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Tesla 3D labeling is the next big leap for Autopilot
Tesla’s 3D labeling efforts are integral to the development of its Full Self-Driving suite. Using over 2.2 billion miles of real-world driving data from its electric vehicle fleet, the electric car maker has a treasure trove of information about how human drivers behave.
Elon Musk recently confirmed that Tesla is finishing work on Autopilot core foundation code and 3D labeling, and once these are done, users can expect the electric carmaker to roll out more functionalities in a potentially more efficient manner. More advanced features such as Reverse Summon will also be rolled out.
Tesla 3D Labeling: The Next Big Thing
The Tesla CEO has tagged 3D labeling as the next big thing for the company’s efforts to achieve full self-driving. “In terms of labeling, labeling with video in all eight cameras simultaneously. This is a really, I mean in terms of labeling efficiency, arguably like a three order of magnitude improvement in labeling efficiency where Tesla vehicles use all of its eight cameras simultaneously, and that the company has improved significantly in terms of labeling efficiency,” Musk said during the Q4 2019 earnings call.
During Autonomy Day last year, Tesla’s AI head Andrej Karpathy gave the electric vehicle community an idea of how labeling is done. He said annotating data is a very expensive process that initially involved people processing data, but Tesla has also been using information from its fleet to automate the process of labeling using different mechanisms.
For example, in predicting cut-ins, Tesla taps into its fleet for data on such incidents. This information is then automatically annotated and used to train the neural network, which in turn learns from recognizable patterns. This information is then spun until the neural network is trained enough. Improvements in the neural network can then be rolled out as an update for Autopilot.
The same is true according to Karpathy when it comes to object detection. Tesla sources data from its fleet to learn more about different objects and anomalies on the road. With automated 3D labeling, the neural network can more efficiently process the information and learn even about the rarest things one can encounter on the road.
Karpathy and Musk explained how annotations from its fleet help with path prediction. Using trajectories collected from the real-world, the neural network can improve its driving behavior, say while approaching a corner that it doesn’t actively see. This smarter neural network is perfectly demonstrated by an older Model X with early-gen Autopilot negotiating a muddy rural backroad recently, after a storm in the United Kingdom.
All of these things form part of the equation to achieve Full Self-Driving capabilities. Likely through 3D labeling improvements in the past year or so, Tesla has immensely improved driving visualizations in vehicles equipped with Hardware 3, which now identify traffic lights, garbage cans, and detailed road markings, among others. Thus, Elon Musk’s explanation about rewriting the Autopilot foundational code and 3D labeling could be a way of emphasizing that Tesla owners’ investment in the company’s Full Self-Driving suite would be proven worth it and more soon.
Tesla’s FSD computer and autonomy software will transform how humans travel. The company’s vehicles will be smart enough to drive like humans and eventually make the roads a few times safer for everyone. This may also pave the way for Robotaxis and help achieve Musk’s vision of Teslas earning for their owners while they are busy with work or even while relaxing at home. Tesla Robotaxis would be an attractive form of transportation as they will be more cost-efficient compared to driving personal cars, as predicted by ARK Invest.
Autonomy As Key To Profitability
Autonomy will spell profits for Tesla, as Elon Musk explained during the company’s Q4 2019 earnings call. In order to achieve sustained profitability, Tesla needs to produce high volume units with high margins. Musk appears to consider autonomy as key to Tesla’s high margins as well.
“As we’re close to Full Self-Driving, that is just going to become more and more compelling. So that’s for our financial standpoint, that’s the real mind-blowing situation is high-volume, high-margin because of autonomy,” Musk said.
With FSD capabilities, Tesla adds more value proposition that can help sway even more customers to purchase its electric vehicles from the Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model X, or the Cybertruck. Depending on regulations in specific regions, Tesla can tap into most of its earnings potential, which bodes well since the company has current plans to expand its presence worldwide with Gigafactories in multiple regions.
Tesla’s path to autonomy is only one of the aspects that make it the leader in the electric vehicle industry. Add to that its advancements on car connectivity and battery technology and one will complete the equation why legacy carmakers with the deepest of pockets can only watch in amazement as a relatively young electric car maker dominates the emerging EV industry.
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Tesla Robotaxi app update now tells riders if Cybercab is the better choice
Tesla’s Robotaxi app now shows ETAs, wait times and availability for Cybercab and Model Y.
Tesla has rolled out a new vehicle selection screen in its Robotaxi app, and it puts the numbers riders care about most in front of them before they book.
Version 26.11.0 of the app shows the estimated arrival time, the expected wait and current availability for each vehicle option on a single screen, according to a video shared by @gheeunit on X on November 7. Riders deciding between a Cybercab and a Model Y Robotaxi can now compare those figures side by side instead of picking a car first and learning how long it will take afterward.
Tesla first gave riders that choice on September 3, the day paid Cybercab rides began in Austin. The original version of the screen listed the Cybercab, which seats two, next to the Model Y, which seats four. A later build, 26.8.2, added a seating capacity indicator so groups knew which car would fit them. What it did not show was whether choosing the Cybercab meant standing on the curb a few extra minutes.
Newest version of @robotaxi app has a new vehicle selector UI for choosing between Cybercab and Model Y and shows you the fare for both simultaneously! https://t.co/7qoDQ0vACX — mantequilla 🧈 (@gheeunit) November 7, 2026
That question matters more now than it did two months ago. Tesla had 45 Cybercabs on the Texas DMV roster when rides started. By late October the state listed 573, alongside 631 Model Ys, and community trackers logged a record 1,576 Cybercab sightings across Austin on Halloween alone. With two large fleets sharing one service area, the closest car and the quickest pickup are not always the same vehicle.
Inline availability also changes what happens when demand spikes. If no Cybercab is free nearby, the rider sees that on the selection screen rather than after trying to book one.
For now the comparison is mostly an Austin feature. Riders in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and the Florida markets are still matched with Model Y vehicles, though Tesla said on its third quarter earnings call that Cybercab rides would launch in Dallas this month.
The update follows a steady run of smaller changes to the rider experience. Late last month Tesla brought a quiet mode that blacks out the cabin screen to Model Y Robotaxis after first testing it in the Cybercab, and it has stretched Austin service to run from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Cybercab side of that selection screen is about to get much busier. Elon Musk said this week that Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of 2027 to make room for more Cybercab output, and Tesla has said it is aiming to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year.
Tesla has not published official release notes for version 26.11.0.
Tesla is ending Cybertruck production sometime in mid-2027, according to CEO Elon Musk.
Musk made the announcement on X last night, which came as a shock to many. He said that the Cybertruck will end production “to make room for increased Cybercab production” at Gigafactory Texas.
It is a huge blow to the fans of Tesla who have come to love the Cybertruck and identify with it as a symbol of their fandom. It has been the best-selling electric pickup, but it has had an underwhelming sales performance in terms of what was expected. This is mostly due to Tesla not meeting the prices it planned to offer the Cybertruck, as its unveiling and actual release were four years apart.
Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2026
Overall, the responses were mixed. Some fans understood the move toward Cybercab production, especially as Tesla is truly pushing the autonomous future through its Robotaxi platform. However, others did not understand it.
“Damn, how many Cybercabs do you guys need?” one response read. Another said it was “Sad but understandable.”Even analyst Gary Black had responded to the news, stating he hoped Tesla planned to replace it with a traditional pickup design.
It doesn’t seem like that will be the case.
Tesla is so hell-bent on delivering autonomy and eventually providing a driverless service that owning a car seems like an arbitrary idea, according to their thesis. Instead, Cybercabs will be available to pick you up and drop you off on demand, safely, without any human help.
As a result, Tesla has thinned its lineup considerably, and one can only ask where the vehicle lineup goes from here. Eventually, it seems like Cybercab could be the only vehicle that Tesla will sell.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next Starship flight set to make history on Friday the 13th
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15 and its first ship catch.
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15, the mission the company plans to use for its first attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower.
SpaceX Vice President of Launch Kiko Dontchev shared the date on stage at the UP.Summit on Thursday, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger, who was in attendance. It is the first launch target to come directly from a SpaceX executive. Until now, the public schedule had relied on FAA air traffic planning slides, which listed Flight 15 for no earlier than November 8 and later November 12. SpaceX has not posted an official mission page yet, and no launch time has been shared.
The date lands inside the window Elon Musk sketched out last month. Speaking at Giga Texas on October 10, Musk said the flight would “probably launch a little bit before Thanksgiving,” as Teslarati reported. On SpaceX’s third quarter earnings call ten days later, he confirmed that Flight 15 would try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the ship, and put the odds of a successful ship catch at “more likely than not.” SpaceX also aired an animation of the maneuver during that webcast, showing the ship swinging vertical over Starbase before dropping into the tower’s chopsticks.
The hardware is ready. Booster 22 fired all 33 of its Raptor engines for a full duration static fire at Pad 2 on October 25. Ship 42 followed with a single engine burn simulating a deorbit maneuver on October 26 and a 60 second firing of all six engines the next day, according to NASASpaceflight. Ship 42 had already rehearsed the catch in September, when the Pad 2 arms lifted it into position and crews connected the quick disconnect arm while the vehicle hung from the tower.
The remaining hurdle is regulatory. The FAA’s Starship page does not yet list a Flight 15 license. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in October that, after “significant constructive engagement with the FAA,” she expects the license to cover a return to the launch site and a tower catch for both stages. Bringing the ship home means a reentry path that heads toward land, rather than ending over open ocean as every Starship flight so far has.
SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but the ship comes back from orbital velocity and has never been caught. Flight 14 on September 28 was the first Starship to reach orbit, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down despite an early engine shutdown that Musk blamed on engine computer software.
Musk has called a successful ship catch “the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket,” and he has already named the step after it: a Flight 16 where both the booster and the ship fly again. NASASpaceflight reports that Ship 43, the next vehicle in line, is set for static fire testing in December.
Tesla Robotaxi app update now tells riders if Cybercab is the better choice
Tesla is ending Cybertruck production
