Tesla backed itself into a corner with the hardware baked into its cars. Millions of Teslas sold between 2019 and 2023 were sold with computers that Tesla sold as "capable" of Full Self-Driving. Yet the company later admitted that this simply isn't the case. It claimed that retrofitting those cars with newer hardware would take a series of micro factories.

One owner didn't want to wait for Tesla to build those. Instead, he took on the challenge himself and became the very first person to retrofit Hardware 4 into a Hardware 3-equipped car, all while documenting the process on X.

The owner is Polish Tesla hacker Mike Gapinski. Ultimately, his working Frankenstein car is made from a 2022 Tesla Model 3 and a scavenged Autopilot computer out of a Hardware 4 Model Y.

Mike says that piecing together the parts was "not as bad as it seemed," requiring only the Model Y's computer, some Hardware 4 repeater cameras, and some light ECU hacking. In fact, he mentions the he was even able to reuse the camera's existing coaxial wiring in the car, adapting it to the new Hardware 4 cameras using adapters for the factory FAKRA connectors.

Thankfully, Tesla has a very robust service reference for these types of electrical schematics which makes finding out what connectors to adapt a breeze. Fitting the actual Hardware 4 ECU was also fairly easy, but did require a bit of hope and zipties to make work.

It's easy to see why any Hardware 3 owner would want to take on this type of project (outside of just pure tinkering, that is).

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