The U.S. will be the first to receive it, followed by the rest of the world. Tesla is facing a challenge. CEO Elon Musk has long promised fully autonomous driving through Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) package. However, in January, it was revealed that older Teslas equipped with HW3 hardware cannot and will not support it, unlike the newer HW4 hardware. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that many HW3 Tesla owners have already invested thousands of dollars in the FSD package, which has fluctuated in price over the years.
To address this, Tesla previously promised a reduced version of the software, FSD V14 Lite, for HW3 hardware, initially only available in the U.S. Recently, the company announced a global expansion, but with numerous conditions.
“Following the U.S. rollout of FSD V14 Lite for HW3 vehicles, we plan to extend it to additional international markets. This update ensures that HW3 vehicle owners will benefit from ongoing software updates,” the company tweeted. “International expansion depends on several factors, including technical verification, regional adaptation, and regulatory approvals. We will provide updates as they become available.”
This announcement follows the recent approval of FSD in the Netherlands, potentially paving the way for its acceptance throughout the European Union. Tesla has been conducting supervised FSD tests across Europe, and from personal experience in Croatia, it performs reasonably well. However, some HW3 owners who purchased FSD are dissatisfied and have created a claims site seeking refunds.
Tesla’s FSD Lite appears to be an effort to appease HW3 owners. It’s important to note that FSD and FSD Lite are not equivalent. FSD aims for a truly autonomous driving experience, while FSD Lite will likely remain a driving assistance package. True FSD is not coming to HW3 vehicles; during Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call, Musk stated, “Hardware 3 lacks the capability for unsupervised FSD” due to limitations in memory bandwidth, camera resolution, and processing power.
Regarding FSD V14 Lite, not much is known. Tesla’s VP of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, mentioned it as a “distilled version of the V14 software released for Hardware 4” and anticipated a U.S. release by “end of June.” International rollout will begin later, contingent on technical and regulatory requirements. Given Musk’s history of overly ambitious timelines, HW3 Tesla owners in Europe and beyond may face a long wait.
During the same earnings call, Musk also mentioned that Tesla plans to offer HW4 hardware retrofits for older cars, although details on timing, eligibility, and cost remain unclear.