Firmware
Tesla enthusiast Jay Leno talks self-driving cars and the future of the automobile
Veteran talk show host and iconic comedian Jay Leno knows a thing or two about cars. Before he made a name for himself on television, Leno had his start as a “lot boy” in a Ford dealership. His first forays into stand-up comedy were also supported by work he did at another auto dealership.
Now 68-years-old, Jay Leno is retired from regular TV work, but not from his passion for cars. He currently hosts Jay Leno’s Garage on CNBC, a show where he showcases vehicles that are unique and noteworthy. Among these were the Tesla Model S, which was featured back in a segment back in 2012, and more recently, the next-generation Tesla Roadster, which unleashed the iconic host’s inner child.
Being a veteran of the auto industry and a man who has interacted with thousands of vehicles during his long and storied career, Jay Leno’s views on the future of cars are something that deserves much consideration. Some of these were recently related in a segment of CNBC Make It, where Leno discussed what he believes the auto industry will be like 20 years from now, and how people would likely adapt to the emergence of self-driving technologies.
During the segment, Leno noted that vehicles would likely abandon the ignition key in 20 years. The veteran talk show host believes that the auto industry would probably transition to using systems similar to what Tesla is adopting today.
“I think you’ll lose the ignition key. That will be gone in 20 years. You just get in your car and either through your phone or some electronic device; it knows it’s you and you pull away, much like Tesla does now,” Leno said.
Leno believes that self-driving cars are indeed the future, though the transition to their widespread use will likely take some time. That said, the auto veteran noted that the reservations of people over self-driving technologies are similar to the pushback the car industry felt when it was introducing features that have now become standard.
“It’s not like all of a sudden people flip over to self-driving cars. But it’s the same thing that happened when anti-lock brakes came out: People said, ‘I don’t want some computer doing the braking in my car. I want to step on my car.’ Or power steering: ‘I like to feel the road. I’m not going to get power steering.’ Well, all these things eventually become — well, they just get adapted to cars and you sort of move on.”
“People don’t realize, in the old days, you had to adjust the choke, you had to adjust the spark advance to retard or advance the ignition. There are a lot of things to do in a car. You had to shift gears by hand, and eventually, all of those things happened automatically. And I think that’s what will happen.”
Ultimately, Leno believes that the shift of the auto industry towards autonomy and the emergence of companies like Tesla, which are as focused on software as they are on hardware, are bound to encounter some pushback. Leno compared the upcoming shift in the auto sector with the developments in life-saving medical procedures, particularly those that have triggered strong adverse reactions in the past.
“I can remember when Barney Clark, who was the world’s oldest living heart transplant, got a heart transplant. People were protesting: ‘You’re taking the heart from one man and putting it in another. It’s the work of the devil. It’s a horrible thing.’ Now heart transplants are as common as any other kind of medical procedure. So I think it just takes a while, but eventually it becomes evolutionary,” he said.
Jay Leno owns a Tesla himself, driving up to the company’s design center to experience the next-generation Roadster in his very own original Tesla Roadster. In previous interviews, Leno has openly expressed his support for the company, stating that he does not understand the overwhelming amount of flak that Tesla is receiving. The veteran host also aired his thoughts on some of the criticisms being directed towards Tesla, particularly around the federal tax credit being extended towards the company’s buyers.
“I do own a Tesla. I like them very much. I mean, I think it really is the future. I like the fact that Tesla is an American company, using American workers, using locally-sourced materials. So I never quite understand the negative vibes you sometimes get.
“People push back; they don’t like the fact that you get money back from the government. You know, I don’t really go to sporting events, but I have to pay for stadiums. I don’t have kids, but I have to pay for schools. So, I don’t mind some of my tax dollars contributing to infrastructure to make air cleaner and cars more efficient. So no, I’m a big fan,” he said.
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.
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