Ang, Von Errol L.

Tech News # 5 September 14, 2019

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Tesla's started its Full Self-Driving computer retrofits, report says

At least one Model S owner has received a surprise FSD hardware retrofit for his car.

Earlier this year, we learned all about the super-powerful and designed-in-house Tesla Full

Self-Driving computer. We also learned that Tesla would be making it available as a retrofit

to older cars, but we weren't entirely sure when that would happen.

Well, according to a report published Thursday by Electrek, it's happening now. Electrek dug

up a Twitter post by Model S owner Sofiaan Fraval claiming that Tesla retrofitted his car for

free when it went in for other services.

The free part isn't really news since Musk claimed that everyone who purchased the Full

Self-Driving option would get the upgrade for free. Cars produced since April of this year

already have it installed from the factory.

So what do you do if you have an eligible Model S or X and you've paid for FSD, and you

want your car upgraded? Unfortunately, there's not much you can do. There are many
thousands of cars on the road that qualify for the free retrofit and Tesla is rolling it out in

stages, so you're just going to have to be patient.

Not that it should really be anything to get worked up over since the "Full Self-Driving" name

is a bit misleading. Having the new computer installed doesn't mean you'll be living out your

best Minority Report-type fantasies.

This is because A) Tesla hasn't released the software necessary to make autonomy a thing

(because it likely doesn't exist yet); and B) even if it was ready, it seems unlikely that the

government would be OK with the Big T kinda just sending it.

Still, it's cool that Tesla is following through on its promise to perform the retrofit for free for

qualified customers. We look forward to seeing more features from the company that

leverage the serious computing power of Tesla's new hardware.

Tesla had no official statement on the rollout.

References: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-fsd-computer-retrofit-model-
s-owner/