Tesla Robotaxi Mule Vehicles Sighted

July 10, 2024

By Karan Singh

@KlenderJoey/X

A Tesla with manufacturer plates and a unique camera system – one that we’ve seen at least once previously, was spotted in Northern California recently (Thanks, Joey!).

Today, we’re just 29 days away from Tesla’s upcoming Robotaxi event, where we expect to see more details on the Cybercab itself, as well as Tesla’s Robotaxi app and process.

What’s a Mule and What Does It Do?

Tesla internally calls these vehicles with these odd camera locations “mules” and uses them to test future vehicle camera locations. Previously, Model 3 mules were spotted with the cameras in a slightly altered arrangement before the launch of the Model 3 refresh – primarily to prepare the vehicles for Full Self-Driving and Autopilot functionality.

These vehicles gather visual data that’s used to feed Tesla’s supercomputers and prepare its AI models to be able to drive a vehicle with different camera locations. This specific mule is likely to be set up for Robotaxi.

The B-pillar cameras on the Model 3 mule

@KlenderJoey/X

Unique Camera Locations

Of note with this specific Model 3 mule is the very different camera locations. There is a heightened rear bumper camera, and the B-Pillar (located between the front and rear doors) camera is offset with an angle not previously seen on Tesla vehicles. The side repeater camera is pushed out and away from the body of the vehicle as well.

The mule also doesn’t have any side mirrors, but most interesting is a low-to-the-ground front bumper camera, similar to the front camera for the Cybertruck and the one recently spotted on the upcoming refresh Model Y. This means that there is a good chance that Robotaxi – and future hardware iterations, could be bringing a front bumper camera to all vehicles.

It appears that the front camera cluster (now reduced to two cameras with HW4) will remain the same or be very similar to today based on these new images.

Note the B-Pillar, Side Repeater, and Rear Cameras here. Also, no side mirrors!

Not a Tesla App

The Bumper Camera

The new bumper camera will be extremely useful – and is a feature we’ve previously heard could be coming to the Model S and Model X as well. Beyond providing additional information, especially in tight quarters, this could also help with Tesla Vision Park Assist and navigating in densely populated locations, like a parking garage or parking lot.

We hope to see the front camera come to more vehicles as time goes on, but we’ll have to wait and see how the rollout of Hardware 5/AI 5 goes for that.

Tesla Smoking While Supercharging? A Look at What's Actually Happening

February 12, 2025

By Karan Singh

Hot_Engineering3140 on Reddit

Winter is here, and temperatures are dropping, so one of the most common Tesla questions is about to resurface.

If you’ve landed here after frantically searching about “smoke” coming from your Tesla while Supercharging, take a deep breath—it’s completely normal.

Tesla Smoking While Charging

If you’re Supercharging in freezing weather—even with preconditioning—you might notice steam rising from your Tesla. But rest assured, your car isn’t smoking.

Your Tesla’s heat pump is hard at work warming both the cabin and battery to keep you comfortable and ensure optimal charging temperatures. Over time, condensation and ice build-up in the heat exchanger coils.

Why Does It Happen?

When you reach a Supercharger with your vehicle, the heat pump is still running hot, but without the cold air from driving to keep the heat exchanger coils cool, the ice and condensation quickly start to evaporate—creating what looks like smoke.

Since this typically happens near the front of the vehicle, where a car would traditionally have an engine, new vehicle owners can be startled by the discovery. However, rest assured that it’s just water vapor and it’s completely normal in cold weather.

In fact, this behavior can be experienced in any EV with a heat pump in cold climates. So, if you saw steam coming out of your vehicle and panicked, don’t worry—you’re not alone.

Now that you know what’s happening, go ahead and Supercharge with confidence.

Tesla Improves YouTube App With Smoother Playback

February 12, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla made a lot of improvements in the 2024 Holiday Update, including more than 15 undocumented improvements that were included in the release. One of these was a stealthy performance improvement to the YouTube app.

Several people have mentioned they’ve seen improved performance on YouTube since this year’s Holiday Update - and there’s an interesting reason why.

YouTube Improvements

The improved YouTube performance in Tesla vehicles comes from an unexpected source—Tesla actually rolled back support for YouTube’s newer AV1 video encoding. Instead, vehicles now default to the older VP9 encoding standard.

While AV1 is highly efficient in terms of bandwidth, it requires considerably more processing power to decode and display videos. VP9, on the other hand, is less computationally demanding but uses more bandwidth to achieve the same video quality. This trade-off means smoother playback and better overall performance, even if it comes at the cost of slightly higher data usage.

Intel Inside

The VP9 video codec that the YouTube app is now using is much easier to decode, making it less taxing on the vehicle’s processor. This change is particularly beneficial for Tesla vehicles with Intel processors, which previously struggled to stream video at just 720p. When using AV1, these vehicles often experienced stuttering, sometimes forcing the YouTube app to automatically downgrade playback to 480p.

With this update, Intel-based Teslas should now be able to stream at 1080p smoothly. Streaming at 1440p is also possible, although occasional stutters still occur as the system keeps up with the decoding process.

Intel-based vehicles are the big winners with this change, but this appears to affect AMD Ryzen-based infotainment units as well, providing even smoother playback.

Chromium Web App

Tesla’s Theater apps aren’t native applications; instead, they run as chromeless web apps, leveraging the open-source browser built into Teslas known as Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome). Although this works quite well, there is a severe limitation - Chromium hardware acceleration isn’t supported on Linux, the operating system Tesla uses for their OS.

As a result, Tesla vehicles rely on software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which would otherwise handle video playback far more efficiently. A potential solution could be for Tesla to transition away from Chromium-based web apps in favor of a Mozilla Firefox-based browser, as Firefox does support hardware acceleration on Linux. This switch could also open the door to better streaming performance and the possibility of expanding Tesla’s in-car entertainment options.

However, Tesla’s choice of Chromium likely stems from Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements for streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, which rely on DRM-enabled playback. Firefox on Linux has had inconsistent support for DRM due to codec availability and variations in operating system versions.

We’re hopeful that Tesla will either adopt Firefox or develop a fully native application to improve video streaming, rather than continuing with the current web-based Tesla Theater. This shift could also pave the way for additional in-car applications built on Tesla’s native Linux environment—perhaps even reviving the long-rumored Tesla App Store.

Regardless, this update is a welcome improvement, particularly for YouTube, which remains one of the most widely used Theater Mode apps due to its accessibility, free content, and mix of short and long-form videos. It remains to be seen whether similar improvements are made for Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming platforms.

If you’ve noticed improved performance in Theater Mode, now you know why.