Firmware
Everything you need to know about Tesla software updates
One of the greatest joys of owning a Tesla is being able to experience new features and functionality that get rolled out through over-the-air (OTA) software updates. But when do these updates happen and at what frequency is it released? I set out to study Tesla’s release cycle in hopes to find an answer.
Locating the Version Number
First, the basics. You can locate your current version and build information by touching the Tesla logo at the top center of your 17″ display. You’ll see a nice picture of your car, your VIN and then the release notes for your software.
Clicking on the “Release Notes” link will bring up the list of features and enhancements that have been packaged into that particular release. Releases have a version number and a build number. The first set of numbers denotes the version and in this case it’s Version 5.9. The second set of numbers within parentheses are the build numbers, in this case 1.51.94. More on these two numbers below.
Version Numbers
Version numbers are comprised of three sets of digits separated by a decimal.
<Major Version> . <Minor Version> . <Maintenance Version>
If the major version number changes, it’s considered a major release which will likely contain new features, however Tesla has been known to also add new functionality in their minor releases (changes to the minor version number). Version 5.9 and 5.6 are great examples of releases that contained substantial feature upgrades.
Maintenance releases on the other hand do not contain new features but address bugs and issues that were introduced in the previous major or minor release.
Build Numbers
A release can have many builds associated with it and it’s not always clear what changes between these builds since it’s not captured within the release notes. For example the 5.9 minor release started with build 1.51.88 and is currently at build 1.51.96. It also appears that the build you get with your release is the one you stay on until the next release. For example, my Model S came with 5.9 build 1.51.94 but the latest build is at 1.51.96. So, in theory there are fixes between 1.51.94 and 1.51.96 that I don’t have and won’t be able to get.
Build numbers are usually incremented each time the software is compiled, which includes the branch of software. Tesla software build numbers most likely conform to the following standards:
<product number> . <software branch> . <build number>
The product number would be “1” for Tesla Model S. Each release target has its own release branch (i.e. branch “51” for the 5.9 release), then an incrementing build number within that branch. Those builds would be on a release branch with changes merged in from an active development branch. So one “tick” or increment in the build number that we see in the visible build number could be many code changes/builds within their development/QA process. This is all a guess since Tesla has made no public statements on this, but what I’ve outlined is common practice in software development.
Release History
I found a total of 18 Tesla software updates since the introduction of the Model S in September of 2012. Plotting these release dates over time paints a good picture of their release cycle.
If we take a look at only the version changes, we can see that Tesla on average releases new software updates every 34 days.
Should we be concerned about the reduced rate of change in 2014? Is Telsa slowing down development? Probably not. 2014 is still young and we know Tesla is working on major updates for its 6.0 release. It is very common for minor and maintenance releases to slow down in the final preparation stages of a major release and both the 4.0 and 5.0 releases showed this pre-release slowdown.
Tesla on average releases new software updates every 34 days.
I actually think its positive news that releases are slowing as this indicates 6.0 may be close! What will be in it is still up for much discussion, but no doubt it will be a good one.
Major Releases
Tesla appears to do a major release once a year:
- V4.0: November 2012
- V5.0: August 2013
- V6.0: Expected 2014.
Their versioning scheme seemed to have changed between 2013 to 2014. Prior to 2014 there were no releases with maintenance versions (i.e. only 2 digits) but from the contents several of those releases were maintenance releases. That makes analysis of the minor releases a bit more difficult as prior to 2014 they were all considered major or minor and not maintenance. I used the release contents to classify releases between minor and maintenance for the above chart — if they only included fixes (no new functionality) then I considered them maintenance releases.
Tesla seems to be going at a rate of a minor release every quarter:
- 2014: March (still early in 2014)
- 2013: March, May, October, November
- 2012: October, December (started in September)
The above is a big guess with small numbers, but it is a very common strategy to do a major release once a year with minor releases more frequent throughout the year. If you look at the averages:
Minor releases occur on average every 60 days.
Maintenance releases as you’d expect occur much more frequently. For example there were a bunch of maintenance releases this winter to address Model S’ in cold climates. Other hot topics like vampire drain and UMC fire risk also drove maintenance releases.
Summary
Tesla has changed the entire paradigm of how software is used within cars with their OTA software updates. By analyzing these software updates over time, we might be able to predict when the next Tesla software update will arrive and, better yet, what caliber of update it will be.
The Model S is an amazing car that only gets better with time.
Elon Musk
Tesla confirmed HW3 can’t do Unsupervised FSD but there’s more to the story
Tesla confirmed HW3 vehicles cannot run unsupervised FSD, replacing its free upgrade promise with a discounted trade-in.
Tesla has officially confirmed that early vehicles with its Autopilot Hardware 3 (HW3) will not be capable of unsupervised Full Self-Driving, while extending a path forward for legacy owners through a discounted trade-in program. The announcement came by way of Elon Musk in today’s Tesla Q1 2026 earnings call.
🚨 Our LIVE updates on the Tesla Earnings Call will take place here in a thread 🧵
Follow along below: pic.twitter.com/hzJeBitzJU
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2026
The history here matters. HW3 launched in April 2019, and Tesla sold Full Self-Driving packages to owners on the understanding that the hardware was sufficient for full autonomy. Some owners paid between $8,000 and $15,000 for FSD during that period. For years, as FSD’s AI models grew more demanding, HW3 vehicles fell progressively further behind, eventually landing on FSD v12.6 in January 2025 while AI4 vehicles moved to v13 and then v14. When Musk acknowledged in January 2025 that HW3 simply could not reach unsupervised operation, and alluded to a difficult hardware retrofit.
The near-term offering is more concrete. Tesla’s head of Autopilot Ashok Elluswamy confirmed on today’s call that a V14-lite will be coming to HW3 vehicles in late June, bringing all the V14 features currently running on AI4 hardware. That is a meaningful software update for owners who have been frozen at v12.6 for over a year, and it represents genuine effort to keep older hardware relevant. Unsupervised FSD for vehicles is now targeted for Q4 2026 at the earliest, with Musk describing it as a gradual, geography-limited rollout.
For HW3 owners, the over-the-air V14-lite update is welcomed, and the discounted trade-in path at least acknowledges an old obligation. What happens next with the trade-in pricing will define how this chapter ultimately gets written. If Tesla prices the hardware path fairly, acknowledges what early adopters are owed, and delivers V14-lite on the June timeline it committed to today, it has a real opportunity to convert one of the longest-running sore subjects among early adopters into a loyalty story.
Tesla announced its Spring 2026 software update, and it’s the most feature-dense seasonal release the company has put out. The update covers twelve named changes spanning FSD, voice AI, safety lighting, dashcam storage, and pet display customization, among other things.
The centerpiece for owners with AI4 hardware is a redesigned Self-Driving app. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving with a single tap and view ongoing FSD usage stats directly in the vehicle.
Grok gets its biggest in-car upgrade yet. The update adds a “Hey Grok” hands-free wake word along with location-based reminders, so a driver can now say “remind me to pick up groceries when I get home” without touching the screen. Grok first arrived in vehicles in July 2025, but each update has pushed it closer to genuine daily utility. Musk framed the broader vision clearly at Davos in January, saying Tesla is “really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”
On safety, the update introduces enhanced blind spot warning lights that integrate directly with the cabin’s ambient lighting, building on the blind spot door warning that arrived in update 2026.8.
Dog Mode has been renamed Pet Mode and now lets owners choose a dog, cat, or hedgehog icon and add their pet’s name to the display.
Dashcam retention now extends up to 24 hours, up from the previous one-hour rolling loop, with a permanent save option for any clip. Weather maps now show rain and snow with better color differentiation and include the past hour of precipitation data along the route.
Tesla has now established a clear rhythm of two major OTA pushes per year. As with last year’s Spring update, that cycle started taking shape in 2025 with adaptive headlights and trunk customization. The 2025 Holiday Update then added Grok to the vehicle for the first time. This Spring follows that structure: the Holiday update introduces new architecture, and the Spring update broadens it across the fleet.
Two notable features still did not make it. IFTTT automations, which launched in China earlier this year, were held back from this North American release for unknown reasons, and Apple CarPlay remains absent, reportedly still delayed by iOS 26 and Apple Maps compatibility issues.
Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 13, 2026
It appears that Tesla may be preparing to roll out some subscription-based services soon. Based on the observations of a Wales-based Model 3 owner who performed some reverse-engineering on the Tesla mobile app, it seems that the electric car maker has added a new “Subscribe” option beside the “Buy” option within the “Upgrades” tab, at least behind the scenes.
A screenshot of the new option was posted in the r/TeslaMotors subreddit, and while the Tesla owner in question, u/Callump01, admitted that the screenshot looks like something that could be easily fabricated, he did submit proof of his reverse-engineering to the community’s moderators. The moderators of the r/TeslaMotors subreddit confirmed the legitimacy of the Model 3 owner’s work, further suggesting that subscription options may indeed be coming to Tesla owners soon.
Did some reverse engineering on the app and Tesla looks to be preparing for subscriptions? from r/teslamotors
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite has been heavily speculated to be offered as a subscription option, similar to the company’s Premium Connectivity feature. And back in April, noted Tesla hacker @greentheonly stated that the company’s vehicles already had the source codes for a pay-as-you-go subscription model. The Tesla hacker suggested then that Tesla would likely release such a feature by the end of the year — something that Elon Musk also suggested in the first-quarter earnings call. “I think we will offer Full Self-Driving as a subscription service, but it will be probably towards the end of this year,” Musk stated.
While the signs for an upcoming FSD subscription option seem to be getting more and more prominent as the year approaches its final quarter, the details for such a feature are still quite slim. Pricing for FSD subscriptions, for example, have not been teased by Elon Musk yet, though he has stated on Twitter that purchasing the suite upfront would be more worth it in the long term. References to the feature in the vehicles’ source code, and now in the Tesla mobile app, also listed no references to pricing.
The idea of FSD subscriptions could prove quite popular among electric car owners, especially since it would allow budget-conscious customers to make the most out of the company’s driver-assist and self-driving systems without committing to the features’ full price. The current price of the Full Self-Driving suite is no joke, after all, being listed at $8,000 on top of a vehicle’s cost. By offering subscriptions to features like Navigate on Autopilot with automatic lane changes, owners could gain access to advanced functions only as they are needed.
Elon Musk, for his part, has explained that ultimately, he still believes that purchasing the Full Self-Driving suite outright provides the most value to customers, as it is an investment that would pay off in the future. “I should say, it will still make sense to buy FSD as an option as in our view, buying FSD is an investment in the future. And we are confident that it is an investment that will pay off to the consumer – to the benefit of the consumer.” Musk said.
Tesla revises new Intervention Reporting system with Full Self-Driving
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
