After announcing the Long Range RWD Cybertruck for Saudi Arabia, Tesla left everyone speculating when the new RWD variant would launch in North America.
After just a day since launching in Saudi Arabia, Tesla has officially launched the Rear-Wheel Drive variant of the Cybertruck in the U.S.
The RWD variant is a toned-down and simplified version aimed at a lower price than the AWD, sacrificing several key features for affordability.
Let’s take a look at what’s been cut and what’s changed between the trim variants.
Feature Cut
The updated specs for the RWD variant now provide 350 miles of range, with up to 362 with the new optional soft tonneau cover - more on that later. The 0-60mph acceleration is 6.2s, which is acceptable but not the fastest Tesla on the block. Tesla has also removed the adaptive air suspension - meaning this is the first Cybertruck on a coil suspension. This has also impacted the overall payload capacity, dropping it to 2,007 lbs (from 2,500 lbs on the AWD).
With a reduced tow capacity of 7,500 lbs (down from 11,000 lbs on the AWD), we expect that this will be a deal-breaker or deal-maker for many, as it can tow double of what the Class II hitch on the Model X and Model Y can - but not enough to tow big trailers.
While this a single-motor vehicle, there is still a diff-locker available for off-roading. We expect a limited variant of Off-Road Mode to be available on this Cybertruck.
Interior Differences
On the inside, Tesla has definitely trimmed to meet the new price point. The rear screen has been removed, and the seats are now cloth textile. With the loss of the leather, the seats are also no longer ventilated - but the front seats are still heated. They’ve also cut down on the sound system - from 15 speakers to just 7, including a subwoofer, on this trim. That also cuts out the active noise cancellation.
The HEPA filter and Bio-Weapon Defense mode have also been removed, along with the two 120V outlets inside the cabin.
Truck Bed
The bed of the truck also sees some differences, with the biggest being the removal of the bed outlets - and, oddly enough, they’re not an option, either. This is a big loss - Tesla should have at least kept them as an optional add-on because they’re one of the best use cases of the Cybertruck. However, this truck still supports Powershare, and the new Powershare Outlet Adapter is launching alongside it.
Tesla has also removed the bed’s L-Track and LED lightbars in favor of simpler LED lamps on either side.
Finally, on the exterior, the Cybertruck RWD has lost its rear lightbar, keeping only the turn signal lights and a center brake light. Tesla has also removed the signature lights on the front of the truck - there are standard headlights there instead.
No more rear lightbar. We're not sure how this will look on the roads just yet!
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Available Options
The new standard wheels are 18”, but the tires make up for the remainder to keep the same 35” total size. 20” Cyber Wheels and covers are available for $3,500. Interestingly, Tesla is honoring the discounted FSD early-reservation holder price of just $7,000. If you’re not a reservation holder, FSD will be an additional $8,000.
The new 18
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The Cybertruck Long Range RWD isn’t shipping with a tonneau cover. Instead, it will be available on the Tesla Shop (or during the ordering process) for $750 as a soft cover, which offers up to a 12-mile improvement in range. The soft cover is manual and water resistant.
The Soft Tonneau in all its glory.
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Pricing & Availability
Tesla has cut out major features of the Cybertruck to be able to offer it at a lower price. However, the price is not as low as many would have liked to see. The RWD Long Range version will sell for $69,990 ($62,490 after the Federal EV Rebate). While there are a lot of removed features for just a $10k price reduction, the truck can still be a good option for those looking to adventure or do light towing. The one bright spot for the RWD variant is the improved range thanks to the truck being lighter.
This variant will begin shipping in the United States in June/July 2025, and we expect it to become available in Canada and Mexico in the coming weeks or months as well.
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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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