Tesla’s FSD continues to expand and learn, and V13 won’t be any slouch on this. V12 implemented end-to-end AI, and V13 brings a host of new features to help it reach feature completeness.
Today, FSD relies almost entirely upon visual data acquired from the vehicle’s cameras. Of course, it does pull information from other sensors, but the primary input is vision. While Tesla previously used radar in its vehicles and still ships the Models S and X with deactivated HD Radars, it relies on vision to guide its decision-making.
But that’s all changing—a revised version of V13 will bring audio-based decision-making to FSD for the first time. FSD is famously designed to work like a human driver—it relies on vision—but now it’ll also begin relying upon audio—both as an input… and an output.
We touched upon these items in our article on FSD V13, but it's time to really dig into them.
Listening for Emergency Vehicles
@steveshap.bsky.social
FSD will soon be able to detect emergency vehicles by analyzing the sounds it hears. Interestingly, this will be done through the internal microphone—the same one used for voice commands. That’s because sirens are loud—loud enough for humans (and microphones) to hear them inside a moving car.
This will enable FSD to identify the distinct sounds of an approaching siren - helping to ensure that FSD detects emergency vehicles earlier and takes the correct maneuvers to move out of the way and safely pull over.
In addition, by analyzing the actual sound of the incoming siren, FSD should also be able to make a reasonable determination about whether the siren is approaching or just echoing off the city streets using the Doppler effect and some fairly simple math.
With the release of FSD V13.2 to early access testers and now FSD 12.5.6.4, Tesla has added a new item to the release notes that lets drivers opt-in to sharing audio data. For users who opt-in to sharing this data, Tesla will now receive 10-second audio clips in certain situations. Tesla will listen for certain sounds and then send this data back to Tesla for further analysis. This will help them improve certain sound detections.
In the release notes, Tesla specifically mentions detecting emergency vehicles by sound, but it seems that it will also be used for other things, such as listening for other vehicles honking or potentially someone yelling at the vehicle. These additional capabilities will help FSD navigate a world made for humans, which couldn’t be done with vision alone.
FSD Will Honk
So we’ve covered inputs… what about outputs? Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, mentioned that FSD will gain the ability to honk. That means FSD will be able to provide an audio cue to other vehicles - just like a real, human driver would. Whether that’s someone cutting FSD off, or someone dozing off at a traffic light, FSD gaining the ability to honk will be extremely valuable - it’s the first ability FSD will have to communicate with the outside world and with other drivers.
Humans have developed different types of honks, such as short, friendly taps of the horn or louder, longer horn presses for emergency situations. It’ll be interesting to see if Tesla also implements different types of honks as well.
This is one of the key steps to humanizing FSD - one of the final puzzle pieces. This is expected to be the final set of inputs necessary for FSD to be able to drive like a human, and it’s exciting to see Tesla get so close with just vision.
FSD will soon be able to see, hear, and honk. Let’s just hope Tesla’s initial implementation for honking is better than Waymo’s (video below of Waymo vehicles honking repeatedly at 4 am).
Imagine being woken up at 4 a.m. by cars honking at each other. That's what some San Francisco residents have been dealing with for weeks, as the Waymos can be heard in this video honking and blinking headlights in a parking lot outside of their condo. https://t.co/2cVmDfUk4ipic.twitter.com/pkxNTT5vXd
Tesla signaled its intention to launch its first Robotaxi network in Austin, Texas, with company-owned and operated vehicles, back in January. This network will be Tesla’s first foray into truly autonomous vehicles - ones that aren’t being directly supervised by a driver. Later in February, Tesla’s executive team confirmed that the plans were on track for the launch of the Austin network both on X and during several interviews that they participated in.
At the end of February, we also found out that Tesla has applied for a Supervised Robotaxi license in California, where the network will also launch, but with safety drivers in place.
This is an ambitious plan, but FSD has really come a long way in the past year. FSD V12 was a massive step forward from V11, and V13 has made the experience smoother and safer than ever before. FSD V14 is expected to be another big step up with auto-regressive transformers and audio input.
Still on Track
Now, Elon has tripled down on the fact that Tesla will be launching their first autonomous robotaxi network in Austin - just two months away at this point. It seems that Tesla is fully set to launch their first fully unsupervised self-driving vehicles that will carry paying passengers in June.
Additional Cities
The best part is that Elon also confirmed that they’re targeting robotaxi networks launching in many cities within the United States by the end of this year. However, remember that this will be a Tesla-run network at first - Tesla owners won’t be able to add their vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet right away.
Adding Customer Vehicles
It will take some time before Tesla meets their strict internal safety requirements before it lets customers add their own vehicles to the network. Tesla’s executive team mentioned that they intend to let owners add their own vehicles to the fleet sometime in 2026. This happens to be the same time frame that Tesla plans to launch the Robotaxi across the United States, Mexico, and Canada — something that could only be done with customer-owned cars.
That final step will be bold—and it may come with complications, especially given that autonomous vehicle approval spans municipal, state or provincial, and even federal levels. There are plenty of regulatory hurdles ahead, but this is undoubtedly shaping up to be one of the most exciting times for Tesla.
Launch Event
With the Robotaxi network launching and Unsupervised FSD just around the corner, there’s a lot to get excited about. Tesla is expected to host a launch event at Gigafactory Texas in Austin to mark the debut of its first Robotaxi network. The company previously hinted that referral code users could receive invites—offering a rare chance to score an early ride in a Robotaxi outside the Hollywood studio lot.
Tesla’s engineering mule vehicles—used to test autonomy for future platforms—have resurfaced after an extended absence. The last time we saw them was back in July, when Tesla was gearing up for its initial We, Robot event. Since then, sightings have been scarce.
These vehicles typically signal that Tesla is testing new camera placements or validating FSD ground-truth data. This time, however, they appear to be outfitted exclusively with the updated camera hardware seen on the Cybercab.
New Sightings
The mules have now been spotted in Boston, Massachusetts, and Concord, New Hampshire—their first known appearances this far east. This suggests Tesla is actively collecting data to evaluate and optimize FSD performance in new regions. Thanks to Reddit user Ready_Medium_6693 for catching the one in Concord.
Elon Musk recently mentioned that Tesla plans to expand Robotaxi networks beyond the initial Texas and California launches. So while these sightings aren’t entirely unexpected, the speed of their arrival is. It suggests Tesla is confident in its ability to train FSD for local traffic rules and driving behaviors to the point it no longer needs a driver.
Bumper Cameras
The vehicle that’s been spotted in Boston is the usual Tesla engineering Model 3… except with one unique twist. It includes a front bumper camera. Shout out to @Dylan02939106 for catching the bumper camera in these photos.
The Refreshed Model 3 Mule with a Bumper Camera!
@Dylan02939106 on X
We previously released an opinion piece regarding whether the front bumper camera would be required for Unsupervised FSD. In our eyes, Tesla will require a bumper camera for Unsupervised FSD - if only to improve direct visibility in the bumper area of the vehicle. This is key for low-speed maneuvering in crowded areas like parking lots and garages, as well as for key features like Actually Smart Summon.
It isn’t surprising that Tesla is continuing to evaluate vehicles with a bumper camera - the Cybertruck, Cybercab, and Refreshed Model Y all have them now - and the rest of the lineup, including the flagship Model S and X, as well as the refreshed Model 3 - were supposed to eventually receive them as well.
With the Model S and Model X set for refreshes this year—and the front bumper camera on this Model 3 looking well-integrated rather than a temporary setup—it seems likely that front bumper cameras will soon become standard across Tesla’s entire lineup.
The Robotaxi Mule in Boston
@Dylan02939106 on X
In fact, Tesla’s newest iteration of the FSD computer has a slot for the Bumper Camera on all AI4/HW4 vehicles, so a future retrofit could even be possible.
These are some pretty exciting times - we may see Robotaxi networks actually deploy in time for Tesla’s lofty goal of “sometime in 2026” for cities throughout North America. Once many American cities begin to accept their deployment, it will be easier to seek homologation in Mexico and Canada, enabling deployment throughout the continent.
