Tesla has begun the wide rollout of Full Self-Driving version 12.5, the latest update to its advanced driver-assistance software. As usual, CEO Elon Musk used the moment to promise that fully unsupervised self-driving is just around the corner—though past experience tells us to take such claims with caution.
FSD 12.5 Rolls Out to Hardware 4 Vehicles First
The new Full Self-Driving version 12.5 is currently reaching Tesla vehicles equipped with the newer Hardware 4 (HW4) sensor and processor suite. Owners of older HW3 vehicles will need to wait a bit longer. Tesla is still working to optimize the software for the older, less capable hardware.
Musk estimates a roughly 10-day delay for HW3, but based on Tesla’s update history, that timeline could easily stretch further.
Hardware Limitations Raise Long-Term Concerns
The widening performance gap between HW3 and HW4 is raising questions within the Tesla community. As each new FSD update becomes more computationally demanding, many analysts believe HW3 may never fully achieve the autonomous capabilities originally promised.
The release of Full Self-Driving version 12.5 only reinforces this concern, as more advanced neural networks increasingly require the higher processing power available exclusively on HW4.
What’s New in Full Self-Driving Version 12.5?
For drivers equipped with HW4, FSD 12.5 brings several improvements. Musk has gone as far as claiming that some drivers could go an entire year without needing to intervene—an ambitious statement met with widespread skepticism, even among loyal Tesla fans.
One key feature still missing, however, is the long-promised unification of the highway and city driving stacks. Tesla has delayed this major upgrade to a future release, once again dampening expectations and highlighting the complexity of merging multiple autonomous-driving systems.
A Step Forward, but the Big Questions Remain
Despite delays, skepticism, and hardware limitations, the rollout of Full Self-Driving version 12.5 is another incremental step in Tesla’s pursuit of true autonomous driving. The progress is real, but whether today’s vehicles—especially those running on HW3—will ever deliver the fully unsupervised experience Musk continues to promise remains an open question.
