The Cybertruck is not just about power; it's also about a unique user experience. The app update provided a glimpse into the Cybertruck's distinct user interface, showcasing a design divergence from Tesla's other models. This UI image, extracted from the app, shows a fresh approach, keeping in line with the vehicle's futuristic appeal.
Earlier, we discovered the infotainment screen displayed the Cyber Owl while Sentry Mode is activated. Its red eyes glow, offering a unique and cool appearance.
However, with this new image, the Cybertruck UI reveals several things. This UI is radically different from what we see in other 'single-screen' models, like the Model Y.
Visualization & Map
The most obvious change in this 'Parked' screen is that the vehicle is now predominately displayed in the center of the expected 18.5" screen. The navigation map is much smaller, and instead of taking up the right two-thirds of the screen, a portion of it is subtly displayed on the top right corner. However, once the vehicle moves out of park, the map area would likely enlarge to take up the majority of the screen.
App Icons
The familiar app icons along the bottom have been aligned vertically and moved to the left side of the screen. They're also displayed on the right side, for passenger use. In the image we see the same icons displayed on the left and right sides of the screen, but Tesla has talked about passenger preferences in the past, so it wouldn't be unrealistic if Tesla offered a customized version of apps for the passenger.
Looking closer at the app icons, it's not conclusive what they are, but they appear to be the usual suspects, including Apple Music, the Energy app, Camera app, the All Apps icon, which is followed by the most recent app, the phone.
After the apps, there are temperature controls, seat heaters and the familiar Controls or settings icon in the bottom left corner. The seat heater icon is activated on the passenger side, however the Cybertruck is expected to include ventilated seats as well.
On the bottom right corner we have the air bag icon, which indicates whether the passenger airbag is enabled.
The top right corner has the passenger volume control, as well as what looks too be a new icon, possibly to shift or swap the display layout, bringing certain elements closer to the passenger, much like the Model S.
Display Size & Ratio
While its expected that the Cybertruck will include a 18.5" screen, the largest display of any Tesla, not much else is known
With this new image, we can conclude that the display will be 16:9, like the Model Y's. On both the Model S and Model Y, Tesla includes displays with about 150 pixels per inch, so we can expect something similar in the Cybertruck.
If Tesla ends up going with a 18.5" screen at 150 PPI, we may see a display with a resolution of about 2420x1360.
Status Icons
The status icons, such as battery, time and temperature are displayed at the top, aligned toward the driver. While other status icons, such as WiFi are aligned center. In the image we can see the lock icon, what appears to be the driver profile icon, alerts, WiFi, Sentry Mode, but the last two icons are harder to make out, and they could be Cybertruck specific features.
3D Terrain
As we've seen in several other images, the Cybertruck 3D model appears to be displayed in a 3D environment. There have been hints that Tesla is looking to show 3D terrain in the driving visualizations, and this could be our first glimpse at this integration.
V12 Software Update
The Cybertruck is truly a unique vehicle and the UI appears to be just as unique. Tesla has introduced major UI updates in the past, with v11, not to be confused with FSD Beta v11, was introduced last holiday season. It's possible that some of these UI elements will carry over to other vehicles, in particular the status icons, the parked view and more.
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With Tesla’s first major expansion of the Robotaxi Geofence now complete and operational, they’ve been hard at work with validation in new locations - and some are quite the drive from the current Austin Geofence.
Validation fleet vehicles have been spotted operating in a wider perimeter around the city, from rural roads in the west end to the more complex area closer to the airport. Tesla mentioned during their earnings call that the Robotaxi has already completed 7,000 miles in Austin, and it will expand its area of operation to roughly 10 times what it is now. This lines up with the validation vehicles we’ve been tracking around Austin.
Based on the spread of the new sightings, the potential next geofence could cover a staggering 450 square miles - a tenfold increase from the current service area of roughly 42 square miles. You can check this out in our map below with the sightings we’re tracking.
If Tesla decides to expand into these new areas, it would represent a tenfold increase over their current geofence, matching Tesla’s statement. The new area would cover approximately 10% of the 4,500-square-mile Austin metropolitan area. If Tesla can offer Robotaxi services in that entire area, it would prove they can tackle just about any city in the United States.
From Urban Core to Rural Roads
The locations of the validation vehicles show a clear intent to move beyond the initial urban and suburban core and prepare the Robotaxi service for a much wider range of uses.
In the west, validation fleet vehicles have been spotted as far as Marble Falls - a much more rural environment that features different road types, higher speed limits, and potentially different challenges.
In the south, Tesla has been expanding towards Kyle, which is part of the growing Austin-San Antonio suburban corridor spanning Highway 35. San Antonio is only 80 miles (roughly a 90-minute drive) away, and could easily become part of the existing Robotaxi area if Tesla obtains regulatory approval there.
In the East, we haven’t spotted any new validation vehicles. This is likely because Tesla’s validation vehicles originate from Giga Texas, which is located East of Austin. We won’t really know if Tesla is expanding in this direction until they start pushing past Giga Texas and toward Houston.
Finally, there have been some validation vehicles spotted just North of the new expanded boundaries, meaning that Tesla isn’t done in that direction either. This direction consists of the largest suburban areas of Austin, which have so far not been serviced by any form of autonomous vehicle.
Rapid Scaling
This new, widespread validation effort confirms what we already know. Tesla is pushing for an intensive period of public data gathering and system testing in a new area, right before conducting geofence expansions. The sheer scale of this new validation zone tells us that Tesla isn’t taking this slowly - the next step is going to be a great leap instead, and they essentially confirmed this during this Q&A session on the recent call. The goal is clearly to bring the entire Austin Metropolitan area into the Robotaxi Network.
While the previous expansion showed off just how Tesla can scale the network, this new phase of validation testing is a demonstration of just how fast they can validate and expand their network. The move to validate across rural, suburban, and urban areas simultaneously shows their confidence in these new Robotaxi FSD builds.
Eventually, all these improvements from Robotaxi will make their way to customer FSD builds sometime in Q3 2025, so there is a lot to look forward to.
For years, the progress of Tesla’s FSD has been measured by smoother turns, better lane centering, and more confident unprotected left turns. But as the system matures, a new, more subtle form of intelligence is emerging - one that shifts its attention to the human nuances of navigating roads. A new video posted to X shows the most recent FSD build, V13.2.9, demonstrating this in a remarkable real-world scenario.
Toll Booth Magic
In the video, a Model Y running FSD pulls up to a toll booth and smoothly comes to a stop, allowing the driver to handle payment. The car waits patiently as the driver interacts with the attendant. Then, at the precise moment the toll booth operator finishes the transaction and says “Have a great day”, the vehicle starts moving, proceeding through the booth - all without any input from the driver.
If you notice, there’s no gate here at this toll booth. This interaction all happened naturally with FSD.
While the timing was perfect, the FSD wasn’t listening to the conversation for clues (maybe one day, with Grok?) The reality, as explained by Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, is even more impressive.
It can see the transaction happening using the repeater & pillar cameras. Hence FSD proceeds on its own when the transaction is complete 😎
FSD is simply using the cameras on the side of the vehicle to watch the exchange between the driver and attendant. The neural network has been trained on enough data that it can visually recognize the conclusion of a transaction - the exchange of money or a card and the hands pulling away - and understands that this is the trigger to proceed.
The Bigger Picture
This capability is far more significant than just a simple party trick. FSD is gaining the ability to perceive and navigate a world built for humans in the most human-like fashion possible.
If FSD can learn what a completed toll transaction looks like, it’s an example of the countless other complex scenarios it’ll be able to handle in the future. This same visual understanding could be applied to navigating a fast-food drive-thru, interacting with a parking garage attendant, passing through a security checkpoint, or boarding a ferry or vehicle train — all things we thought that would come much later.
These human-focused interactions will eventually become even more useful, as FSD becomes ever more confident in responding to humans on the road, like when a police officer tells a vehicle to go a certain direction, or a construction worker flags you through a site. These are real-world events that happen every day, and it isn’t surprising to see FSD picking up on the subtleties and nuances of human interaction.
This isn’t a pre-programmed feature for a specific toll booth. It is an emergent capability of the end-to-end AI neural nets. By learning from millions of videos across billions of miles, FSD is beginning to build a true contextual understanding of the world. The best part - with a 10x context increase on its way, this understanding will grow rapidly and become far more powerful.
These small, subtle moments of intelligence are the necessary steps to a truly robust autonomous system that can handle the messy, unpredictable nature of human society.
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