Could Tesla be upgrading the repeater camera with a wider angle?
Cyber Owners/YouTube
Tesla continues to roll out Full Self Driving and has also increased the cost of FSD. The system is logging millions of miles and constantly improving as Elon Musk continues his quest to make driving safer, preventing injuries and saving lives. However, there are still many skeptics of the program that has the potential to revolutionize transportation as we know it.
Some of Tesla's most prominent supporters are its harshest critics, but Musk said at the Tesla shareholders meeting in August that he welcomes honest evaluations. The YouTube channel for CyberOwners has a truthful, well-explained assessment. Mike Hoffman of CyberOwners demonstrates and clearly explains one of the most significant issues with Tesla's ability to see its surroundings and navigate safely. The blind corner.
Video Explanation
We've all encountered these situations while driving. Something obstructs our view, and we must lean over the steering wheel while slowly creeping forward to see if it's safe to proceed. As Hoffman shows, the current camera setup has a large area it can not detect. But there are solutions, some that would cost a lot of money and some that could be a simple camera swap.
Hoffman believes Tesla may already be testing a new repeater camera. The repeater camera, more commonly known as the blind spot camera, is on the front fenders. These cameras capture video to the side and back of the vehicle. But Hoffman noticed something different in a video posted by Ashok Elluswamy (below), Tesla's Director of the Autopilot Program.
It appears the program is gathering data from the repeater camera that is further forward than the current camera view. There is also speculation that the video Elluswamy shows is from the b-pillar, the one that is between the front and rear doors. Hoffman says the camera sees much further ahead and is convinced a new repeater camera is being used.
Alternative solutions to this blind corner dilemma include adding cameras to the front bumper and fog lights or moving the b-pillar camera to the side mirror housing. However, this would require new cameras and wiring, which would mean the computer would have to analyze more video streams. This action would be a considerable cost for Tesla, and Hoffman believes a camera swap is much more probable.
Hoffman might be right. It would not be the first time Tesla has changed the repeater camera. When a software update in 2021 included the blind spot feature, some users discovered the repeater camera had glare and was not much help. Tesla changed those cameras out for free.
Most of Tesla's cameras are made to be quickly swappable. Repeater cameras and b-pillar cameras can be swapped out in less than five minutes. That said, this change would require Tesla to swap out potentially millions of cameras. Not a cheap solution, but perhaps the best one to improve another aspect of a system on the cutting edge of technology.
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest Tesla news, upcoming features and software updates.
Tesla signaled its intention to launch its first Robotaxi network in Austin, Texas, with company-owned and operated vehicles, back in January. This network will be Tesla’s first foray into truly autonomous vehicles - ones that aren’t being directly supervised by a driver. Later in February, Tesla’s executive team confirmed that the plans were on track for the launch of the Austin network both on X and during several interviews that they participated in.
At the end of February, we also found out that Tesla has applied for a Supervised Robotaxi license in California, where the network will also launch, but with safety drivers in place.
This is an ambitious plan, but FSD has really come a long way in the past year. FSD V12 was a massive step forward from V11, and V13 has made the experience smoother and safer than ever before. FSD V14 is expected to be another big step up with auto-regressive transformers and audio input.
Still on Track
Now, Elon has tripled down on the fact that Tesla will be launching their first autonomous robotaxi network in Austin - just two months away at this point. It seems that Tesla is fully set to launch their first fully unsupervised self-driving vehicles that will carry paying passengers in June.
Additional Cities
The best part is that Elon also confirmed that they’re targeting robotaxi networks launching in many cities within the United States by the end of this year. However, remember that this will be a Tesla-run network at first - Tesla owners won’t be able to add their vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet right away.
Adding Customer Vehicles
It will take some time before Tesla meets their strict internal safety requirements before it lets customers add their own vehicles to the network. Tesla’s executive team mentioned that they intend to let owners add their own vehicles to the fleet sometime in 2026. This happens to be the same time frame that Tesla plans to launch the Robotaxi across the United States, Mexico, and Canada — something that could only be done with customer-owned cars.
That final step will be bold—and it may come with complications, especially given that autonomous vehicle approval spans municipal, state or provincial, and even federal levels. There are plenty of regulatory hurdles ahead, but this is undoubtedly shaping up to be one of the most exciting times for Tesla.
Launch Event
With the Robotaxi network launching and Unsupervised FSD just around the corner, there’s a lot to get excited about. Tesla is expected to host a launch event at Gigafactory Texas in Austin to mark the debut of its first Robotaxi network. The company previously hinted that referral code users could receive invites—offering a rare chance to score an early ride in a Robotaxi outside the Hollywood studio lot.
Tesla’s engineering mule vehicles—used to test autonomy for future platforms—have resurfaced after an extended absence. The last time we saw them was back in July, when Tesla was gearing up for its initial We, Robot event. Since then, sightings have been scarce.
These vehicles typically signal that Tesla is testing new camera placements or validating FSD ground-truth data. This time, however, they appear to be outfitted exclusively with the updated camera hardware seen on the Cybercab.
New Sightings
The mules have now been spotted in Boston, Massachusetts, and Concord, New Hampshire—their first known appearances this far east. This suggests Tesla is actively collecting data to evaluate and optimize FSD performance in new regions. Thanks to Reddit user Ready_Medium_6693 for catching the one in Concord.
Elon Musk recently mentioned that Tesla plans to expand Robotaxi networks beyond the initial Texas and California launches. So while these sightings aren’t entirely unexpected, the speed of their arrival is. It suggests Tesla is confident in its ability to train FSD for local traffic rules and driving behaviors to the point it no longer needs a driver.
Bumper Cameras
The vehicle that’s been spotted in Boston is the usual Tesla engineering Model 3… except with one unique twist. It includes a front bumper camera. Shout out to @Dylan02939106 for catching the bumper camera in these photos.
The Refreshed Model 3 Mule with a Bumper Camera!
@Dylan02939106 on X
We previously released an opinion piece regarding whether the front bumper camera would be required for Unsupervised FSD. In our eyes, Tesla will require a bumper camera for Unsupervised FSD - if only to improve direct visibility in the bumper area of the vehicle. This is key for low-speed maneuvering in crowded areas like parking lots and garages, as well as for key features like Actually Smart Summon.
It isn’t surprising that Tesla is continuing to evaluate vehicles with a bumper camera - the Cybertruck, Cybercab, and Refreshed Model Y all have them now - and the rest of the lineup, including the flagship Model S and X, as well as the refreshed Model 3 - were supposed to eventually receive them as well.
With the Model S and Model X set for refreshes this year—and the front bumper camera on this Model 3 looking well-integrated rather than a temporary setup—it seems likely that front bumper cameras will soon become standard across Tesla’s entire lineup.
The Robotaxi Mule in Boston
@Dylan02939106 on X
In fact, Tesla’s newest iteration of the FSD computer has a slot for the Bumper Camera on all AI4/HW4 vehicles, so a future retrofit could even be possible.
These are some pretty exciting times - we may see Robotaxi networks actually deploy in time for Tesla’s lofty goal of “sometime in 2026” for cities throughout North America. Once many American cities begin to accept their deployment, it will be easier to seek homologation in Mexico and Canada, enabling deployment throughout the continent.
