades, so there's nothing here that affects a homeowner's own house. Still, here's what happened: millions of Tesla vehicles were sold with the promise of "full self-driving" hardware, but the original computers (HW1, HW2, HW3) turned out not to be capable enough. Tesla now says its newer HW4 chip can finally handle the job, but swapping HW3 cars to HW4 requires new cameras, not just a computer swap, which Tesla has called a difficult, costly process affecting millions of vehicles.

A Tesla owner and tinkerer in Poland, Michal Gapinski, did the HW3-to-HW4 retrofit himself on a 2022 Model 3, using a new computer, some software hacking, and camera adapters held on with epoxy and zip ties. He says the job was easier than expected, though he's still finishing some features. His experience raises the question of why Tesla hasn't rolled out a similar upgrade path at scale, especially after Elon Musk floated building "microfactories" for the job earlier this year, a plan that has gone nowhere since.

Meanwhile, Tesla faces lawsuits and small-claims cases over its unfulfilled self-driving promises, and has shifted to selling FSD only as a monthly subscription rather than a one-time purchase. For homeowners, this story has no direct bearing on energy upgrades or home rebates; it's purely about Tesla's ongoing dispute with owners over self-driving hardware.