Here's a number worth sitting with: 4 million. That's how many Tesla owners just found out the feature they paid for — in some cases thousands of dollars worth — is never coming to their car. Not without a pretty significant hardware overhaul, anyway.
On Tesla's Q1 2026 earnings call, Elon Musk confirmed that vehicles running the company's Hardware 3 computer won't be getting unsupervised Full Self-Driving. The core problem is memory bandwidth. HW3 has one-eighth the memory bandwidth of its successor, Hardware 4, and apparently that gap is too wide to bridge with software updates alone. For a company that spent years telling customers FSD was just around the corner, this is a significant reversal.
To be fair, Musk didn't exactly bury the news. He acknowledged the limitation plainly and outlined a path forward for affected owners: discounted trade-ins toward HW4-equipped vehicles, or a hardware upgrade that involves swapping out both the computer and the cameras. That second option sounds straightforward until you hear Tesla's plan for how to actually do it at scale.
Because service centers are apparently too slow and inefficient for this kind of work, Tesla is planning to build what Musk called "microfactories" — essentially mini production lines in major metro areas dedicated to upgrading HW3 cars. That's not a small undertaking. It's an admission that the retrofit job is complex enough to require purpose-built infrastructure.
The business logic behind all of this is also worth noting. Musk said he expects it will eventually make sense to convert all HW3 vehicles to HW4, because Hardware 4 is the prerequisite for joining Tesla's robotaxi fleet. In other words, Tesla has a financial incentive to get as many cars as possible onto the newer hardware — but that doesn't make the situation any less frustrating for owners who bought FSD in good faith years ago.
This isn't entirely new information. Musk hinted back in January 2025 that HW3 upgrades would be necessary for FSD customers. But confirmation on an earnings call carries a different weight than a passing remark. And the timeline for when these microfactories will be up and running, or when upgrade appointments will actually be available, remains vague.
Meanwhile, at least one Dutch Tesla owner was reportedly told by the company to "just be patient" when asking about FSD on HW3. That kind of response lands differently now that the answer is effectively: your car can't do it, full stop.
The broader issue here isn't just about one feature. It's about what it means when a company sells you something based on a roadmap that later turns out to be technically impossible on the hardware you bought. Tesla isn't the first tech company to strand customers on a legacy platform, but given how loudly and persistently Musk marketed FSD, the gap between the promise and the reality is particularly hard to ignore.
SECURITY
Crypto Scam Tricked Ships Into Sailing Into Strait of Hormuz
Somewhere in the world, a ship captain may have genuinely believed he had paid the Iranian government in bitcoin for safe passage through one of the most dangerous waterways on earth — and then got shot at anyway. That's not a hypothetical. It may have already happened.
Greek maritime risk firm MARISKS issued a warning on April 20 alerting shipowners to a new and deeply alarming scam: fraudsters posing as Iranian authorities have been contacting shipping companies demanding cryptocurrency payments — bitcoin and tether specifically — in exchange for permission to transit the Strait of Hormuz. The scam is convincing in part because it mirrors something real. Iranian authorities have, in fact, been demanding crypto payments from oil tankers and requiring ships to follow inspection routes near the Iranian coastline. The scammers are essentially copying the format of a legitimate shakedown.
The Strait of Hormuz is not a place where you want to get your wires crossed. Under normal circumstances, it's the chokepoint through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes. Right now, it's a war zone. Since late February, when the US and Israel began a sustained military campaign targeting Iranian leadership, nuclear facilities, and military infrastructure, shipping traffic through the strait has effectively ground to a halt. Around 2,000 ships and 20,000 mariners are stranded in the region, caught between geopolitical fire and the desperate need to move cargo.
Into that chaos, scammers have inserted themselves with devastating precision. MARISKS identified at least one vessel that may have fallen for the scheme before attempting to pass through the strait on April 18. That ship turned back after Iranian military forces opened fire on it. Whether the crew genuinely believed they had obtained legitimate clearance is still being investigated.
A second incident four days later raises the same chilling question. The Epaminondas, a Liberia-flagged cargo ship managed by Greek firm Technomar and operated under MSC, was fired upon after reportedly receiving what appeared to be permission to proceed through the strait. Authorities are now examining whether that permission was fraudulent.
What makes this scam particularly insidious is the environment it exploits. Shipping companies are under enormous pressure. They have crews stranded, cargo delayed, and insurance costs spiraling. When something that looks like an official clearance arrives, the temptation to trust it — even if it asks for payment in tether — is understandable, if not exactly wise.
The UK's Royal Navy-sponsored maritime security organization has logged 22 confirmed attacks and another 13 suspicious incidents in and around the strait, ranging from missile strikes to gunfire from small boats believed to be operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. In that environment, the line between a real threat and a manufactured one is already blurry. Scammers know exactly how to exploit that confusion — and right now, the cost of getting it wrong can be measured in lives.
Source: Ars Technica
Greek maritime risk firm MARISKS issued a warning on April 20 alerting shipowners to a new and deeply alarming scam: fraudsters posing as Iranian authorities have been contacting shipping companies demanding cryptocurrency payments — bitcoin and tether specifically — in exchange for permission to transit the Strait of Hormuz. The scam is convincing in part because it mirrors something real. Iranian authorities have, in fact, been demanding crypto payments from oil tankers and requiring ships to follow inspection routes near the Iranian coastline. The scammers are essentially copying the format of a legitimate shakedown.
The Strait of Hormuz is not a place where you want to get your wires crossed. Under normal circumstances, it's the chokepoint through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes. Right now, it's a war zone. Since late February, when the US and Israel began a sustained military campaign targeting Iranian leadership, nuclear facilities, and military infrastructure, shipping traffic through the strait has effectively ground to a halt. Around 2,000 ships and 20,000 mariners are stranded in the region, caught between geopolitical fire and the desperate need to move cargo.
Into that chaos, scammers have inserted themselves with devastating precision. MARISKS identified at least one vessel that may have fallen for the scheme before attempting to pass through the strait on April 18. That ship turned back after Iranian military forces opened fire on it. Whether the crew genuinely believed they had obtained legitimate clearance is still being investigated.
A second incident four days later raises the same chilling question. The Epaminondas, a Liberia-flagged cargo ship managed by Greek firm Technomar and operated under MSC, was fired upon after reportedly receiving what appeared to be permission to proceed through the strait. Authorities are now examining whether that permission was fraudulent.
What makes this scam particularly insidious is the environment it exploits. Shipping companies are under enormous pressure. They have crews stranded, cargo delayed, and insurance costs spiraling. When something that looks like an official clearance arrives, the temptation to trust it — even if it asks for payment in tether — is understandable, if not exactly wise.
The UK's Royal Navy-sponsored maritime security organization has logged 22 confirmed attacks and another 13 suspicious incidents in and around the strait, ranging from missile strikes to gunfire from small boats believed to be operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. In that environment, the line between a real threat and a manufactured one is already blurry. Scammers know exactly how to exploit that confusion — and right now, the cost of getting it wrong can be measured in lives.
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