Published 19:03 16 Apr 2025 GMT+1

Tesla computers may not be powerful enough to do everything they say they can

Tesla could have to shell out billions after a new ruling from a judge regarding the cars’ self-driving mechanism.

Elon Musk’s car company Tesla could have to replace the computers within million of vehicles and this won’t be cheap…

The company could be forced to replace the ‘self-driving’ computer of about 4 million vehicles or compensate the owners of the cars.

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This all stems from the fact that back in 2016, Tesla claimed that all its vehicles in production going forward have ‘all the hardware necessary for full self-driving capability’.

Admittedly, the way the company has used the term ‘full self-driving’ has changed over the years but at the time and years later, Musk claimed Tesla owners would eventually receive a software update that would turn their vehicles into ‘robotaxis’ capable of level-4-5 self-driving, which means unsupervised autonomous driving – even with no one in the cars.

Tesla could have to make a hefty payout (Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images)

However, almost ten years later, this doesn’t appear to be the case and isn’t expected to be anytime soon.

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Back in 2022, a judge set a precedent by ordering Tesla to upgrade a customer’s self-driving computer for free so that they can subscribe to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving program without any additional cost.

Based on Tesla’s previous statement that all cars produced in 2016 will ‘already have the necessary hardware for full self-driving capability,’ the owners of those vehicles need to have all the hardware necessary to have access to these features.

In addition to this, in January this year, Musk admitted that that HW3 computers are not powerful enough to achieve unsupervised self-driving capability.

So, the judge’s actions ultimately benefits the individuals who own the 4 million Tesla vehicles in the world with HW3 computers.

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Tesla could opt to simply pay out to car owners but this comes with its own issues(Christian Marquardt – Pool/Getty Images)

And the act of replacing these computers will prove to be very costly for the company. The many Tesla models with the HW3 computer span multiple models from the Model 3 to the Model X.

Each replacement would require precise engineering to integrate new hardware and this would result in as much as $10 billion or more according to industry estimates reported by International Business Times.

If Tesla decided to compensate the owners rather than take on the mammoth task of replacing the hardware, it also comes with its own issues, namely determining fair payouts for owners, some of whom purchased FSD years ago.

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In a worst-case scenario, failure to satisfyingly resolve this could result in further lawsuit and an erosion of brand trust.

UNILAD has contacted Tesla for comment.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Chesnot

Topics: Elon Musk, Tesla, Technology, Cars

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Updated 13:18 4 Apr 2025 GMT+1Published 13:09 4 Apr 2025 GMT+1

Elon Musk loses $11,000,000,000 and Tesla shares dramatically fall following Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs

Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost a staggering amount of money on Thursday (April 3)

It’s been a bad day (or year, should we say) at the office for Elon Musk.

Musk, who is a close ally of Donald Trump and the current head of the president’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has lost a staggering amount of money this year so far.

With his alliance with Trump in mind, apparently the multibillionaire’s Tesla stock took a huge hit back in January when the newly-elected president came into office.

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And things have only gotten worse for the once-leading electric vehicle manufacturer in more ways than one.

Tesla cars and dealerships have been targeted in attacks of late, sparking Trump to bring in a ‘Tesla task force’ to tackle the issue.

Musk himself has addressed the ongoing violence and expressed his surprise.

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“It is remarkable that there is so much violence, people have had burnt cars, they have fired bullets into dealerships, they have scratched swastikas into Teslas of innocent people, they are just going about their lives,” he told Fox News.

Musk continued: “The president has made it clear that we are going to go after those who are paying and organizing these violent attacks and attorney general Bondi has said the same thing.”

In light of Telsa-owners being targeted, sales of the EVs have dropped by 13 percent in 2025’s first quarter, Reuters reports.

Tesla sales have take a huge hit this year (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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In another blow to the car manufacturer, Trump’s recently imposed tariffs will affect Tesla as it sources a lot of its car parts from foreign countries.

Yesterday (April 3), a new 25 percent levy on cars and parts imported into the US came into force, and the tariffs on car parts will begin May 3.

READ MORE:

HOW TRUMP’S TARIFFS WILL ‘SIGNIFICANTLY’ IMPACT TESLA

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It was hoped that Tesla wouldn’t be too badly affected by the president’s harsh tariff changes as it makes many of its cars in America, but apparently 20 to 25 percent of Tesla parts are imported from other countries, as per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

With all this in mind, Musk is said to have lost an eye-watering $11 billion yesterday, according to Bloomberg, and $110 billion overall this year so far.

The recent loss came after Tesla stocks dropped 5.5 percent.