Cybercab riders get a rearview camera view and a quiet mode

Riders in Austin are seeing two new screen features in the Cybercab: a rearview camera view that opens during rides, and a quiet mode that reportedly darkens the screen for relaxing, sleeping or riding at night. The camera feature surfaced on Friday night after Austin rider Ethan McKanna posted a photo of it. Jackson Blatz, another Austin rider, had posted video of quiet mode earlier on Friday.

Tesla has not published release notes for either feature, so what we know comes from riders and Tesla staff posting on X.

What Tesla's engineer said

On Saturday, October 24, Yun-Ta Tsai, who works at Tesla Super Intelligence as a senior staff engineer, wrote on X that the "(human) camera view tuning is optimized with Grok". That points to Grok helping tune how the rider-facing camera view looks, though the notes give no more detail on how.

Evan (@CarCoder), a Tesla UI software engineer, gave riders a tip: "You can also tap it to see more cameras, and swipe it up or down to hide and show." So the view is not fixed on screen, and it can show more than the rear feed.

Rider camera views were said to be in development two weeks earlier, and a rider had asked for rear cameras earlier this month. The feature looks like a quick response to that request.

What it means for owners and shoppers

For now, this is a Robotaxi rider story, not an owner one. It is unclear whether the features will reach Model Y Robotaxis or stay Cybercab-only. Model Y Robotaxis in Austin take ride requests until 1 AM, so they carry a good share of late rides, which is when a darker screen would matter most. Nothing in the notes says either feature is headed to Teslas that people own.

If you are buying a Tesla for personal use, nothing changes in your costs or choices today. If you ride Robotaxis in Austin, expect the camera view to appear during rides, and try tapping and swiping it to see other cameras.

What to watch

• Whether Tesla publishes release notes describing both features
• Whether the Model Y Robotaxi fleet gets the camera view and quiet mode
• Whether anything similar shows up in software for customer cars

Until Tesla confirms details, treat the quiet mode description as reported by riders rather than as an official feature list.

Credit: original reporting by TeslaNorth.