Tesla Cybertruck Disguised With F150 Wrap. Is Tesla Preparing To Offer Wraps for the Cybertruck?

The Cybertruck was found with yet another wrap, this time resembling a F150

John Anderson

In the ever-evolving saga of Tesla's Cybertruck, the Beast was spotted wearing a few different wraps over the weekend, including one disguised as a Ford F-150. While the Cybertruck's unique stainless steel design is awesome on its own, the wrap may play a bigger role when more of the same colored Cybertrucks are on the road. Is Tesla going to get into the vehicle wrapping business?

Tesla's Cybertruck, known for its one-of-a-kind, metallic, geometric exoskeleton, was initially introduced with just one base color. This led to speculation about the potential monotony of the design over time. However, the recent sightings of wrapped Cybertrucks have laid those doubts to rest, demonstrating the electric pickup's potential as a blank canvas for creativity.

The discovery of a Cybertruck wrap mimicking the iconic Ford F-150, down to faux door handles, has been interpreted as a cheeky nod or a nasty troll of the traditional pickup designs. The numerous other wraps sighted, from camo to multi-colored designs, promise an exciting range of possibilities for customization, allowing customers to make the vehicle truly their own.

Tesla's Wrapping Service in China: The Dawn of Customization

Interestingly, Tesla already operates a wrapping service in China, giving its vehicles a fresh look, to compensate for the limited range of paint options. Announced through their official customer service account on Weibo, the service, initially available in five cities, is set to expand further across the country. While the exact range of color options remains uncertain, the aftermarket industry offers a seemingly infinite array of wraps. It would be fascinating to see Tesla introduce vibrant, multi-colored wraps or intriguing patterns.

These developments, coupled with Elon Musk's earlier assertion that Cybertruck owners would be able to wrap their vehicles in "any color or pattern," suggest that Tesla could be gearing up to offer a similar service in North America. If true, this could revolutionize the vehicle customization landscape while ensuring Cybertruck's uniqueness in an expanding fleet of EVs.

Vehicle Customization: The Future of Tesla?

The Cybertruck has been founding sporting various wraps

@yannmasoch

Introducing a wrapping service could mitigate criticisms about the lack of color variety in Tesla vehicles. It would not only uphold Tesla's streamlining efforts for more efficient production and easier repairs, but also allow customers to personalize their Cybertrucks, adding a touch of individuality to each vehicle.

As Tesla edges closer to the production date of the Cybertruck, these developments hint at a thrilling era of customizable EVs, transforming each vehicle into a statement of personal style. Whether teasing competitors with playful disguises or revolutionizing vehicle customization, the Tesla Cybertruck is set to maintain its groundbreaking status in the automotive world.

Smaller Than Expected Frunk

This new image of the Cybertruck also gives us our best look yet into the Cybertruck's frunk.

It's hard to say for certain, but given what we see in this new photo, the Cybertruck may offer the smallest frunk of any Tesla. It may not be surprising given its smaller front end, but it's certainly going to be a disappointment to some. Ford's electric pickup, the F150 Lightning offers a massive frunk that rivals the trunk size of many vehicles.

However, future Cybertruck owners aren't buying this vehicle for its frunk size, and in fact, Musk recently announced some impressive dimensions for their future pickup, declaring it'll be the "first truck that we're aware of that will have four doors over a six-foot bed and will fit into a 20-foot garage."

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Musk Shares What to Expect in FSD v12.4 Next Week; Talks About Abilities of FSD v12.5 and v12.6

Less than two weeks since its last FSD update, Tesla is getting ready to release FSD v12.4, with CEO Elon Musk hinting at significant improvements. The current version, 12.3.6, introduced Autopark and High Fidelity Park Assist for vehicles equipped with ultrasonic sensors in the U.S. and Canada, along with minor fixes for FSD.

Just an hour ago, Musk shed some light on Tesla's next FSD update. Through his X account, Musk teased the imminent release of v12.4, stating, "Probably start rolling out 12.4 next week." Moreover, he provided insights into the development process and the features users can expect in the upcoming 12.4 version, as well as v12.5 and v12.6.

What to Expect in FSD v12.4

Musk says that FSD 12.4 has extensive retraining of AI models that particularly focuses on refining the comfort of passengers by addressing concerns around abrupt acceleration or braking. Musk previously commented on the next versions of FSD saying that FSD v12.4 and 12.5 would be major improvements, and while v12.4 may be a major step forward, it looks like its main focus will be on being more natural and smoother.

"Probably start rolling out 12.4 next week."

FSD v12.5 and v12.6 to Handle More Complex Scenarios

Looking ahead, Tesla is already laying the groundwork for future updates according to Musk. The CEO previously stated that Tesla is constantly working on FSD updates that are three to six months ahead of what’s in production, so they have a good idea of what the software will be able to handle in the future.

Today on X, Musk said that there's ongoing testing for FSD versions 12.5 and 12.6, which involves tackling complex scenarios. Musk says this includes navigating narrow, one-way roads and handling unexpected road closures, requiring the vehicle to reverse and find alternate routes. 

Actually Smart Summon in v12.5?

Tesla’s Autopilot lead, Ashok Elluswamy, previously talked about how FSD would gain the ability to go in reverse when Tesla is ready to release Actually Smart Summon. If the ability to reverse is still tied to some of the abilities of Actually Smart Summon, then, it’s possible we may see Tesla’s better summon implementation in version 12.5 or 12.6.

Vehicles to be Able to Communicate with Fleet

Musk also gives us some insight into vehicle communication, saying vehicles will need to be able to communicate with the fleet so that you "don't get a whole bunch of Teslas stuck down a road."

Instead of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, Tesla will likely have vehicles report back to the "mothership," where Tesla can aggregate data and report it to nearby vehicles. This is similar to how vehicles report traffic today, instead of talking directly to each other.

Spending on AI

Tesla's commitment to advancing its AI capabilities is evident through its substantial investments. Musk recently emphasized the company's dedication to spending around $10 billion throughout 2024 on training and inference AI. Musk said that any company that isn’t spending billions on AI this year just won’t be able to compete.

Expansion of FSD 

Tesla appears ready to start the expansion of FSD, and it looks like China may be up first. Musk's recent visit to Beijing to discuss a potential FSD rollout and data sharing shows that Tesla is ready and serious about FSD's expansion.

While FSD's rollout in China appears promising, Musk remains cautiously optimistic about expanding into other markets. He believes that FSD v12 is ready for supervised FSD in left-hand drive (LHD) countries, while right-hand drive (RHD) markets like the UK and Australia may require additional time.

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An In-Depth Look at Tesla's New Music Player in Update 2024.14 [Photos & Video]

One of the exciting new features of Tesla update 2024.14 is the improved media player for the Model 3 and Model Y.

Tesla's media player has gone through some drastic changes over the years, but this appears to be the best revision yet.

The previous media player had four states... yes, four. It made for a confusing experience, even for owners who used the car every day.

The four states included:

• The "default" state included a small player closest to the driver with some of the most used buttons

• The second state was the enlarged view when you dragged up on the media player that revealed additional buttons such as shuffle and search

• There was also its minimized state, which placed the music player’s icon in the dock and led to confusion

• And lastly, if you had a music service open fully on the right part of the screen AND minimized the media player, then the player would hop over to the top of the larger music panel on the right.

It created for an inconsistent experience and all of the players had their downsides. There just wasn’t a solution that worked all of the time. Thankfully the new music player addresses most of these issues.

Tesla used to have a media player that ran along the bottom of the right part of the screen

What’s New

The first thing Tesla did was reduce the number of states essentially down to two. You have a regular media player and a minimized player. You don't have to drag up on the player to access the shuffle or search functions and you can’t “lose” the player by minimizing it to the dock anymore.

One-Tap Access to Shuffle, Repeat and Search

What Tesla did was move all of the crucial media functions from the previous larger player directly to the main player. This now gives you one-tap access to functions like shuffle, repeat, search, playback speed, audio levels, and search.

Not only were these functions hard to access before, but they were hidden underneath the player, making discovery for new owners difficult.

Improved Progress Bar

The progress bar on the previous player was difficult to see since it was just a slim line at the bottom of the player.

The new player has a thicker progress bar that separates the top portion of the player, which houses the album art, song title, and a couple of functions, and the bottom portion, which contains more controls. Tesla also added a circle to the progress bar, making it more obvious you can not only scrub through the media but also lets you easily see your current spot.

Accessing More Functions

More music player options open to the right

Since the larger media player was removed, so was some of the functionality that it included. All the important items were moved to the main media player such as audio settings and search, however, the other functionality such as access to Favorites, Sources, Recent Songs, and Next, was moved to the larger music app.

If you tap on the new music player, it’ll open up the current music app on the right side that includes music controls, as well as access to your favorites, music sources, upcoming songs and more.

This is also the only way to view the elapsed and remaining times for the current selection, which is useful for longer median such as audiobooks or podcasts.

New Minimized Player

Although the music player doesn't minimize to the dock, it does feature a minimalist version that docks to the bottom of the screen.

When you slide down on the audio player, it'll be reduced to a simple "one-line" player. It simply shows a music icon, the name of the title being played, and an arrow showing you the player can be made larger. There is no longer a gray music icon that appears in the dock when the player is in its “minimized” state.

The new music player no longer minimizes to the dock

Modern UI

The player itself also looks more modern, it now features a translucent background, instead of a solid color like before. The new background lets vehicle animations subtly shine through, a lot like the effects used on modern operating systems.

What Models Will Support It

According to Tesla’s social media post on X, the ‘Visual updates’ in update 2024.14 are limited to AMD Ryzen-based Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, meaning only vehicles manufactured after about 2022+. The exact timeline depends on your vehicle and region, but you can check to see which processor your vehicle includes by navigating to Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Information.

New Player in Action [Video]

DominicBRNKMN shows off the new music player in action below.

Will We See Intel Atom Support?

The new music player isn’t doing anything crazy in this latest iteration. We believe we'll see this updated player come to Intel Atom vehicles eventually. The Cybertruck already includes the new media player, among the other design changes, so when Tesla said only for “Model 3/Y with AMD chip” on X, they likely meant in this specific update.

There's nothing that’s more computationally intensive about this new player except for maybe the translucent background, however, that’s already being done on Intel-based vehicles for some of the navigation modules. There isn’t anything new that the slower Intel processor couldn't handle.

It’s in Tesla’s best interest to keep a common interface between vehicles. Tesla wouldn't want to drastically change the way a common item like the "radio" works between different Model 3 and Model Y years if they didn't have to. That would complicate issues with service and documentation. Tesla wants owners to have the same UI as much as possible, so we there’s a good chance that we’ll see the new media player apply to Intel in the future.

Hopefully, in an upcoming update, Intel owners will receive this streamlined music player. Update 2024.14 is currently rolling out slowly to some vehicles. 

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