Tesla Reportedly Enables FSD Beta In HW4 Cars, Elon Musk Says It’s 6 Months Behind HW3

Tesla is already shipping new vehicles with its latest Hardware 4.0 driver assistance system computer, also known as HW4, but until now, some pretty important features were unavailable, including the so-called Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Beta, as well as cruise control and the parking sensors.

However, things are about to change, as the Austin-based EV maker has reportedly started to enable FSD Beta on HW4-equipped vehicles sold in the United States via a software update, according to Tesla enthusiast and follower Sawyer Merritt who posted a screenshot of the version change on his X (formerly Twitter) account.

As written in the release notes, FSD Beta version 11.4.4 is running on the company’s so-called Tesla Vision system that utilizes the car’s video cameras to “see” the surrounding world, similar to humans. However, there are some temporary limitations, including Autopilot working at a top speed of 85 miles per hour and the following distance settings restricted to 2-7. In other words, the closest possible following distance is not yet available.

A few days earlier, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned in an X reply that the Hardware 4 software will lag Hardware 3 (that’s present on older vehicles) by at least another six months, putting longtime owners at ease but, at the same time, recognizing that newly delivered EVs won’t have the same level of functionality when it comes to driving assistance.

Although the EV brand hasn’t publicly announced it started delivering Hardware 4-equipped vehicles, reports of customers getting the updated computer in their new cars surfaced as early as February, with the Model X and Model S being the first to get the new hardware, while the Model 3 and Model Y were updated later.

A report from a new Model X owner from March said that “nothing” worked at the time of delivery, including cruise control, Autopilot, Navigate on Autopilot, the parking sensors, the preview FSD Beta Visualization, and the rear backup camera.

Tesla’s new Hardware 4 computer is based on a Samsung Exynos architecture, similar to the previous Hardware 3 computer, but the latest iteration is slightly more powerful and sports more cameras and a new radar module.