The Cybertruck was recently shown off in a matte black wrap
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The Tesla Cybertruck was on display in Malibu on Sunday. It wasn't the stainless steel beast that was catching rays. No, Tesla's Chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, went for a Sunday drive in a matte black Cybertruck.
Remember when "experts" thought the Cybertruck appeal would wear off because there would be too many that look alike? Well, the wrap game changes all of that, and Tesla has done a great job demonstrating that over the past few months.
The Aesthetic Array of Cybertruck Wraps
Since its unveiling, the Cybertruck has promised a departure from the mundane, and the various wraps spotted recently solidify this claim. Here are some of the unique skins that have adorned the Cybertruck's angular frame:
Matte Black: Sleek and undeniably badass, the matte black wrap gives the Cybertruck a stealthier yet distinguished presence.
A camo-wrapped Cybertruck
tenetenergy/X
Camo: For those looking to blend in (or stand out), camo wraps take the Cybertruck from an urban warrior to a potential wilderness navigator.
A 'digital camo' wrap on the Tesla Cybertruck
kjoule11/X
Digital Camo: This option brings a touch of modernity to the classic pattern, offering a pixelated twist on concealment.
The Cybertruck was seen with a graffiti-like font on the side
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Graffiti: The Cybertruck that took a tour through Baja had a graffiti "Cybertruck" on the side.
Oracle showed off what a law enforcement Cybertruck could look like
Oracle
Oracle: Larry Ellison showed just how fantastic a company logo will look on the side and the hood of these futuristic trucks
The Cybertruck was found with yet another wrap, this time resembling a F150
John Anderson
Faux Ford F-150: In an old display of bravado, one wrap mimics the appearance of the Ford F-150, complete with imitated door handles. It's a playful wink at traditional truck designs, perhaps teasing at the Cybertruck's intention to disrupt.
Tesla didn't stop at the Ford F150 wrap. Shortly after the Cybertruck was spotted sporting a Toyota Tundra wrap
Cybertruck Owners Club
Faux Toyota Tundra: Not to be outdone, Cybertruck has also been spotted with a resemblance to Toyota's Tundra — another old guard truck that will soon be disrupted.
Unique Cybertruck
Adam Jonas, Morgan Stanley's managing director, advised staff to manage expectations for clients excited about investing in Tesla. He listed several reasons for downplaying the Cybertruck, calling it a financial "side-show," a "cultural/zeitgeist," and an "enthusiast/cult car."
The investment advisor called the Cybertruck the "ultimate avant-garde vehicle," believing that the unique aspects of Cybertruck will lose some appeal when there are several on the road, losing that "indescribable something." That argument is dead.
Tesla is no stranger to the concept of vehicle wraps. With the Model 3 and Model Y, they've introduced an official wrap service, suggesting that Cybertruck owners may soon have the same option. It's not just about aesthetics; these wraps come with a layer of protection against the elements and the rigors of the road.
From the practical to the peculiar, the wraps we've seen on the Cybertruck suggest that Tesla owners will have no shortage of options to make their electric pickup their own.
Franz driving the Matte Black Cybertruck ? at the Paradise Cove Cars & Coffee. pic.twitter.com/siwk4RJvxY
Tesla has been working on FSD Unsupervised for quite a while—the hands-off, eyes-off version of FSD. That’ll be the same version of FSD that can get you from Point A to Point B without any user intervention and no requirement for keeping your eyes on the road or your hands on the wheel.
June 2025 is Tesla’s date for the next step in vehicle autonomy and the public introduction of Unsupervised FSD - which was announced at Tesla’s Q4 2024 Earnings Call - so let’s take a closer look at what’s coming.
Launch Date for Robotaxi Fleet
Tesla’s launch of Unsupervised FSD will be in Austin, Texas, but it’ll be limited to its Robotaxi fleet. Vehicle owners won’t be able to access Unsupervised FSD themselves or join the autonomous fleet initially. Tesla announced that its launch in Austin would be for a paid Robotaxi service, much like Waymo’s. Tesla will use it to refine the Robotaxi experience and Unsupervised FSD.
They’ll be working on the whole experience - start to finish - from summoning the robotaxi from the app, to how it arrives, how your trip progresses, where it drops you off, and how you pay. That’s an extensive set of systems - some of which may already be in place, as we’ve seen through Tesla’s Robotaxi app mock-ups.
Tesla is taking strict control of the initial deployments of FSD Unsupervised - and for good reason. A single minor incident or accident could spiral into a rapid regulatory issue. Tesla is gently dipping its toes into full autonomy, and once they’re sure that Unsupervised FSD is far safer than an average human driver they can expand it to Tesla owners.
Tesla will also be rolling out Unsupervised FSD in California - and other regions of the US as they gain regulatory approval. Tesla’s FSD is a generalized solution - it doesn't need high-precision or HD mapping and local preparation before being rolled out - instead, Tesla’s biggest hold-backs are safety and improving their software.
As Tesla approaches the launch of the Robotaxi network, it makes us realize how many steps there really are to the puzzle. Tesla will need to have procedures in place on how to deal with issues such as a vehicle getting stuck, someone hitting an emergency button, or even an accident. Tesla will also need to launch its vehicle hubs that will be responsive for cleaning and charging the vehicles.
People go to manual driving to check their phone so that they don’t strike out/get beeped at - and then go back to FSD.
While June 2025 may seem rather aggressive to launch the autonomous service, it’s typical for Tesla to be overly optimistic and aggressive with deadlines, but it gives us a better indication of when they plan to launch Unsupervised FSD. Even if they miss the June launch, we’ll hopefully see the network begin this year, which will be a massive boost for Tesla and its shareholders.
When Can I Join the Robotaxi Fleet?
Tesla will be allowing owners to enroll their own vehicles in cities that are allowing Robotaxi - so if you live in Austin or other cities that have an approved Tesla Robotaxi network, you could get paid to add your vehicle to the Robotaxi fleet.
During the earnings call, Tesla announced that owners could add their vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet in 2026, although they weren’t more specific than that. This will be at least six months after the Robotaxi network launches.
Elon mentioned during the earnings call that Tesla needs to be supremely confident that the probability of injury or accident is extremely low before they allow FSD Unsupervised on customer vehicles. That’s rather interesting - because he didn’t mention liability - a question that often comes up for autonomous vehicles.
One of the points mentioned by both Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, as well as Elon was that if there is even a single minor incident - it’ll be headline news globally, even though an average of 40,000 drivers die a year in regular traffic accidents - the majority of which don’t even make local news.
We’ll have to wait and see in 2026 for what really happens for liability and insurance - because true autonomy will hinge on who is liable for what happens in an accident - the vehicle/software manufacturer or the owner of the vehicle.
FSD Unsupervised for Owners
FSD(U) - as we’re calling it - won’t be available for users initially while Tesla tests it with its fleets. Once Tesla gets enough testing done to ensure safety is at the level that it needs - they’ll begin rolling out FSD(U) to owners. Since Tesla expects to let owners add their vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet in 2026, we expect FSD(U) for vehicle owners to arrive sometime after this date.
Tesla will have more control of a vehicle while it’s being managed by its fleet, so it makes sense for FSD(U) for Tesla owners to arrive later in 2026 or even 2027.
Tesla is aiming for a safety level that is significantly higher than the average human driver - one magnitude higher. Right now, according to the Q4 Vehicle Safety Report, the average driver has an incident on average every 700,000 miles, while a Tesla has one on average every 1.08 million miles. On FSD or Autopilot, that number goes up significantly - to 5.94 million miles. Tesla is aiming to bring that number closer to 7 million miles before they significantly expand FSD(U) - the one-order of magnitude mark.
And it sounds like Elon will be happy to enable it - because he said the following at the earnings call: “People go to manual driving to check their phone so that they don’t strike out/get beeped at - and then go back to FSD.”
And it’s pretty true - it would be much safer if people didn’t do that. Now, getting FSD(U) on our vehicles is just a matter of time. So let’s watch Tesla cut red tape in 2025!
Launch Phases
Tesla will need to beat regulatory hurdles that will eventually challenge their rapid deployment. Tesla hopes to be able to deploy FSD Unsupervised with its Robotaxi fleets throughout the United States by the end of 2025, with it coming to Canada in 2026.
Tesla will be starting with Austin, Texas, where they’ve already obtained regulatory approval, and then move to other cities within the United States in the following months.
Currently, Tesla’s primary use of Unsupervised FSD is happening at Fremont, with vehicles driving themselves from the production line to the delivery lot and in downtown LA, where they’ve been testing with safety drivers to get employees around town. And at the factory - it's happening daily, and reliability - with thousands of vehicles moving from the line to the lot every day.
We imagine Tesla will launch FSD(U) in several phases, potentially looking something like this:
Test FSD(U) internally (being done now)
Launch the Robotaxi network in small areas for refinement
Expand and improve the network
Allow non-Tesla-owned vehicles (owners allowed to join)
Offer Unsupervised FSD to Tesla owners where Tesla will have less control over the vehicle
As many of you are, we’re really excited to see Tesla’s Robotaxis in the wild for the first time. Like everything else Tesla, expects the release of FSD(U) to be small and gradually grow. It may consist of only employees in Austin at first, or it may include a safety driver, or even be limited to a very small region. While some may be disappointed at first, remember how Tesla rolls out features. Iterations and improvements will come consistently and fast.
Tesla has been struggling to provide FSD updates for vehicles with Hardware 3 (HW3). What was once thought to be enough compute power to solve autonomy, is no longer able to handle the latest FSD updates.
Yesterday, Tesla finally confirmed that vehicles with HW3 will need to be upgraded to achieve Unsupervised FSD.
HW3 Upgrade Finally Confirmed
Musk had previously suggested that an upgrade might be necessary and Tesla would upgrade these vehicles if needed. However, during yesterday’s earnings call, Musk admitted that HW3 vehicles will, in fact, need to be upgraded. Tesla said that these upgrades will be performed free of charge for owners who have purchased the FSD package, leaving subscribers wondering what will happen to their cars.
Musk stated, “That's going to be painful and difficult, but we'll get it done. Now I'm kinda glad that not that many people bought the FSD package haha.” This appears to confirm that Tesla doesn’t plan on upgrading HW3 on vehicles that subscribe to FSD.
What About Subscription-Based FSD Owners?
While there are a lot of questions, one of the bigger ones is what happens to owners who have subscribed to FSD. Tesla didn’t touch on the topic, but if they’re not planning to upgrade HW3 subscribers, then they could potentially offer a paid retrofit. When the Model 3 was first released, it came standard with HW 2.5. At the time, Tesla said that you won’t need anything better unless you plan to buy FSD. Tesla ended up upgrading owners who had bought FSD for free, but non-FSD owners were required to pay for an upgrade.
Based on previous hardware upgrades—such as the HW2.5 to HW3 transition—a paid upgrade could cost between $1,000 to $3,000. However, it’s not clear what the upgrade to HW3 vehicles will be or how much it will cost even if a paid upgrade becomes available.
FSD on HW3
Musk also hinted that FSD was not selling as well as Tesla had hoped, which likely influenced the introduction of subscription-based FSD.
Meanwhile, Tesla continues to improve HW3-based FSD. FSD V12.6 offers major improvements in smoothness and is considered a “baby V13” with notable improvements over V12.5.4.2. Reverse capabilities are also expected to arrive in a future release for HW3 vehicles, so Tesla hasn’t stopped development just yet. However, Musk was clear that HW3 will continue to lag behind HW4 releases moving forward.
FSD V14 and the Future of HW3
Tesla has stated that FSD V14 will be another significant step toward achieving Unsupervised FSD. The increasing complexity of FSD models and their growing context sizes mean that HW3 is already not able to run the larger FSD V13 models, but according to Tesla, V14 will increase the AI model even further, making it nearly impossible to run on HW3. As AI models become increasingly larger and AI5’s impending arrival approaches, one wonders how long before HW4 can’t run the latest models.
However, Tesla appears confident that HW4 will be sufficient, given its plans to launch FSD-powered robotaxis later this year.
What Will the HW3 Upgrade Look Like?
While Tesla has confirmed the HW3 upgrade, specific details remain unknown. We know that it won’t just be an upgrade to hardware 4 since that computer consumes more power than HW3’s electrical harness can provide, and it also has a different form factor, making retrofitting difficult.
Instead, Tesla will likely have to develop a new FSD hardware unit tailored for the retrofit or modify existing components to fit HW3-equipped vehicles. The hardware will need to be at least as computationally capable as HW4, but use the power of a HW3 unit.
Tesla has also said that it has no plans to replace cameras during the upgrade, despite HW3 cameras having significantly lower resolutions than HW4’s. While Tesla appears confident that this won’t be an issue, owners have reasons to be concerned as Tesla recently increased video processing resolution on HW4 cameras to improve FSD performance.
Tesla’s confirmation of an HW3 upgrade certainly makes more owners comfortable. However, the lack of details leaves subscribers and others wondering what will happen to their vehicles. It also doesn’t do much to ease the frustration of dealing with slower and less capable FSD releases, especially when they pay the same amount as HW4 owners, who receive more features and a smoother ride.
While free upgrades will be available for those who bought FSD outright, subscription-based owners are left in limbo, with no details on potential paid upgrade options.
With FSD V14 on the horizon and HW3 vehicles already struggling with the latest models, this upgrade will be crucial to keep existing owners happy.
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