Tesla Motors (TSLA) Autopilot 8.1. Update release date, latest news: Upcoming Autopilot upgrade for HW1 Tesla vehicles to roll out in late January

Without making loud pronouncements, Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk revealed, in a string of short posts and responses in his Twitter account, the progress of the "Hardware 2 (HW2)" update's development, a label which refers to the latest generation of vehicles being produced by the car manufacturing company.

Tesla Motors quietly rolled out the Autopilot version 8.1 to 1,000 vehicles last Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016. After it is verified that no on-road issues will arise, the car company will be making the Autopilot update available for everyone possibly by Thursday, Jan. 5. However, this update is limited to Tesla cars which were made since late October last year.

In responding to another inquiry, Musk also revealed in another tweet that the speed performance upgrade to the P100D version is scheduled to roll out on Thursday as well since the upgrade is linked to the Autopilot 8.1 update.

Even though the owners of Tesla vehicles, which are viable to receive the HW2, will have their Autopilot systems upgraded as early as this week, the larger number of Tesla owners, whose vehicles are classified as "Hardware 1 (HW1)," which are vehicles manufactured in early October 2016 or prior, will have to wait for a little longer to receive their own Autopilot 8.1. update. According to another tweet response from Musk, the Autopilot 8.1. update will be rolled out sometime in late January. The upgrade will be launched alongside a Linux kernel update, which is presumably necessary in order to support the latest version of the Autopilot system.

As reported by the International Business Times, it is still unclear what changes the upcoming Autopilot 8.1 update will bring to the Tesla vehicles, but more information about the upgrade is expected to be revealed soon.

Aside from the Autopilot 8.1 update, many Tesla supporters are also anticipating the arrival of the Tesla Model 3, which is expected to roll out sometime in late 2017 at the earliest.