When Kyle Paul decided to recreate Mark Rober’s viral self-driving test, he wasn’t just making content—he was highlighting a critical distinction in Tesla’s autonomous driving capabilities. His experiment revealed a significant performance gap between Tesla’s hardware generations that could reshape public perception of Tesla’s FSD technology.
The test pitted a Cybertruck equipped with HW4 running FSD v13.2.8 against a Model Y with HW3 running FSD v12.5.4.2, with dramatic results. While the older Model Y was on track to hit the wall obstacle, the newer Cybertruck successfully detected and avoided collision.
Paul’s recreation addresses a fundamental criticism of Rober’s original test—it only featured older Tesla hardware. “If you’re going to use Luminar’s latest tech, why not use Tesla’s latest tech?” Paul questioned in his video documentation of the experiment.
This discrepancy isn’t insignificant. Tesla’s HW4 represents a substantial upgrade in processing power and sensor capabilities, potentially explaining the divergent outcomes in these tests.
The contrasting performance between Tesla vehicles raises questions about Tesla’s rollout strategy. Elon has stated that HW3 owners who purchased FSD will eventually receive free upgrades to HW4, acknowledging the hardware limitation.
For current Tesla owners, this test highlights why the promised hardware upgrades matter. The Cybertruck’s success suggests Tesla’s autonomous driving capabilities might be more advanced than Rober’s viral video indicated, but primarily on newer hardware platforms.
Tesla Cybertruck’s performance in this recreation underscores the importance of using current-generation technology when evaluating autonomous systems. Critics and testers should consider hardware generations when analyzing FSD performance.
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