Elon Musk warns millions will need hardware upgrades for driverless FSD Quarterly figures came in near expectations, but hardware limits and costly upgrades threaten FSD rollout. Investors now weigh service costs and production plans. According to Techcrunch Tesla’s latest financial results delivered mixed signals: most figures met expectations, but free cash flow was about $1.4 billion, which gave the shares a short-term boost; revenue approached analysts’ estimates or slightly exceeded them, depending on the sample. During the earnings call, Elon Musk admitted that millions of Tesla owners will have to install hardware updates to run the upcoming version of Full Self-Driving that does not require human supervision. According to senior reporter Sean O’Kane, Hardware 3 owners for years had pressed for a clear answer on the possibility of using an expanded version of FSD, but Tesla has not released it yet and has not confirmed a release date. Hardware 3 devices were released between 2019 and 2023. “Millions of Tesla owners will need to upgrade their hardware to run a future, more capable version of the Full Self-Driving software that does not require human supervision.” – Elon Musk Key Takeaways and Prospects Musk also stressed that the company may be compelled to roll out microfactories in several cities to service potentially millions of vehicles. Microfactories – yes, it won’t be cheap, and this could be folded into Tesla’s capital expenditure budget, which this year rose to $25 billion. In an internal Redwood Materials memo, sent by founder and CEO JB Straubel, the memo discussed cuts and restructuring; about 135 employees were laid off, and turnover among top executives also rose. According to the same material, Humble Robotics – a Silicon Valley startup developing an autonomous truck driver without a driver – raised $24 million in a seed round, led by