"It will take us some time to complete the validation of the software and get regulatory approval but the important thing is that the foundation is laid" for fully autonomous driving, said Tesla CEO Elon Musk on a call with reporters.

Tesla spent a year testing the new hardware, and Musk said the company's goal is to do "a demonstration drive of full autonomy from LA to New York by the end of next year."

Musk declined to answer a reporter's question about how the company will finance the cost of the upgrades.

Tesla said the vehicles now being produced will have eight surround cameras that provide 360-degree visibility around the car at up to 250 meters of range. In contrast, cars produced before Wednesday only had one camera. The eight cameras will work with 12 updated ultrasonic sensors to allow for detection of both hard and soft objects at nearly twice the distance of the prior system, the company said.

To aid in seeing in heavy rain, fog, and dust, a forward-facing radar with enhanced processing was added to provide additional data about the world on a redundant wavelength.

The computing power will also increase by a factor of 40, making the hardware capable of performing 12 trillion operations per second.

"It's basically a supercomputer in a car," Musk said.

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