Tesla has evidently started shipping some Model Y units from its Fremont, California factory with Hardware 4 (HW4), its most recent version of its self-driving computer.
Tesla has been developing HW4 for some time, and the first images of the new computer were leaked earlier this year.
Tesla began installing HW4 in its flagship vehicles, the Model S and Model X, earlier this year. The slow rollout was helpful in assessing the early performance of the new computer, which is more geared toward Tesla’s transition to a vision-based self-driving effort, averting from its previous reliance on vision and radar sensors.
Images of Model Y vehicles equipped with Hardware 4 were spotted in California, and as you can see, the cameras are more robust than the previously installed versions that came with Hardware 3 builds.
Upon the early rollout of the HW4 suite by Tesla on Model S and Model X units, some functions were not immediately available upon delivery. This is likely the reason Tesla delayed installing HW4 in the mass-market vehicles that have now evidently been equipped with it and have entered the company’s inventory.
As Tesla continues to refine the details and performance of HW4 moving forward, we will likely see more improvements. It has already shown to be more effective in certain maneuvers, including unprotected turns.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is still adamant that the automaker solve Full Self-Sriving by the end of the year. Hardware 4 could be potentially the biggest step forward in the company’s plans to launch a complete FSD suite in the future, and it could help with the release of Robotaxi, but it still seems a long way off.
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