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HW3 vs HW4 / FSD (Supervised) settings checklist

One page you can actually use in the car. Print it, screenshot it, or keep it in Notes. Public Tesla owner’s-manual and release-note information only. Not Tesla. Not a service department. Not a promise the car will drive itself.

Jon Herrity · TechGeek Tesla · Chicago NW suburbs · FSD Early Access tester since 2021
Independent creator. I own Teslas and I film them. I do not speak for Tesla. I do not work for Tesla.

0. Read this first (60 seconds)

Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is a driver-assist feature. Tesla’s own language: it does not make the vehicle autonomous. You stay attentive. You stay ready to take over. The cabin camera watches you. Devices that fake occupancy or attentiveness can get the feature shut off for good.

This checklist is for owners who intend to supervise. If you want hands-off, sleep, or a jailbreak, stop here. That is not what this is.

Software moves. Menu names shift. If your car does not show a line below, skip it — do not hunt for a hidden flag. Check Tesla’s in-car release notes and the owner’s manual for your software version.

1. What computer is in this car?

Do not guess from the year on the window sticker. Do not guess from a Facebook group. Check the car.

In the car (definitive)

• Park. Controls → Software.
• Tap Additional Vehicle Information.
• Find Autopilot computer (some newer builds label this AI Computer).
• Write it down: (you will typically see 2.5, 3, or 4 / AI4).
• Write the software version on the same Software screen:
• Write FSD purchased or FSD subscription:

If you cannot get in the car yet (used listing, not proof)

• Front camera cluster: HW4 / AI4 cameras often show a red tint; HW3 fronts are not that red trio. This is a clue, not a lab test.
• Ask the seller for a photo of Additional Vehicle Information. No photo, no assumption.
• Delivery date is a rough filter (HW4 started showing up in 2023 on various lines). Retrofit history exists on older computers. The Software screen wins.

What that number actually means (keep this boring on purpose)

• HW3 and HW4 are different computers and different camera sets. Tesla has publicly kept them on different FSD software tracks at times (example from 2026 public notes: HW3 on an FSD v14 Lite branch; HW4 on the main v14.x branch). Lite is not a marketing insult — it is Tesla’s name for a distilled build that has to fit older compute.
• Same product name, same supervision rule. HW4 does not give you permission to look at your phone. HW3 is not “unsafe because YouTube said so.” Both are FSD (Supervised) if FSD is enabled and available on that VIN.
• There is no public, promised HW3 → HW4 retrofit the way older Autopilot computers were upgraded. Plan around the computer that is in the car.
• Unsupervised / Robotaxi talk on the internet is not your owner setting. Do not buy or sell a car on a rumor. Check Tesla’s current public statements if that is your actual decision.

Chicago-owner note: A HW3 Model 3 that has been on Early Access / current Lite builds will still do the commute. A HW4 will usually have more headroom on messy scenes. Neither one owes you a parking-lot miracle in February slush. Supervise both.

2. Before you tap Start (every drive, not once)

Tesla documents this. Skip it and the feature is flaky or unavailable.

• Cameras clean. Front cluster on the windshield, repeaters in the fenders, rear, B-pillars. Chicago winter: ice film, road salt, dirty slush. Wipe them. If the car says a camera is blinded, believe it.
• No bike rack, trailer, or cargo that blocks a camera. Manual: FSD (Supervised) may degrade or refuse.
• Headlights On or Auto. FSD (Supervised) is not available with headlights Off. When it engages, Adaptive Headlights / Auto High Beam and Auto wipers typically come on.
• Latest maps downloaded (Controls → Software / Maps — whatever your build uses). FSD is camera-first; Tesla still says current map data helps.
• Cabin camera unobstructed. No phone mount, sunglasses case, or fuzzy dice in front of it. A green indicator in the status bar means attentiveness monitoring is active. You cannot turn that off.
• Seatbelt on, you in the driver’s seat, doors / trunk / frunk closed, charge cable unplugged if you want Start from Park.

3. Turn FSD (Supervised) on — documented path

Car must be in Park to enable or to switch back to Autosteer / TACC.

• Controls → Self-Driving → Full Self-Driving (Supervised) → read the pop-up → Yes.
• Note: with FSD (Supervised) enabled, Tesla sets Self-Driving Activation to Single Click (if equipped) and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer are unavailable. That is expected, not a bug.
• Optional: Controls → Tap to Start FSD (Supervised) if you want the on-screen button.
• Brake Confirm is on by default. Leave it on until you understand Start from Park. You tap Start Self-Driving, then press and release the brake.

To engage on the road (under 85 mph, including a standstill)

• Right scroll-wheel button once, or Start Self-Driving on the screen.
• Blue Self-Driving on the display + your Speed Profile name = it is engaged. If it is not blue, it is not engaged.

Start from Park only works if Tesla’s driver checks pass

Common blocks from the manual / release notes:

• Nobody in the driver’s seat, or occupancy spoof (do not)
• Seatbelt undone
• Door / trunk / frunk open
• Charge cable plugged in
• Valet / Track / other restricted mode
• Cabin camera blocked

If Start from Park is grayed out, fix the list above. Do not look for a workaround.

4. Speed Profile — pick one on purpose

Tesla: FSD (Supervised) sets speed from your profile + speed limit + surrounding traffic (plus nav / fleet historical data). The right scroll wheel up/down changes the profile, not a precise mph offset, on current v14-class builds.

Default Tesla documents: Sloth.

Write what you use:

• Profile is saved to your driver profile. Guest mode will not remember your Mad Max experiment. Good.
• Use HOV Lanes: on/off under Self-Driving. Illinois tollway HOV / Flex lanes are not a toy. If you are solo and the sign says 2+, leave this off.
• You can change profile while engaged: tap Self-Driving on the screen, or Controls → Self-Driving, or roll the right scroll.
• If the car is going too slow for the road you are on, a light accelerator nudge is a legal override. If it is doing something you do not like, take over. Do not sit there arguing with the visualization.

Chicago-owner defaults I actually use as a starting point (yours may differ)

• Neighborhood / school zone / first-snow: Sloth or Chill
• Dry NW-suburb commute on a known route: Standard
• Tollway with traffic: Standard or Chill, not Mad Max on day one
• Construction, unmarked lefts, weird parking lots: be ready to steer or brake. The manual says intervention is expected in narrow roads, construction, complex intersections.

5. Arrival Options — tell it what “here” means

While FSD (Supervised) is engaged, tap Self-Driving on the car-status area. Under At Destination:

• Park — if it finds a suitable spot, it parks. If it does not, Tesla says it pulls over instead.
• Pull Over — short stop (pickup / drop-off). Then it goes to Park when nav is done.

On builds that shipped Arrival Options (v14-class public notes):

• Parking Lot / Street / Driveway / Parking Garage / Curbside
• Preferences persist per destination. Set Home to Driveway once. Set the grocery store to Parking Lot once. Stop fighting it every trip.

Write yours:

• Home:
• Work:
• School / kids drop-off: (Pull Over / Curbside is usually the honest one)

Parking and reversing on HW3 Lite vs HW4 full-branch are not the same experience even when the menu looks the same. If it fumbles a tight garage in the snow, take over. That is the job.

6. Supervised-use habits (this is the part people skip)

Tesla: cabin camera monitors attentiveness while FSD (Supervised) is engaged. Cannot be disabled. Sunglasses still count as “the system is active.”

• Green cabin-camera indicator = monitoring on. If you do not see it, do not assume you are invisible.
• Eyes on the road. Repeated look-away → Please pay attention to the road.
• If it cannot see hand/arm position, it will ask for slight turning force on the wheel. Give it. Do not install a weight, knob trick, or “nag killer.”
• Handheld phone while Self-Driving is engaged → Tesla will nag. Put the phone down. You are the fallback.
• Ignore enough warnings → Self-Driving temporarily disabled for the rest of the drive. Ignore that → chime, flashers, it tries to pull over. Then you are in a worse situation than if you had just driven.
• Five strikeouts = Autosteer + FSD (Supervised) suspended for a week. A strikeout is the system kicking you off for the rest of a trip after repeated inattention warnings. Check remaining strikeouts: Controls → Self-Driving. Tesla: a strikeout can be forgiven after 3.5 days if you do not earn another. TACC and active safety stay on during a suspension.
• You taking over on purpose is not a strikeout. Driver-initiated disengage is expected. Practice it.

How to cancel (pick one, do it early)

• Brake pedal
• Right scroll-wheel button
• Steer enough to take over

Also disengages: shift out of Drive, door/trunk open, Automatic Emergency Braking event, seatbelt off / you leave the seat, cameras fail, you blow off attention nags.

Take over immediately on the screen means now — not after you finish the sentence you were saying.

Do this once in an empty lot: engage, cancel with the brake, engage, cancel with the wheel. Muscle memory beats a surprise on I-294.

7. Visualization and overrides

• Objects highlighted on the visualization are priorities the stack is working on. Tesla says the viz is not a complete picture of what the cameras see.
• Optional: Controls → Self-Driving → Expanded Full Self-Driving Visualization, then drag the viz full screen if you want more picture, less map.
• Lane changes: FSD (Supervised) does them without the old Navigate-on-Autopilot confirmation. A turn-signal can request a change. A turn-signal may not cancel a change already in progress — steer or brake to cancel.
• Never assume it will stop (or go) at a light or sign. Manual: behavior can look inconsistent from the driver’s seat. You decide whether to stop or go.
• Light accelerator is allowed to help it along. Full override is always allowed. Uncomfortable = take over. That is not failure. That is the product.

8. Chicago / Midwest “is this the car or the weather?”

Run this before you blame HW3.

• Windshield in front of the cameras: interior film, exterior salt. Tesla has even added alerts for interior windshield contamination on some builds — Service cleans that, not a YouTube wipe.
• Repeater cameras packed with slush after a plow pass.
• Low sun on east-west suburban arterials at 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. in winter.
• Faded lane paint, temporary barrels, unmarked lefts, railroad crossings, roundabouts that were a four-way last year.
• School zones and crossing guards. Speed Profile down. Hands ready.
• Toll plazas / I-Pass lanes: watch the car; do not narrate.

If cameras are dirty, FSD (Supervised) is not “broken.” It is blind. Clean them.

9. Still stuck? That is the 1:1 call.

If you want someone to sit with you for an hour, look at your Additional Vehicle Information screen, and set Speed Profile / Arrival / Start-from-Park the boring correct way — I do that.

60 min $150 · 90 min $250 · virtual. Tesla owners only. Supervised use only. No repairs, no jailbreak, no unreleased software, no “secret Tesla access.”

Email me to schedule. Independent FSD creator — not a Tesla employee. Day job is regional sales at an electrical-components manufacturer (unnamed, unrelated, not for sale as consulting).

Questions: techgeektesla@gmail.com. YouTube: @techgeektesla.