You can name your Tesla by navigating to the vehicle's Software menu
Not a Tesla App
In the realm of electric vehicles, Tesla has always stood apart, not just for its cutting-edge technology and exquisite design but also the personalization it offers owners. One of the most endearing ways Tesla has allowed owners to embrace their vehicles is by allowing them to name them.
Your Tesla can bear a name that resonates with your personality and style. This guide will walk you through the process of naming your Tesla, reveal some hidden Easter Eggs, and offer a cornucopia of popular and creative names to inspire you.
How to Change the Name of Your Tesla
Whether you're cruising in a Model Y, Model 3, X, or S, the process of naming your Tesla remains the same. To assign a name to your Tesla, you can either be in your vehicle or use the Tesla app on your phone.
Change the Name in the Car
Tap the Car icon on the bottom left and proceed to the 'Software' section.
This space holds all vital information about your Tesla, from the hardware it's equipped with to any subscriptions you may have, such as Premium Connectivity or Full Self-Driving, and the current software version your vehicle runs on.
Locate the image of your car; you'll find your exact model name on the left and a spot for your car's name on the right, highlighted in blue. If your car is yet unnamed, you'll see the default text, 'Name your vehicle.' Tap on this, and a screen to rename your car will appear. Voila! Your Tesla is ready for its new identity.
Change the Name in the App
If you prefer to update your vehicle's name using the Tesla app, you can simply tap your vehicle's name at the top of the app. A prompt will pop up, asking you to rename your Tesla.
Unlock Easter Eggs By Setting Your Car's Name
Now, here's an interesting twist. Tesla has hidden a few Easter eggs related to the car's name. As a tribute to Monty Python, name your car “Patsy", "Rabbit of Caerbannog", "Mr. Creosote", "Biggus Dickus," or "Unladen Swallow" and watch the magic unfold. Fans of Douglas Adams' science fiction comedy, 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' aren't left out either. Tesla has something special waiting for you too!
Popular and Creative Tesla Names
Around the globe, Tesla owners have been bestowing upon their vehicles names that are as unique as they are. Drawing from pop culture, puns, personal tastes, and even color themes, here are some popular choices, along with a few creative ideas:
Tributes to Greats: Elon or Musk, no explanation needed, Nikola the inventor, not the truck, Edison, Jarvis (Iron Man's AI assistant), Eevee (the Pokémon), Vader (Star Wars fans, unite!).
Electricity Inspired Names
Sparky, Wattson, Bolt, Ohm Sweet Ohm, Volta.
Color Inspired Names
Snowy for white Teslas, Raven for black ones, Cherry for red, Sapphire for blue, and Quicksilver for silver.
My Precious, Dream Rider, Freedom Machine, Serenity, Joyride.
The possibilities are truly endless. Let your imagination soar, and bestow upon your Tesla a name that mirrors your personality and style. Whether you're a movie buff, a science enthusiast, a lover of humor, or someone who appreciates the finer things in life, there's an ideal name for your Tesla. Let it reflect what you love, and let it speak volumes about who you are as you cruise down the streets in your one-of-a-kind, personally-named Tesla.
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Tesla has just released software update 2025.8 to employees for testing. This is the norm for Tesla, as they release software updates to their internal audience for testing before beginning a rollout to the public.
While we don’t know what’s in this update just yet, there are several features we know that are coming up and could be included.
Adaptive Headlight Support
Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, recently confirmed that the refreshed Model Y will receive adaptive headlights, as well as the matrix headlight functionality. In fact, it’ll be the first vehicle in Tesla’s line-up that will support matrix headlights in North America.
The feature just received approval in the United States recently and will be rolling out to all Tesla vehicles that have matrix headlights sometime soon. That includes support for the Cybertruck, and Model S, Model X, and Model 3 as well.
Grok Support
xAI recently launched the newest version of their smart assistant - Grok 3. That same smart assistant is eventually supposed to make its way over to Tesla vehicles, according to Elon Musk.
The new smart assistant is expected to provide quite a bit of new functionality when it comes to intelligently handling your voice commands, and it could be included in this upcoming update, although a Spring launch is more likely. Grok 3 just launched voice support last week.
Cybertruck Updates
Siddhant Awasthi, Tesla’s Cybertruck program manager, recently confirmed that a new set of suspension controls are on their way to the Cybertruck. As of now, you can only adjust the vehicle’s height in the vehicle.
We’re hoping this new feature allows access to vehicle height adjustments from the Tesla App, as well as unlocking some new vehicle drive heights in general.
One of the items that didn’t manage to make it into 2025.2 was the Cold Weather Fix for the Cybertruck. Certain Cybertrucks have issues reaching max charging speed due to not properly pre-conditioning in cold weather when plugged into an L2 charger, and some Cybertrucks are also seeing drastically reduced regen in those temperatures, too. Hopefully, this will also get tackled in update 2025.8.
In-Cabin Radar Support
Tesla has started to activate the in-cabin radar in older Model Y vehicles that have it equipped, but it has confirmed that other equipped models will eventually also receive support. The in-cabin radar replaces the front seat occupancy sensors and instead uses the radar to more accurately detect the presence of humans.
New navigation routing options were released for Chinese users in early January, which included new options such as Least Congestion, Prefer Highways, and Lowest Tolls. It also brought with it a new Service Area modal, which shows what amenities are available at various vehicle service areas on the highways.
We’re hoping to receive at least some of these features in North America and Europe sometime soon. We’ve been waiting for that Avoid Highways option for what seems like an eternity now.
Trailer Profiles for Model S, X, Y
Trailer Profiles launched with the Cybertruck, and are, for now, an exclusive feature. Hopefully, the ability to save trailer details will make its way to other tow-hitch-compatible vehicles. Trailer Profiles allow you to save information about your trailer, including type and braking settings - which can help more accurately estimate energy usage. In addition, it is an easy way to track trailer mileage.
Custom Vehicle Wraps for Models S, 3, X, Y
With the 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla gave the ability to wrap the Cybertruck in whatever style you wanted - in the vehicle visualization. Many people used it to match the actual wraps or decals they had on their vehicles. This functionality also covered license plates - including custom styles, numbering, and lettering.
Tesla later confirmed these wrap and license visualizations would eventually roll their way out to the rest of the fleet, so we’re expecting them to either in 2025.8 or shortly after.
Sentry Mode Efficiency Update
Back in November 2024, Tesla made some significant improvements to the Cybertruck’s Sentry Mode. They achieved an almost 40% reduction in the overall energy usage of Sentry Mode by making better use of the onboard vehicle compute.
These updates should soon roll out to the rest of the fleet, greatly improving Sentry Mode efficiency.
Release Date
In general, Tesla takes between one to two weeks to release an update to customers after sending it to wave 1 employees. That timeline isn’t firm - so sometimes it could take five days, and sometimes it could take the full two weeks, but the clock is ticking for this one now. We should have the full release notes in the next week or two and then our first look at some of the new features in the following days.
We previously dived into how FSD works based on Tesla’s patents back in November, and Tesla has recently filed for additional patents regarding its training of FSD.
This particular patent is titled “Predicting Three-Dimensional Features for Autonomous Driving” - and it’s all about using Tesla Vision to establish a ground truth - which enables the rest of FSD to make decisions and navigate through the environment.
This patent essentially explains how FSD can generate a model of the environment around it and then analyze that information to create predictions.
Time Series
Creating a sequence of data over time - a Time Series - is the basis for how FSD understands the environment. Tesla Vision, in combination with the internal vehicle sensors (for speed, acceleration, position, etc.,) establishes data points over time. These data points come together to create the time series.
By analyzing that time series, the system establishes a “ground truth” - a highly accurate and precise representation of the road, its features, and what is around the vehicle. For example, FSD may observe a lane line from multiple angles and distances as the vehicle moves through time, allowing it to determine the line’s precise 3D shape in the world. This system helps FSD to maintain a coherent truth as it moves forward - and allows it to establish the location of things in space around it, even if they were initially hidden or unclear.
Author’s Note
Interestingly, Tesla’s patent actually mentions the use of sensors other than Tesla Vision. It goes on to mention radar, LiDAR, and ultrasonic sensors. While Tesla doesn’t use radar (despite HD radars being on the current Model S and Model X) or ultrasonic sensors anymore, it does use LiDAR for training.
However, this LIDAR use is for establishing accurate sensor data for FSD - for training purposes. No Tesla vehicle is actually shipped with any LiDAR sensors. You can read about Tesla’s use for its LIDAR training rigs here.
Associating the Ground Truth
Once the ground truth is established, it is linked to specific points in time within the time series - usually a single image or the amalgamation of a set of images. This association is critical - it allows the system to predict the complete 3D structure of the environment from just that single snapshot. In addition, they also serve as a learning tool to help FSD understand the environment around it.
Imagine FSD has figured out the exact curve of a lane line using data from the time series. Next, it connects this knowledge to the particular image in the sequence where the lane line was visible. Next, it applies what it has learned - the exact curve, and the image sequence and data - to predict the 3D shape of the line going forward - even if it may not know for sure what the line may look like in the future.
Author’s Note
This isn’t part of the patent, but when you combine that predictive knowledge with precise and effective map data, that means that FSD can better understand the lay of the road and plan its maneuvers ahead of time. We do know that FSD takes into account mapping information. However, live road information from the ground truth is taken as the priority - mapping is just context, after all.
That is why when roads are incorrectly mapped, such as the installation of a roundabout in a location where a 4-way stop previously existed, FSD is still capable of traversing the intersection.
Three Dimensional Features
Representing features that the system picks up in 3D is essential, too. This means that the lane lines, to continue our previous example, must move up and down, left and right, and through time. This 3D understanding is vital for accurate navigation and path planning, especially on roads with curves, hills, or any varying terrain.
Automated Training Data Generation
One of the major advantages of this entire 3D system is that it generates training data automatically. As the vehicle drives, it collects sensor data and creates time series associated with ground truths.
Tesla does exactly this when it uploads data from your vehicle and analyzes it with its supercomputers. The machine learning model uses all the information it gets to better improve its prediction capabilities. This is now becoming a more automated process, as Tesla is moving away from the need to manually label data and is instead automatically labeling data with AI.
Semantic Labelling
The patent also discusses the use of semantic labeling - a topic covered in our AI Labelling Patent. However, a quick nitty-gritty is that Tesla labels lane lines as “left lane” or “right lane,” depending on the 3D environment that is generated through the time series.
On top of that, vehicles and other objects can also be labelled, such as “merging” or “cutting in.” All of these automatically applied labels help FSD to prioritize how it will analyze information and what it expects the environment around it to do.
How and When Tesla Uploads Data
Tesla’s data upload isn’t just everything they may catch - even though they did draw an absolutely astounding 1.28 TB from the author’s Cybertruck once it received FSD V13.2.2. It is based on transmitting selective sensor information based on triggers. These triggers can include incorrect predictions, user interventions, or failures to correctly conduct path planning.
Tesla can also request all data from certain vehicles based on the vehicle type and the location - hence the request for the absurd 1.28 TB coming from one of the first Canadian Cybertrucks. This allows Tesla to collect data from specific driving scenarios - which it needs to help build better models that are more adaptable to more circumstances while also keeping data collection focused, thereby making training more efficient.
How It Works
To wrap that all up, the model applies predictions to better navigate through the environment. It uses data collected through time and then encapsulated in a 3D environment around the vehicle. Using that 3D environment, Tesla’s FSD formulates predictions on what the environment ahead of it will look like.
This process provides a good portion of the context that is needed for FSD to actually make decisions. But there are quite a few more layers to the onion that is FSD.
Adding in Other Layers
The rest of the decision-making process lies in understanding moving and static objects on the road, as well as identifying and reducing risk to vulnerable road users. Tesla’s 3D mapping also identifies and predicts the pathing of other moving objects, which enables it to conduct its path planning. While this isn’t part of this particular patent per-say, it is still an essential element to the entire system.
If all that technical information is interesting to you, we recommend you check out the rest of our series on Tesla’s patents:
We’ll continue to dive deep into Tesla’s patents, as they provide a unique and interesting source to explain how FSD actually works behind the curtains. It’s an excellent chance to get a peek behind the silicon brains that make the decisions in your car, as well as a chance to see how Tesla’s engineers actually structure FSD.
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