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Tesla Hardware 3 upgrade can be conducted by mobile service team, says Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the installation of the company’s custom Full Self-Driving Hardware 3 computer could be accomplished through its ever-expanding network of mobile service units. With this system, Tesla owners who purchased Full Self-Driving will have their vehicles upgraded in a completely effortless and convenient manner.
Elon Musk previously emphasized that HW3 is built with the same physical footprint as its predecessor, allowing for a quick and easy retrofit for vehicles that will require an upgrade. Previously, the Tesla CEO noted that the Hardware 3 installation will involve a quick trip to a service center. Musk has revised his statement in a recent tweet, stating that the company’s mobile service team should be able to handle the task without any issues.
The utilization of Tesla’s mobile service team for the upcoming Hardware 3 retrofit is a strategic move for the electric car maker. With thousands of vehicles to retrofit, conducting the upgrade in a service center will likely result in bottlenecks due to the number of vehicles that need to be upgraded. By literally sending the HW3 to owners’ homes, Tesla’s service centers can focus on tasks that are more urgent, such as vehicle repairs. This strategy also plays into the strength of Tesla’s mobile service network, as the unit continues to grow significantly by the quarter.
Musk also dropped a couple of tidbits about the company’s custom Self-Driving computer, which is already in production. According to Musk, HW3 is “at about 5% compute load or 10% with full fail-over redundancy” when handling tasks like Navigate on Autopilot with automatic lane changes. In comparison, Musk noted that HW2.5 is at about ~80% compute load when processing similar tasks.
Tesla’s Hardware 3 is specifically built to attain autonomous driving. Discussing the capability of the custom hardware in the Q3 2018 earnings call, Musk estimated that the custom computer should be able to provide the company’s electric cars with a 1,000% improvement in processing capability compared to existing NVIDIA components. Musk explained this point in his appearance at ARK Invest’s For Your Innovation podcast earlier this year.
“So right now, we can process on the order of 100 frames a second and we really need to do a lot of work in terms of cropping the frames, and sort of bending the pixels, and not going to full resolution on all cameras, that kind of thing with the current hardware. We’re at full frames, full resolution with the Tesla hardware. All cameras, at full resolution, full frames, and it still hasn’t tapped out,” Musk said.
Some of the capabilities of Hardware 3 will likely be showcased this April 22, when Tesla holds its Autonomy Investor Day. The event, which will be livestreamed, will include talks from key executives who were involved in the development of the company’s autonomous software and hardware, including CEO Elon Musk, VP of Engineering Stuart Bowers, VP of Hardware Engineering Pete Bannon, and Sr. Director of AI Andrej Karpathy. Test drives in vehicles equipped with yet-to-be-released Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features will also be offered for the event’s attendees.
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Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
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Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
Tesla plans to supply over 100 Megapack units to support a large stationary storage project in Japan, making it one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities.
Tesla’s Megapack grid-scale batteries have been selected to back an energy storage project in Japan, coming as the latest of the company’s continued deployment of the hardware.
As detailed in a report from Nikkei this week, Tesla plans to supply 142 Megapack units to support a 548 MWh storage project in Japan, set to become one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities. The project is being overseen by financial firm Orix, and it will be located at a facility Maibara in central Japan’s Shiga prefecture, and it aims to come online in early 2027.
The deal is just the latest of several Megapack deployments over the past few years, as the company continues to ramp production of the units. Tesla currently produces the Megapack at a facility in Lathrop, California, though the company also recently completed construction on its second so-called “Megafactory” in Shanghai China and is expected to begin production in the coming weeks.
READ MORE ON TESLA MEGAPACKS: Tesla Megapacks help power battery supplier Panasonic’s Kyoto test site
Tesla’s production of the Megapack has been ramping up at the Lathrop facility since initially opening in 2022, and both this site and the Shanghai Megafactory are aiming to eventually reach a volume production of 10,000 Megapack units per year. The company surpassed its 10,000th Megapack unit produced at Lathrop in November.
During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call last week, CEO Elon Musk also said that the company is looking to construct a third Megafactory, though he did not disclose where.
Last year, Tesla Energy also had record deployments of its Megapack and Powerwall home batteries with a total of 31.4 GWh of energy products deployed for a 114-percent increase from 2023.
Other recently deployed or announced Megapack projects include a massive 600 MW/1,600 MWh facility in Melbourne, a 75 MW/300 MWh energy storage site in Belgium, and a 228 MW/912 MWh storage project in Chile, along with many others still.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla highlights the Megapack site replacing Hawaii’s last coal plant
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Elon Musk responds to Ontario canceling $100M Starlink deal amid tariff drama
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, opens new tab on February 3 that he was “ripping up” his province’s CA$100 million agreement with Starlink in response to the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.
Elon Musk company SpaceX is set to lose a $100 million deal with the Canadian province of Ontario following a response to the Trump administration’s decision to apply 25 percent tariffs to the country.
Starlink, a satellite-based internet service launched by the Musk entity SpaceX, will lose a $100 million deal it had with Ontario, Premier Doug Ford announced today.
Starting today and until U.S. tariffs are removed, Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts.
Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to build Ontario. U.S.-based businesses will…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 3, 2025
Ford said on X today that Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts:
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy. Canada didn’t start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win it.”
It is a blow to the citizens of the province more than anything, as the Starlink internet constellation has provided people in rural areas across the globe stable and reliable access for several years.
Musk responded in simple terms, stating, “Oh well.”
Oh well https://t.co/1jpMu55T6s
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
It seems Musk is less than enthused about the fact that Starlink is being eliminated from the province, but it does not seem like all that big of a blow either.
As previously mentioned, this impacts citizens more than Starlink itself, which has established itself as a main player in reliable internet access. Starlink has signed several contracts with various airlines and maritime companies.
It is also expanding to new territories across the globe on an almost daily basis.
With Mexico already working to avoid the tariff situation with the United States, it will be interesting to see if Canada does the same.
The two have shared a pleasant relationship, but President Trump is putting his foot down in terms of what comes across the border, which could impact Americans in the short term.
Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
