How To Check if Your Tesla Has Hardware 4 (AI4) or Hardware 3

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In early 2023, Tesla launched its FSD Hardware 4.0 – now known as AI4 – an improved version of Hardware 3 with various advantages. This hardware launch initially came off to a rocky start with FSD and Autopilot not being available to freshly delivered vehicles.

Today though, AI4 is the next step as Tesla strides towards full autonomy. While Tesla hasn’t abandoned HW3 or declared it as legacy yet – and doesn’t seem to plan to, it’s still important to be able to figure out what hardware your vehicle has. This is especially true for those who have paid for, or are subscribed to FSD – as it seems that going forward, AI4 will receive major FSD updates before hardware 3, which will require optimization.

So, let’s go over what AI4 offers in terms of improvement, the fact that there is no retrofit path from Hardware 3, and finally, a few easy ways to tell FSD Hardware 3 from Hardware 4/ AI4.

HW4 / AI4 Improvements

AI4 brought along several improvements, including new cameras, new electrical and wiring harnesses, and most of all – improved processing power.

The new cameras bring improved resolution for better details. The rear camera on AI4 has a resolution of 1448x938 vs 1280x960 on Hardware 3. However, there’s a much larger differences in the front cameras. HW4/AI4 has a resolution of 2896x1876 while HW3 has a resolution of 1280x960. That’s a huge improvement in quality - additionally, that telltale red tint that they have ensures better performance in low-light conditions. The video below compares the difference between HW3 vs HW4.

Musk previously said that HW4 is about 3-5x faster than hardware 3, although all of that compute power isn’t being utilized yet. We’ll likely see the full power of HW4 come into play with the divergence of HW4 later this year.

How to Tell If You Have HW3 or HW4 / AI4

There are a few easy ways to tell if you have Hardware 3, or AI4. Sadly, Tesla doesn’t provide any information in the app or vehicle that simply tells you which FSD hardware you have, so here are a few ways to tell them apart.

Note the telltale red glint of the HW4 cameras

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Delivery Date

The first is based on your model and delivery date. If you purchased Model S or X, you’ll likely have AI4 if you purchased after March 2023. If you have a Model Y, it’s after late May 2023 for vehicles made in the United States. The updated 2024 Model 3 has HW4, but if you have a 2017-2023 Model 3, you’ll have Hardware 3.

Red Camera Lenses

Next, if you’re not sure of the delivery date of your vehicle, or want to confirm, take a look at the vehicle itself. HW4/AI4 has cameras with red lenses – the easiest place to see this is on the front cameras – where there will be 2 red lenses and one black (fake) lens. AI4 got rid of the 3^rd front-facing camera since the cameras now have a higher resolution.

The repeater cameras are also slightly different, with the same red tint, but include a smaller and narrower turn indicator.

HW4 (top) and HW3 (bottom) repeater cameras

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No Retrofit to HW4

Elon Musk and Tesla have confirmed that unlike AP 2.5 or AP 2, Tesla does not intend to offer a retrofit for older vehicles. This isn’t a surprising move, especially given the fact that there is an entirely new wiring and cooling harness for the compute unit in AI4.

This, in turn with AI4’s different form factor, means that it isn’t feasible to upgrade HW3 vehicles to AI4. A retrofit would be a complex and expensive task that would likely require building a custom solution that would fit into HW3 vehicles. It also comes with other complications such as overwhelming Tesla Service. Instead, Tesla will continue to do it the software way – by optimizing and updating the FSD models to perform well on Hardware 3.

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Tesla Increases Price of Model S; Starts Offering Free Lifetime Supercharging

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For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.

Price Increase

The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.

The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series. 

The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.

Free Lifetime Supercharging

For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.

There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.

We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.

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Tesla’s Optimus Robot Learns to Walk Without Vision [VIDEO]

Optimus Falls - but catches itself!

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Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.

Daily walks help clear your mind pic.twitter.com/dUsW58trS6

— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 9, 2024

A Look Behind the Curtain

Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.

Optimus is Blind

Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer. 

Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.

Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips. 

What’s Next?

Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.

Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.

There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.

We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.

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