Musk on AI4 for FSD
- Elon Musk said Tesla’s AI4 has reached unsupervised Full Self‑Driving capability, delaying an AI5 rollout. - He also flagged a 2027 hardware upgrade that doubles RAM to 32GB, claiming about a 10% compute boost. - Those product and timing claims circulated widely on social posts discussing Tesla AI strategy and future hardware plans. (x.com)
Tesla’s current AI4 computer is now sufficient for unsupervised Full Self-Driving, Elon Musk said on Tesla’s April 22 earnings call, pushing any AI5 in-car switch further out. (ir.tesla.com) (notateslaapp.com) Musk said Tesla is planning an AI4 memory upgrade from 16 gigabytes to 32 gigabytes, using what he called “next-generation RAM,” with production targeted for the middle of 2027. He said that change would add about 10% more compute. (teslamotorsclub.com) (notateslaapp.com) Tesla’s public product page still sells Full Self-Driving as “Supervised” for $99 a month and says the currently enabled features “require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.” That is the gap between what Tesla offers now and what Musk says AI4 can eventually support. (tesla.com) In U.S. safety terms, today’s consumer Teslas are still driver-assistance systems, not automated driving systems that let the human stop supervising. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says Level 2 means “you drive, you monitor,” while Level 4 means “system drives, you ride.” (nhtsa.gov) (ntsb.gov) The timing matters because Musk also said this week that Tesla’s older Hardware 3 cars will not get unsupervised Full Self-Driving. That leaves AI4 as Tesla’s main installed base for any future move from supervised software to a hands-off product. (theverge.com) (engadget.com) Tesla has been signaling that split in its own materials. Its investor site lists the April 22, 2026 Q1 financial results and webcast, while the consumer FSD page describes a current product that still needs an attentive driver and says autonomy is something “coming next.” (ir.tesla.com) (tesla.com) Outside Tesla, the claims are disputed in real time. Electrek reported on April 22 that Musk now puts unsupervised FSD for consumer Teslas no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2026, and CNBC reported in March that NHTSA had intensified an investigation into Tesla’s FSD performance in reduced-visibility conditions. (electrek.co) (cnbc.com) Musk’s new message is narrower than a robotaxi launch pitch and broader than a software update note: AI5 may not be urgently needed in the car if AI4 can carry Tesla to unsupervised driving first. Whether that becomes a shipped consumer feature now depends less on the chip name than on validation, regulation and when Tesla stops calling the product “Supervised.” (tesla.com) (electrek.co)
