Another image of what appears to be Tesla’s long-awaited Cybertruck has appeared on YouTube. Kim Java, a YouTuber with nearly 40 million views, told her viewers that someone sent her an image that looks like a big piece of Cybertruck.
You may recall a couple of months ago, YouTuber and drone pilot Joe Tegtmeyer posted video of two large, wrapped items, which could’ve been Cybertrucks, outside of the Gigafactory in Texas. But in the latest image, the covers are off, and we are given a lot of information about Tesla’s newest vehicle.
Java says the picture was taken in early December. The image appears to be inside a Tesla factory, presumably Texas, at a Powder Coating station. The company did report that Cybertruck was at the tooling stage in Texas during the third quarter earnings call.
No New Camping Experience
While it’s just one image, there is a big spoiler. The midgate, a rumored gate behind the back seats that would fold down does not appear to be happening. That spot is all megacast, making it next to impossible to add in at this stage. Not only would that allow for much longer items to be placed in the bed, it also eliminated what many were hoping would be a pretty unique camping experience.
Details on Materials
Java had to do a follow-up video after so much attention was given to the leaked image. She used information from Teslaratito give viewers more details that can be gathered from the picture. It appears to be two main parts put together, “one looked like a megacast and the other looked like it was hydroformed stainless steel,” reports Teslarati. It’s also pointed out that the megacast is much larger than the Model Y. Elon Musk has said that the Cybertruck would require the largest casting machine used to date.
Battery Issues
Java also said that a source told her, “the truck was designed to use the 4680 battery cells, but they’ve struggled with scaling up production in-house with those batteries,” that it could add more delays by the end of next year if they have to switch to 2170 cells to ramp up production.”
Finally, images like this from inside Tesla are very rare. Certainly, the company will be looking into it, and the worker seen in the image is looking directly at whoever is taking the photo. Hopefully, the leaked image doesn’t result in job losses as it has provided the Tesla community with much to talk about and proof that the Cybertruck is in production.
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Last week, Mark Ruber, an engineering YouTuber best known for his glitter bombs, released a video where he tested Tesla's Autopilot against various conditions - including the iconic ACME painted wall.
During this test, many people noted that Mark was using Autopilot rather than FSD, even though his video was titled “Can you Fool a Self-Driving Car?”. The Tesla on Autopilot went up against a vehicle equipped with Luminar’s LIDAR rig, running some sort of basic autonomy or safety software.
New Video Tests FSD
Many people were disappointed with Mark’s video and his testing methods, so several creators got to work to actually test out Tesla’s FSD.
Creator Kyle Paul over on X made a much better follow-up video, using both a HW3 Model Y as well as an AI4 Cybertruck. In a relatively unsurprising turn of events, the Cybertruck was successfully able to detect the wall, slowed down, and came to a stop. The Cybertruck was running FSD 13.2.8.
Kyle’s team did a fantastic job building the wall and testing this in a private area using FSD rather than Autopilot. On top of that - they re-tested the results several times and recorded the entire thing in and out. While Mark’s video was more for entertainment, Kyle really set out to prove what would really happen in this unlikely scenario.
Sadly, the HW3 Model Y was unable to detect the wall, and manual intervention was required in each test. While the Model Y was running FSD 12.5.4.2 rather than an FSD V12.6 build, we don’t expect this to have had a significant impact on the test - this is more of an issue with how computer vision analyzes the environment.
There are several major differences between HW3 and HW4. The first is obviously that the version that runs on AI4 is more advanced, as the hardware is capable of processing a lot more data. However, AI4 also features much higher-resolution cameras than HW3, and Tesla recently added the ability for the video feeds to be processed at full resolution on FSD V13. This could have made the difference, although it’s not entirely clear. Perhaps if HW3 gets a version of FSD V13 in the future, HW3 can be retested to see if it passes the “ACME wall” test.
Watch
Kyle’s entire video is below. It’s only 10 minutes long, so definitely give it a watch. Props to Kyle on the quick and thorough execution.
What Does This Mean for FSD?
We broke down Mark’s test - and examined all the little issues that we discovered after doing some in-depth research - you can read our analysis here.
Putting aside the issues with Mark’s testing and instead using the new results - it seems that if you were to have to fight against Wile-E-Coyote and his ACME tools with your Tesla, cartoon logic may win if you’re on an HW3 vehicle. If you’re on an AI4 vehicle, you’ll likely come to a safe stop.
Vehicle depth perception is definitely something that Tesla has been hard at work to improve - and some fairly drastic improvements came with FSD V13 that haven’t been entirely translated to FSD V12 just yet. Future versions of HW3 FSD may be able to determine that the wall is there successfully. So Kyle - if you’re reading this - don’t get rid of that wall. We’d love to see more testing in the future.
However, this entire test scenario is so out of left field… there is a good likelihood this same test would fool some human drivers as well. The most important part is that the future of autonomy will not fall for these tricks, so it's very unlikely for someone to weaponize this idea as it’d only possibly work on a small segment of vehicles.
If Wile-E-Coyote is after you, someone else may drive into the wall before your Tesla does.
Not a Tesla App
We’re not kidding, this really happened already. This isn’t a realistic scenario outside of someone trying to play an insane prank - but it’s good to know that FSD V13 is capable of dodging this.
Tesla regularly holds quarterly all-hands meetings for employees, but last night marks the first time Tesla has live-streamed the event for the public.
The meeting primarily focused on Tesla’s employees, recent achievements, and the future of Tesla. While it didn’t reveal much new information, it was interesting to see Elon Musk candidly engaging with his teams, who seem to genuinely enjoy working with him. Still, there were a few noteworthy takeaways.
As with Tesla’s Earnings Calls and other live events, we’ve put together a concise, easy-to-digest recap of everything discussed.
General Points
Work-related Injuries declined over time
Planning to expand to new markets
Cell Manufacturing
Continuing to invest in battery supply
Cheapest, lowest cost per kWh cell
The supercharger network continues to grow
Vehicle range and charging speed should match the needs of humans and their required time for breaks
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