Tesla tells HW3 owner to 'have patience' after 7-year FSD wait

Dutch Tesla owner Mischa Sigtermans contacted Tesla about the Full Self-Driving (FSD) he paid €6,400 for back in 2019, but the response he got was evasive, essentially saying they don't know when it's coming, or even if it's coming at all.

He pointed out that what he bought at the time of purchase in 2019 was full self-drive capability, not "supervised," but Tesla said it had no information on plans for HW3 support, free hardware upgrades, or how this would be handled in Europe.

In the end, after checking with a manager, he was told to "just have patience," and right after the call the case was automatically closed, followed by an email containing a test drive booking link.

The core background is clearer.

• August 2024: Tesla AI VP Ashok Elluswamy admitted that HW3 runs a smaller model than AI4
• January 2025: Elon Musk effectively acknowledged that vehicles that purchased FSD would need their HW3 computers replaced
• Tesla also filed a "math trick" patent to cram the model onto HW3, but the filing itself states this approach could render the perception unit inoperable
• Even so, to date there is no retrofit program, no refund policy, and no concrete timeline

Meanwhile, with FSD's European rollout, the HW3 issue has gone from abstract to actual financial harm. AI4 vehicles can use FSD Supervised, but HW3 buyers, despite having bought the same promise, are getting nothing.

Based on this, Sigtermans has launched hw3claim.nl to organize a class action among EU HW3+FSD owners, and says 3,000 people across 29 countries have joined, representing a total of €6.5 million in locked-up FSD purchases. The piece notes that EU consumer protection law and class action frameworks could work in favor of this case, and predicts this issue is likely headed to court.