Tesla Tells HW3 Owner to 'Be Patient' After 7 Years Waiting for FSD; Dutch Case Highlights Growing Legal Pressure
Key Takeaways
- ▸Tesla provided no timeline or concrete information when questioned by an HW3 owner about FSD delivery, instead telling him to "be patient" after 7 years of waiting
- ▸A collective legal claim now represents 3,000 HW3 owners from 29 countries seeking resolution for €6.5 million in FSD purchases on hardware Tesla admits cannot deliver the promised capability
- ▸Tesla has not launched a hardware retrofit or refund program despite Elon Musk's January 2025 admission that HW3 computers need to be replaced for full FSD capability
Summary
A Dutch Tesla Model 3 owner who purchased Full Self-Driving (FSD) for €6,400 in 2019 contacted Tesla to inquire about the status of his HW3-equipped vehicle, only to receive a dismissive "be patient" response. The owner, Mischa Sigtermans, has launched a collective legal claim representing 3,000 HW3 owners from 29 countries who paid approximately €6.5 million for FSD on hardware that Tesla's own executives now admit cannot support the full autonomous driving capability promised at purchase.
Tesla's customer service representatives provided no timeline, no information about hardware upgrades, and acknowledged no concrete plan to address HW3 owners. This response comes 15 months after Elon Musk admitted on Tesla's Q4 2024 earnings call that the company would "need to replace all HW3 computers" and called the situation "painful and difficult." Despite this admission, Tesla has not launched a hardware retrofit program, established a refund policy, or provided a credible timeline beyond a vague promise of a stripped-down "v14 Lite" version in Q2 2026.
The interaction underscores a pattern of broken promises spanning six years. Tesla originally sold FSD in 2019 as a software-only upgrade that would enable full autonomy, but has since acknowledged that HW3's computational limitations prevent it from running modern FSD models. Tesla even patented a "math trick" workaround that internal documents suggest could render the system inoperable.
- The dismissal of HW3 owners contrasts sharply with Tesla's vague timeline (Q2 2026) for a stripped-down "v14 Lite" version and escalates legal pressure, particularly in Europe where FSD Supervised recently gained regulatory approval for newer AI4 hardware
Editorial Opinion
Tesla's handling of the HW3 FSD situation represents a textbook case of corporate avoidance masquerading as patience. After seven years and billions in customer payments, Tesla still lacks a coherent remedy for a problem its own leadership acknowledges requires hardware replacement. The tone-deaf "be patient" response—combined with immediate case closure—suggests Tesla views this as a public relations problem to weather rather than a customer obligation to fulfill. This approach will likely accelerate regulatory and legal action in Europe, where consumer protection standards are stronger.
