Tesla has greatly improved the smoothness of FSD visualizations in FSD V12.5.6 by fixing a 4-year-old bug. The fact that Tesla knew about this bug suggests it may have been difficult or time-consuming to fix, and they preferred to dedicate resources toward new features, but now that it’s fixed, users with FSD 12.5.6 are reporting much smoother visualizations.
Bug Fix
While not detailed, this bug that plagued the rendering pipeline had been an issue in Tesla AI’s backside for four years, according to Ashok Elluswamy, the head of Autopilot and AI at Tesla. Funnily enough, Andrej Karpathy, the previous Director of AI at Tesla, replied, “omg.”
Because we fixed a four year old bug in the rendering!
It sounds like Andrej knew about the bug in the rendering pipeline during his Tesla days but was also unable to fix it, likely due to other priorities. We’re glad to see Tesla is going back and working on squeezing the most performance from its hardware—in any capacity.
Smoother Visualizations Video
The updated visualizations are considerably smoother after the bug fix. What’s immediately noticeable is less jitter in vehicles around you and vehicles starting to show up from further away. This is a fantastic update, as it helps to provide better information for the supervising driver about what FSD sees around the vehicle.
We’re looking forward to what else Tesla can do to optimize and make its visualizations look even better. In the meantime, check out these two videos below that include the improved FSD visualizations.
We first noticed FSD 12.5.6 on update 2024.32.30 on October 8th, right before the Robotaxi event. FSD 12.5.6 is more than just bug fixes; it includes major changes such as new FSD profiles, improved lane changes, and changes to Auto Set Speed. However, it's still only available for early-access customers. While Tesla’s AI team was likely focused on the event and has now earned a well-deserved rest, it appears that this FSD release may see another revision before it is expanded to regular customers.
Tesla brought out something not many expected at its Robotaxi event—the Robovan. It’s a fairly large vehicle, and just like the Cybercab, it's fully autonomous: there is no driver’s seat, steering wheel, or pedals.
In its default configuration, the Robovan can seat up to 20 passengers, and Tesla has already envisioned multiple other uses for it, including package delivery, RVing, and others.
So, get your futuristic bus pass ready, and let’s take a ride to see what the Robovan is bringing!
Exterior
The Robovan takes Art Deco – the classic 1950’s style, to the future. It's a spectacular showcase vehicle and doesn’t look like anything you would ever expect to be pulling up to the curb to pick people up. The Robovan looks almost like a train or tram engine and has a sleek front with no visible windshield, and the wheels are tucked underneath the body, where you can’t see them.
It’s a painted aluminum shell, just like the Cybercab, but also mixed with glass. The glass is tinted dark from the exterior – so you can’t really see inside, affording a fairly high level of privacy to those in the vehicle.
One of the most interesting things about the Robovan is its super low ground clearance. It looked like it was floating mere inches off the ground when it pulled up at, We, Robot. According to Elon Musk, this super-low clearance is achieved by having an automatic load-levelling suspension that raises and lowers based on road conditions.
This means that the Robovan will be able to traverse obstacles such as speedbumps and potholes – and that this feature is likely to make its way to FSD sometime in the future. While FSD can already (mostly) correctly identify speedbumps, it cannot identify other obstacles on the road, such as debris or potholes. Having FSD be able to identify and avoid potholes to smoothen the ride would help to improve the comfort of the experience.
The Art-Deco aesthetic is back!
Not a Tesla App
Interior
The interior is quite spacious – it's able to seat up to 20 passengers in its maximum configuration. In a bus or passenger van format, the Robovan could easily be used to replace short-route buses or, with increased frequency – compete against a full-size 40-seat bus.
Tesla also intends for the Robovan to be used in a delivery capability, as it will be available to order in a format without any seating, which provides a fairly spacious interior for package handling on last-mile and local routes. It could conceivably be a competent competitor to large vans once FSD can reach a fully autonomous state.
Beyond that, Tesla also sees the Robovan being fitted for things such as Tesla Service, RVing, or any other use for vehicles with large interior spaces. There’s a lot of open space on the interior, so we’re looking forward to seeing what ideas people come up with. Maybe a mobile diner?
As per Elon, it is very easy to see out of the Robovan, as the dark windows seem to be one-way tints. Some interior videos, like the one below, also show just how much visibility is afforded to passengers. And those big glass doors? They slide open. It seems that the Robovan has the same set of doors on both sides, but all the pictures showing it off have it only opening on the street side (right side), with right-hand-drive here in North America.
Back to the passenger configuration – the interior showed off was in a clean and classic Tesla white, with lots of interior lighting and HVAC on the interior ceiling. There is a bench seat at either end of the cabin, and then a pair and single seat with an aisle dividing them. The configuration shown was symmetrical and only seated 14.
The van also features a large screen at either end of the cabin, which could be used for entertainment or route information. Tesla didn’t provide any detail on these displays, but they appear fairly large.
Beyond the delivery capacity, the Cybervan also has storage at the rear and front – both fascia plates slide upwards to expose additional storage room – essentially a bus-sized frunk and trunk.
The frunk, oddly enough, looks like it has far more capacity than the trunk in this case – with about 10 suitcases in the open frunk, while the open trunk only looks like it has capacity for 2 suitcases.
The frunk storage. Very spacious!
Not a Tesla App
The trunk storage. It seems oddly small.
Not a Tesla App
Release Date
There’s no date or pricing for the Robovan just yet. While it hails back to the 1950’s, it may be further out in the future than Tesla made it seem. Tesla didn’t share a price point or time frame for when the van would become available.
Oh, and Elon mentioned that it's called the ruh-BO-vahn. Like Suburban, but Robovan. We’d love to see what everyone thinks about its name. Let us know how you think it's pronounced.
Every Tesla has a frunk storage, and people use them for everything under the sun. But today, it's not about the sun but rather what’s under the pumpkin moon.
Let’s take a look at some of the best Frunk (or Trunk) or Treat ideas we’ve seen in previous years, and maybe they’ll be just what you need for a little inspiration.
Jaws
One of the easiest things to do is to turn your car into a shark with some nice and spikey teeth. Chrisheninger on Reddit dresses up his Tesla with Shark teeth every year and parks it out front for the trick-or-treaters! Take a look at the hero image above for a preview!
And it's pretty easy to do, too – you just need some white posterboard, tape, and a pair of scissors to get started. Fold the posterboard in half, then cut it into triangles of various sizes. Tape your triangles to the top and bottom of the frunk, and voila! Jaws!
For the bottom side, you can wedge the teeth into the gap between the body and the frunk, so you may not need tape there.
You can also get some clear cellophane tape and cover up the headlights to give them a nice orange or red glow.
Toothless
Jen's Toothless Tesla Dragon
jenstreet
This one is a bit of a bigger project. @jenstreet over on X posted an absolutely spectacular job of turning their Tesla into Toothless, from How to Train Your Dragon! We’re not going to get into how to do this – instead, Jen posted her own guide on how they did the project. Props to them for the very detailed instructions!
This is an absolutely spectacular way to showcase your creativity! You can read their guide here.
Model X Vampire Bat
A Vampire Bat Model X
Not a Tesla App
If you’re a creative Model X owner, you can turn your Model X into a vampire bat! All it takes is a few pieces of cardboard for the teeth, like with the Jaws decoration above. While in the example below, the enterprising user placed more teeth on the gullwing doors of the Model X, we recommend draping a few black sheets from the gullwing doors to complete the look, especially if you tear them up at the ends a bit.
Combine this with a well-thought-out Tesla Lightshow (more on this later), and you’ve got a seriously cool-looking vampiric Model X in your driveway.
Lightning McQueen
Not a Tesla App
Here’s a great and simple one if you have a red Tesla — Lightning McQueen. It can be as simple as buying a Lightning McQueen sunshade for less than $20 (Amazon link) and sticking it in your car. You can also go to the other extreme, like S.E. Robinson Jr., and get custom decals for your Tesla. Although there hasn’t been a new Cars movie since 2017, these movies are still insanely popular with young kids.
SERobinsonJr
Other Ideas
Not a Tesla App
You can always use the frunk in other unique ways too – there’s quite a bit of space in there. Put in a decorative gravestone or ghost or cover it up in decorative spider webbing. You can do pretty much whatever your heart desires with the frunk. You can even put in some battery-powered lighting and fog generator and give it an ominous glow.
If you’ve got an older Model S or Model X with a nosecone, there are some unique ideas you can use that for too – including short teeth with googly eyes on the hood. Less scary, but definitely still fun!
Boombox
Using the Boombox feature on your Tesla, combined with keeping it turned on through Camp Mode, will allow you to play all the creepy Halloween music you want to get the atmosphere just right. Maybe throw in a fog generator somewhere, and you’ll have one of the best Halloween attractions on the block!
p1ngz
Lightshow
You can use Tesla’s Lightshow functionality to take it a step further and sync the music and lights of your car – and if you’ve got a Model X – the gullwing doors too! That’ll really complete the entire Halloween ensemble.
Sadly, there is one catch with this one – you’ll need to keep re-enabling the Lightshow manually from inside the vehicle. Tesla has not yet released functionality for Lightshows to be played remotely from the Tesla app.
I wonder what we’re going to see for this year’s Frunk or Treat? Personally, I have a few things planned for this year, and this is also the first year we’ll see Cybertrucks participating. We’re excited to see what people do with the Cybertruck’s huge and automated frunk and unique shape.
Given the Cybertruck’s frunk also has 120V power in it, there are even more unique and interesting things one can do.
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