In a move that’s sure to excite those with larger families, Tesla has started teasing the return of the seven-seat configuration for the Model Y. In a new marketing email sent out to customers recently, Tesla explicitly highlights the vehicle’s spaciousness.
“Ready for anything with long range, seating for up to seven, and enough room for everyone’s gear.”
The seven-seat Model Y was initially offered in late 2021, but it hasn’t been available since Spring 2023. The return of the new variant will be an addition that many have been waiting for, as the next vehicle with that much passenger space in the line-up is the Model X, starting at almost double the price.
First-Gen Model Y Third Row
The original seven-seat Model Y was extremely popular in the Asia-Pacific and European markets, and it still sold fairly well in North America despite differences in preferred vehicle sizing and spaciousness. It offers additional seats for larger families with young children, but space in the third row is minimal.
The seven-seat variant makes the Model Y more competitive against other three-row SUVs on the market. The video below features the seven-seater, first-generation Model Y.
Power Reclining Third Row?
The refreshed Model Y was launched with power-reclining second-row seats, a huge plus for practicality and ease of use. The power-reclining second-row seats are extremely popular with families and are very helpful, as you can control them from the front screen rather than needing to open the rear doors.
Tesla is likely to integrate power-reclining seats into the third row and potentially keep them for the second row as well. With the second row sliding forward and backward for easy entry, as well as allowing the second and third rows to fold flat for additional cargo room when needed.
Launch Date and Price
Tesla’s tease of the seven-seat variant is likely just the start. With recent sightings of the Model Y Performance variant hitting the Nürburgring, it seems Tesla has a lot in store for this summer. If you’ve been waiting for the seven-seat variant, it seems like it’ll be just a few short months away at this rate.
While we haven’t seen any production samples or other details regarding dates yet, Tesla previously priced the seven-seat option at an additional $2,000 USD ($3,000 CAD). The seven-seat option will likely only be available on the Long Range AWD and Long Range RWD variants, not the Performance model, similar to the first-generation Model Y.
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In Elon’s flurry of posts on X about FSD yesterday, he also revealed the date that another moment of peak science fiction would be occurring — June 28th. Tesla expects to conduct the first-ever self-delivery, where a brand-new Model Y will depart from the production line and arrive directly at its new owner’s home without any human intervention.
Imagine ordering a vehicle, and a few days later, rather than needing to pick it up, it simply arrives in your driveway and notifies you via an app that it has arrived. That’s no longer the talk of science fiction; it is quite literally something that is likely to happen this month.
Expect a Model Y Delivery in Austin
Considering everything Tesla has done so far, we’re fairly certain that the first self-delivered vehicle will be a Model Y in Austin, in the same geo-fenced area where Tesla’s Robotaxi will operate. FSD is highly optimized for the Model Y, and it’ll take some time for those optimizations to trickle down to the rest of the fleet. It’s not clear if FSD performs better on the Model Y because it’s the most popular vehicle and, therefore, Tesla has the most data for it or if Tesla explicitly chose to focus more on their most popular vehicle.
Tentatively, June 22.
We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift.
First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28.
While a car driving itself is something truly different from what other manufacturers offer, there are also numerous strategic advantages for Tesla to do so. This includes drastically reducing last-mile delivery costs by minimizing the need for car carriers, delivery drivers, and even delivery personnel at your local Tesla center. For customers, it could mean a faster, more flexible delivery method - and one absolutely unforgettable welcome to Tesla ownership.
We recently took a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of vehicles delivering themselves to customers. While it’s all positive for Tesla, there are some potentially negative sides to it as well.
A Futuristic Glimpse
When you step back and look at it, Self-Delivery is a logical extension of Unsupervised FSD and the Robotaxi network in general. Self-deliveries are expected to run on the same software stack that powers the Model Ys currently roaming Austin’s streets autonomously, which means there is little for Tesla to do other than enable specific instructions for self-delivery during the final vehicle configuration steps.
Given Elon’s note that the dates could shift, this could easily be moved to early July; however, either way, it seems like we’re just weeks away from this monumental event, which will further reduce the cost of Tesla vehicles.
Musk shared details on two distinct new versions of FSD that are currently in development - one of which is coming soon and another that promises another leap in FSD’s abilities.
It’s a new version of software, but will merge to main branch soon.
We have a more advanced model in alpha stage that has ~4X the params, but still requires a lot of polishing.
While the Robotaxis running around Austin are identical to new customer vehicles, they’re not running the same FSD build on customer vehicles. These Robotaxi Model Ys are running a newer FSD build.
While the exact version of FSD is unknown, Musk said that it’ll be released to customers soon. However, more interestingly, he also shared details on a newer version that’s coming next.
Musk said that this version will also arrive to customers later this year. This 4.5 times model appears to be in a relatively early alpha stage. This jump in parameters is even larger than the “3X increase” that’s detailed in the Upcoming Improvements of the FSD V13 changelog. Other improvements listed in the FSD v13 changelog were a 3x context length improvement, audio inputs, improvements to reward predictions and false braking, and support for destination options when arriving at the destinations. However, it’s not clear whether any of these others are included.
It’s a new version of software, but will merge to main branch soon.
We have a more advanced model in alpha stage that has ~4X the params, but still requires a lot of polishing.
The increase in parameters allows FSD to understand the world with greater nuance, which in turn means smoother and more human-like decision-making and path planning. It also means FSD will become more capable of handling edge cases or inclement weather, a stressor noted by Tesla’s Executive team during the Q1 2025 Earnings Call.
Increasing the context length allows the vehicle to consider a longer history when making decisions. Context length and responsiveness are closely linked: a shorter context length enables quicker reactions, while a longer context length provides more informed decisions but introduces latency. The context length in terms of FSD is measured in seconds, where the vehicle uses just the past few seconds of video data to make a decision.
Retraining FSD
~4.5X increase in params should be ready for wide release later this year.
Super frugal use of memory bandwidth, caching exactly what is needed & squeezing microseconds out of everything are needed to maintain the frame rate.
A more powerful AI model requires more computational power, and Elon provided some more insights into what exactly that means for the Tesla AI team. Frugally using memory bandwidth and squeezing every last drop of performance from AI4’s hardware is necessary to maintain its ability to keep up with the environment around it.
Musk says that this new, larger FSD version will require Tesla to retrain FSD from the ground up. Tesla is already planning on expanding its compute nodes with a second Cortex Supercomputer cluster. It takes an astronomical amount of data, time, and energy to train FSD, and with a major update on the horizon, it seems like Tesla has been putting the lion’s share of compute into this new build.
FSD Timeline
Musk laid out a relatively rough timeline for these new FSD improvements. Remember, with all things Elon, two weeks could very well be two months.
Soon: The current, tried and tested build that’s running on Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet in Austin will be merged into the main public FSD (Supervised) build. This build will be the next major build for customers. This could be FSD V13.3. It’ll be a step up, but not as large as the next version.
Late 2025: The new 4.5X parameter model is slated for a wider release several months from now. We’ll tentatively call this FSD V14 - because it sounds like an entirely new version being built from the ground up.
This is a much-needed update from Elon and Tesla on where FSD is headed and when. It’s been more than eight months since the last Autonomy Roadmap in October 2024, even if these updates are encoded in “Elon Time.”
The streets will change very rapidly.
Autonomous cars will be very common throughout the world in 2 to 3 years.
Elon also touched on the ultimate goals and the long-term business plan for FSD. With FSD already being considerably safer than the average human driver, alongside its superhuman reflexes and precision, Tesla will be well-positioned to license FSD.
Tesla AI/Autopilot could probably beat the best human around a track already.
Eventually, it really won’t be a contest at all. Human reflexes cannot match machines.
As FSD and the Robotaxi network become widespread and other autonomy solutions fail to materialize in a financially prudent fashion, other companies will naturally turn to Tesla for autonomy.
It’s Tesla’s golden moment to do all it can to implement the dream that it’s been striving for for over a decade.
With a new FSD version on its way to customers and a fully rebuilt version on the horizon, there’s a lot for everyone to look forward to.
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