Tesla Delivers Multiple Model 3s Without Self-Driving Computer Installed
Tesla has delivered a number Model 3s to customers without their self-driving computers installed. The company is now blaming its supply chain for this error.
The Tesla Self Driving Computer should be built into every Tesla sold after April 2019. Designed in-house, it is capable of providing the vehicles with more advanced self-driving features thanks to a higher level of artificial intelligence.
Unfortunately, a number of customers of Model 3s from China have noticed that the part numbers on their cars aren’t what they’re supposed to be, regardless of what’s listen in the sales documents provided with the car.
Panda Daily said the following:
“Following this, more Model 3 owners also reported that they found the same downgrade in hardware and raised doubts on the quality of domestic-made Model 3s. Some car owners even said they had reported Tesla for consumer fraud to “12315”, the Chinese national hotline for consumer rights.”
Soon after, Tesla China confirmed that this is an issue, and issued a response to the media:
Tesla released a statement in response, claiming that the downgrade in hardware was due to “problems in supply chain”. “HW2.5 and HW3.0 are virtually the same for owners who did not purchase additional FSD service”, Tesla claimed.“We have installed the latest HW3.0 for all users that have purchased FSD”. Tesla also promises to provide free retrofit service for all Made-In-China Upgraded Model 3 owners to upgrade their HW2.5 chip to HW3.0 “as production capacity and supply chains recover”.
While the supply chain issue wasn’t expanded upon, it also isn’t obvious if Tesla knew about this issue before it was brought up by customers. A lapse in product quality is the last thing Tesla wants after receiving such a critical response on this in the past, so hopefully the company is able to deal with this quickly.
Again, this isn’t going tarnish Tesla for those affected, and for those potential customers who are yet to purchase. It would certainly put me off.