Tesla HW 2.5 Update for Full Autopilot News: More Computing Power for Self-Driving Feature
Tesla owners whose vehicles were manufactured before October 2016 should be happy to know that there's a new update. The car's onboard computer, known as the HW 2.5, will soon be primed for better self-driving capabilities, which was what the company initially promised.
According to reports, the Autopilot HW 2.5 update quietly and slowly rolled out for Tesla Model 3, S and X. This means that even older Tesla vehicles will soon be enabled with better computing power and a slightly-improved reliability for the car's self-driving features. However, this is not yet the full autopilot feature.
Tesla Model S and X previously had the HW 2.0 platform which was backed by Nvidia's Drive PX2. Tesla Model 3, on the other hand, did not have a functional self-driving hardware when the first batches came out of the assembly line recently.
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As the update was not yet available at the time, Tesla posted disclaimers on its dealership sites so that potential buyers would be aware that the self-driving feature isn't automatic on many Tesla vehicles.
"Self-driving functionality is dependent on extensive software validation and regulatory approval, which may vary widely by jurisdiction," according to the company's website.
But Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised in the last quarter of 2016 that every car in production moving forward will have the self-driving hardware, as published on the official blog. This will only be possible, however, once the company has done proper tests and gathered enough real-world telemetry or data to ensure the safety of the owners and the functionality of the vehicle.
The HW 2.5 update will not bear an additional cost to the owners as Tesla will provide this for free at all service centers. On the other hand, car owners expecting shipment of their Model 3, S and X soon will already have the new supercomputing hardware suite and thus, no update will be required.
