With version 9 of the FSD Beta Tesla has rolled out an updated view of the car visualizations, known as “Mind of the car.”
Elon Musk is calling the visualizations, 'mind of the car' because Tesla is attempting to show you what the car is recognizing and it's confidence level in a visual way.
The new visualizations are combining what the FSD beta used to recognize in beta 8 and earlier into a more production ready visualization. The visualization is similar to the production version in Teslas today, but it's much more advanced in what it shows. The new visualizations are all 3D objects rendered on the screen instead of the dots and rectangles we saw in earlier betas.
The updated visualizations are able to render complicated intersections, curves and turns. Similar to earlier betas they paint road boundaries in red and divide on-coming traffic with same-way traffic with a purple line. The yellow lines represent their real life counterparts, lines that you should not cross on the road. In addition lane markings are more consistent and smooth.
Tesla FSD beta 9 visualization is amazing. Hope this will be incorporated in upcoming V11 software pic.twitter.com/gbUKjSXiyl
With this beta, Tesla also switched over to vision only and stopped relying on radar. Due to improvements with their vision detection the car is now able to detect and display objects much more accurately. The car detects and displays more vehicles in the visualizations and more detailed surroundings. Additional details have also been added to existing visualizations, such as brake lights that will now appear on the cars if they have their brakes applied. Cross walks are displayed on the streets.
The visualizations are smoother and more detailed than they have ever been. They can now accurately show cars crossing an intersections in front of you. Compared to what is in production today, it's a world of a difference. Cars will no longer skip or disappear when taking a turn in an intersection ahead of you.
Tesla found a clever way to show how confident the vehicle is in each object it's displaying. The brightness and translucency of each object will vary, depending on the confidence level of the neural net for that object.
Mind of car visualization will improve a lot in coming releases.
Brightness/translucency indicate confidence of neural net in predicting any given object.
Acid test is being able to assess with quick glance at screen if car fully understands environment.
Although previous betas showed a rectangular prism for each object detected, even if the car didn't recognize what the object was, this beta requires knowing what the object is before it will render it on the screen.
I expect this to change and Tesla to not only add many more 3D assets, but also to come up with a way to show an unknown object. Maybe they go back to a 3D rectangle for these situations. Elon Musk has said that car visualizations will “improve a lot in coming releases.” He recently commented that turn signals, hand gestures and more are going to be added soon.
In order for Tesla to achieve a high level of autonomy, they will essentially need to be able to build a highly detailed video game that represents the real world, in real-time. We are getting closer and the visualizations help us understand what the car sees and understands. With the ‘Mind of the car' visualizations we will now be able to tell how confident the car is in determining certain situations and that will let us better understand when we should take over.
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.
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