Firmware
Tesla begins 14-day Enhanced Autopilot free trial program ahead of Software V9 release
True to Elon Musk’s announcement during Tesla’s 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting, the electric car company has started rolling out a 14-day free trial program for Enhanced Autopilot. Invitations for the program are being sent to Tesla owners who opted out of the driver-assist system when they purchased their vehicles.
This would be the second time that Tesla is offering its Autopilot software as a free trial to its customers. Tesla initially offered a similar program back in 2016, though the company was still utilizing the hardware of former partner MobilEye then. The current program stands as the first time Tesla is offering free trials for Enhanced Autopilot, a driver-assist system the company designed in-house. Here is a brief outline of what Tesla owners need to know about the ongoing Enhanced Autopilot free trial program.
Eligible Vehicles
The company expects all Model S, X, and 3 owners who have not purchased the driver-assist system to receive an invitation to the free trial program over the next few weeks. For vehicles to receive an invitation, owners must make sure that their cars are updated at least to software version 2018.28.1. Tesla notes that Enhanced Autopilot features — comprised of Autosteer, Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC), Auto Lane Change, Summon, and Autopark — will automatically be downloaded on cars that don’t have the feature installed as soon as the vehicles receive software update 2018.28.1 or later.
Standard Cruise Control
Owners who opt-in for Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot free trial should keep in mind that standard cruise control would not be accessible for the duration of the program. Instead, standard cruise control would be replaced by Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, which adjusts speed according to the flow of surrounding traffic. Standard cruise control would be reactivated after the 14-day Autopilot free trial ends.
Opting-out of the program
Owners have full control if they would like to participate in the free trial program or not. Upon receiving an invite, those who wish to opt-out of the program can select “I do not want to experience Enhanced Autopilot” on a notification displayed on their vehicle’s screen. To opt out of the program before the 14-day free trial period is over, owners must navigate to the “Autopilot” tab in the Settings menu, then select “Trial” near the top right of the display. A notification should appear allowing users to tap on “I do not want to experience Enhanced Autopilot.” Those that end the free trial before the 14-day period is over should expect their electric cars to reboot, which would remove Enhanced Autopilot from the vehicle.
Purchasing Enhanced Autopilot
Electric car owners have the option to purchase Enhanced Autopilot at any time during the free trial period. Purchasing the driver-assist suite could be done through the vehicle’s touchscreen or through a Tesla Account. Enhanced Autopilot costs $5,000 for Hardware 1 cars and $6,000 for vehicles equipped with Hardware 2. Those who wish to purchase Enhanced Autopilot from their vehicles must navigate to the free trial screen in the “Autopilot” tab in the Settings menu, and selecting the “Order Now” option. All Autopilot features would become permanently available after the system is purchased.
Tesla’s support page for the free trial program could be accessed here.
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Tesla’s rollout of its free trial program comes as the company is setting the stage for the introduction of Software V9.0, a major update expected to introduce the first self-driving features for the Model S, X, and 3, together with a number of classic Atari games such as Pole Position. Musk previously announced on Twitter that Tesla is targeting version 9’s release sometime in August, but during the Q2 2018 earnings call, Musk stated that software V9 would likely be introduced in around four weeks, followed by a broad rollout in September.
“Right now, our focus (is) on the version 9 software release which has got a number of really cool things in it. And we’re hoping to get that out to early access program in about four weeks and then broadly in September. That’s the hardcore focus right now, and that will certainly include some significant advancements in autonomy,” Musk said.
Firmware
Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
Tesla’s Summer Update lets owners join Google Meet, Teams, and Discord calls via cabin camera.
Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, which just began rolling out to customer vehicles, now links the built-in web browser with the in-cabin camera feed and microphone input, thereby letting owners join video calls on nearly any browser-based service instead of just Zoom.
The change appears in Tesla’s own release notes for software version 2026.26 under “Web Browser,” which states that the vehicle can now use its interior camera and cabin microphone when a website requests access, with permission granted the same way a desktop browser handles it. As NotATeslaApp notes, this feature opens the door to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and other webcam-enabled sites to activate the in-car cabin-facing camera. The feed automatically crops and zooms to center the driver in frame.
Tesla has offered in-car video calling before, but only through a dedicated Zoom app that launched at the end of 2022, a stripped-down browser preloaded with Zoom’s own web client and gated behind Premium Connectivity. Opening the full browser to any camera-requesting site removes that walled garden. Elon Musk first called video conferencing “definitely a future feature” back in 2020, when the pandemic pushed remote meetings into daily life, so this update effectively finishes something Tesla has been promising for six years.
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
The feature keeps the same restrictions that applied to Zoom on Tesla vehicles. It only works while the car is parked; shifting into Drive disables the camera feed, according to the release notes. It is also limited to vehicles running Tesla’s AMD Ryzen infotainment hardware, meaning older Intel-based Model S and Model X units, along with early Model 3 and Model Y builds, don’t get it.
Turning the browser into a general entry point for the in-cabin camera, rather than routing everything through one local app, widens the number of third-party sites that can ask for access, even though Tesla’s permission prompt.
With the Summer update only days into its rollout, be sure to stay with us on TikTok and X to see the latest video demonstrations.
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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.
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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.
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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
Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
