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Tesla Model S refresh units spotted in Fremont Factory ahead of customer deliveries
Tesla’s efforts to produce the Model S refresh seem to be making some headway, with recent videos of the Fremont Factory showing what could very well be the first production units of the all-electric flagship sedan. While Tesla’s deliveries for the Model S refresh are looking to be a bit later than Elon Musk’s February estimate, customer deliveries seem to be coming soon.
The new Model S refresh units were spotted during a recent visit to the Fremont Factory by electric vehicle advocates Ryan Levenson of The Kilowatts and Model 3 owner Arash Malek. During their short visit, the EV enthusiasts were able to observe a red Model S refresh being driven around the Fremont Factory area. Unlike the test vehicles that have been spotted in the wild recently, the Model S in question was fitted with some window trim wrap and bar code stickers, hinting that they are not intended for simple road tests.
Round wheel. 😅 pic.twitter.com/WMqDaSBfyy
— The Kilowatts 🚗⚡️ (@klwtts) February 25, 2021
Another Model S refresh was sighted alongside Tesla’s other vehicles in the Fremont Factory’s holding lots. While the car was a bit difficult to see amidst the sea of Model 3s in the area, several Model S refresh elements were visible in the car, such as its blacked-out trim and updated bumper design. Similar to the red unit spotted driving around the factory, the Model S refresh in the parking lot also had bar code stickers, a potential indicator that the vehicle is intended to be delivered to customers.
What is quite interesting is that so far, the two new Model S refresh sighted in Fremont were equipped with a round steering wheel. This is quite interesting considering that Elon Musk and Tesla have made it a point to emphasize that the Model S refresh would be fitted with a yoke steering system, a rather controversial set of steering controls that have so far been greenlighted in numerous European countries.
*Enhance* pic.twitter.com/1qqQ0uEiJ0
— The Kilowatts 🚗⚡️ (@klwtts) February 25, 2021
The Model S refresh sightings come at a time when rumors have emerged alleging that Tesla is running into some delays at the Fremont Factory due to a shortage of chips from Samsung, which supplies parts for the Full Self-Driving computer. Samsung’s operations in its Austin fabrication facility were disrupted last week due to the state’s widespread power outages. That being said, reports have also mentioned that Model 3 production is still at around 800 units per day, which should help keep the facility productive while it waits for the chip shortages to subside.
Elon Musk has noted that the Model S refresh will start customer deliveries in February. While accomplishing this target may seem unlikely considering that the month is almost at its end, the presence of what appear to be production Model S refresh vehicles in the Fremont Factory means that Tesla is indeed working on getting its revamped flagship sedan to customers as soon as possible.
Watch a video of a production Model S refresh on the road in the video below.
https://youtu.be/_cFHRKiXvVc?t=187
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Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla has finally released its Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite for older cars that equip the Hardware 3 or AI 3 chip, which have not been able to handle the newest versions of the company’s driver assistance software.
Tesla officially started releasing the v14 Lite suite to owners in the Early Access Program last night. The company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said that the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of an AI3 car.
🚨 Tesla is releasing v14 Lite for AI3 owners who are in early-access
This will give AI3 cars the ability to experience new FSD features like parking preferences. https://t.co/pp6Q5FOKoz pic.twitter.com/tqexMB8SVy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 29, 2026
It also includes a variety of new features that were available to AI4 cars running v14, including:
- Start Self-Driving from Park
- Arrival and Parking Options
- Speed Profiles
The release is highly anticipated because those owners with AI3 vehicles were early adopters into the FSD platform and were promised that their cars would be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving.
However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted during the company’s recent Q1 Earnings Call that these vehicles would not be capable of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, which is what Tesla had originally said.
Owners were not pleased with this answer, or the idea that their commitment to buying the suite outright for thousands of dollars would not yield the ability to drive without operating the car. Tesla gave some solutions for this, including a discount on a new car, or an upgrade to an AI4 or AI5 self-driving computer and new, upgraded cameras.
Tesla owners do not seem pleased with these options, as they require giving the company more money.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Tesla came through for owners here by releasing v14 Lite before the end of Q2, something it had promised owners during the previous Earnings Call. Tesla has had trouble keeping up with timelines, but this is a big achievement for the team.
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features
