diff --git a/selfdrive/modeld/models/commonmodel_pyx.pyx b/selfdrive/modeld/models/commonmodel_pyx.pyx
index e292bb0d2d..ecbe644e09 100644
--- a/selfdrive/modeld/models/commonmodel_pyx.pyx
+++ b/selfdrive/modeld/models/commonmodel_pyx.pyx
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # distutils: language = c++
-# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii
+# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii, language_level=3
 
 import numpy as np
 cimport numpy as cnp
diff --git a/selfdrive/modeld/runners/runmodel_pyx.pyx b/selfdrive/modeld/runners/runmodel_pyx.pyx
index e1b201a6a9..12b8ec10ff 100644
--- a/selfdrive/modeld/runners/runmodel_pyx.pyx
+++ b/selfdrive/modeld/runners/runmodel_pyx.pyx
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # distutils: language = c++
-# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii
+# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii, language_level=3
 
 from libcpp.string cimport string
 
diff --git a/selfdrive/modeld/runners/snpemodel_pyx.pyx b/selfdrive/modeld/runners/snpemodel_pyx.pyx
index c3b2b7e9bd..f83b7c8cff 100644
--- a/selfdrive/modeld/runners/snpemodel_pyx.pyx
+++ b/selfdrive/modeld/runners/snpemodel_pyx.pyx
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # distutils: language = c++
-# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii
+# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii, language_level=3
 
 import os
 from libcpp cimport bool
diff --git a/selfdrive/modeld/runners/thneedmodel_pyx.pyx b/selfdrive/modeld/runners/thneedmodel_pyx.pyx
index 53487afa1b..6f8fdd255f 100644
--- a/selfdrive/modeld/runners/thneedmodel_pyx.pyx
+++ b/selfdrive/modeld/runners/thneedmodel_pyx.pyx
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # distutils: language = c++
-# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii
+# cython: c_string_encoding=ascii, language_level=3
 
 from libcpp cimport bool
 from libcpp.string cimport string