Elon Musk Says Self-Driving Tesla Chips Could Be Installed Into Old Models This Year

Every Tesla vehicle manufactured in recent months has included a chip that allows for self-driving.

For those who don't have the chip installed in their Tesla, the company announced that any of their vehicles made since around 2016 will soon be able to have it retroactively installed.

In a new update, a Twitter user has asked Elon Musk when the retroactive fitting will be possible, prompting the Tesla CEO to reply "end of Q4, most likely."

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Autonomous-ready cars

In a thread in which the Tesla CEO was talking about the FSD computer chips, Musk gave the update after being asked the following question by Twitter user Dodie Williams: 

End of Q4, most likely

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 8 July 2019

Tesla unveiled the self-driving chip in April — Musk calling it "the best chip in the world." Tesla is still developing the software that will use the chip's processing power — which reportedly allows 36 trillion operations per second — to make their vehicles fully autonomous.

A Musk prediction

As well as his Q4 estimate, Musk has said that the software, that will allow the cars to drive without human assistance, will be ready next year, Business Insider reports.

Predictions made by Elon Musk over Twitter are perhaps best taken with a pinch of salt.

The Tesla CEO is increasingly receiving flak online for making bold predictions that his companies often can't meet within the deadline. One example is the autonomous-driving technology itself, which is already behind schedule.

However, it is important to note the complexity of making driverless vehicles safe on the road. Musk also says the software will be released pending regulatory approval.

In a recent tweet, he outlined the effort needed to make these vehicles road-safe:

Intersections with complex traffic lights & shopping mall parking lots are the two biggest software challenges. Developer branch already mostly works in these scenarios, but massive effort required to get to 99.9999% safety.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 8 July 2019

We will soon know whether the estimates on fitting old models with AI chips and fleets of self-driving Tesla 'robotaxis' by 2020, will come true or not.