Tesla has shared a new video about the design and engineering of the refreshed Model Y, revealing a few new features and talks from some of the company’s top executives.
In a new video released on social media on Saturday, Tesla shared a few new details about the design and engineering of the so-called Model Y “Juniper,” which the company launched in multiple markets in recent weeks as expected. The interview features Head of Design Franz von Holzhausen, who talks about the approach to the design of the new Model Y, along with interviews with multiple other executives and engineers from the company.
“When we set out to redesign the Model Y, we looked at trying to give the car a little bit more of its own unique personality,” von Holzhausen says in the video’s intro.
The video also includes a few moments from Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy, along with a few others from the company.
Tesla’s refreshed Model Y design should make repairing this part easier
READ MORE ON TESLA’S NEW MODEL Y:
- Tesla Model Y ‘Juniper’ visiting Europe
- New Tesla Model Y launches in the U.S., estimated deliveries in March
- New Tesla Model Y ‘Juniper’ units are arriving in China’s showrooms
- Tesla discounts U.S. Model Y inventory ahead of refresh launch
- Tesla China is clearing out legacy Model Y units: here’s what’s left
Tesla Model Y refresh: other new features in the 2025 release
Tesla Model Y front camera
The new Model Y includes a front fascia camera with a 180-degree scope of view, offering improvements for “automatic assisted driving and advanced smart summon,” as stated by the company last month. The new video details nine cameras overall for optimal viewing angles to assist the Autopilot and Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems.
Credit: Tesla | X
Tesla Model Y front lightbar and reflective rear lightbar
As was revealed upon Tesla’s initial release of the new 2025 Model Y, the design includes both a front lightbar and a reflective rear lightbar, both of which represent pretty major exterior changes from the legacy version of the SUV. In the video, Tesla’s Creative Manager of Design Sahm Jafari points out how the front lightbar makes the Model Y refresh look a little bit wider, along with boosting the amount of air running over the front tires for a slight improvement to aerodynamics.
Credit: Tesla | X
Tesla has released a deep dive on the design and engineering of the new Model Y.
There’s a great tidbit about giving it “its own unique personality,” and how the new light bar gives it a wider look.
Check it out:
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 8, 2025
Tesla Model Y frunk and drain plug
The Model Y also includes what the company calls a more “utility-focused” frunk, including a drain plug that makes it easy to use the space as a wash station, cooler, or otherwise. Tesla also says it plans to release some new, specifically designed accessories for the Model Y frunk for even more use cases.

Credit: Tesla | X

Credit: Tesla | X

Credit: Tesla | X
Tesla Model Y tires
The Model Y “Juniper” also comes with upgraded tires developed by Tesla to be even more efficient than the legacy model, offering lower resistance for improved handling and less in-cabin road noise.
Credit: Tesla | X Credit: Tesla | X

Tesla Model Y rear screen with Bluetooth pairing
The new Model Y also includes a rear infotainment screen with the ability to pair with up to two Bluetooth headsets, letting the driver and other passengers listen to the media of their choice while children or other rear passengers can tune into what they want. The vehicle includes 16 speakers total, and the video also contains details on how Tesla hid some of them to make the audio as immersive as possible.
Credit: Tesla | X
Tesla Model Y upgraded acoustic glass
Tesla’s upgraded acoustic glass and its other design improvements result in a noise reduction of 20 percent, according to the video. One of these improvements includes the vehicle’s upgraded seals, which let the blowers run at lower speeds than those of the legacy Model Y—ultimately contributing to the lower in-cabin volume.
Credit: Tesla | X
You can see the full video about the refreshed Model Y below, as released by Tesla on Saturday.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla is offering a crazy Supercharging incentive on its two ‘sentimental’ vehicles
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Tesla Full Self-Driving expands to another European country
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is heading to Czechia after the Czech Ministry of Transport recognised the Dutch RDW’s provisional type approval, making the country the seventh EU member state to clear the system for public roads. Tesla Europe announced on 21 September 2026 that “FSD Supervised is now approved in Czechia” and that rollout “will begin soon.”
The decision marks a notable reversal. Earlier in 2026, Prague had declined to automatically recognise the Netherlands’ April approval, citing concerns over speed-limit compliance, traffic-sign recognition and driver-attention monitoring, and arguing that a coordinated EU approach was preferable. Officials said months of expert review, talks with Tesla and other member states, and real-world data from countries already using the system resolved those issues.
🚨 Tesla FSD heading to Czechia 🇨🇿 pic.twitter.com/mkzlM9QjrB
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 21, 2026
“Safety remains the top priority,” the ministry stated.
FSD Supervised remains a Level 2 driver-assistance system: the driver must stay engaged and is legally responsible. Eligible vehicles need AI4, the company’s most up-to-date hardware version. Tesla is expected to push the feature over the air in the coming days, following the pattern seen after earlier national approvals.
Europe’s rollout began when Dutch regulator RDW issued a provisional EU type approval on 10 April 2026 after extensive testing. Mutual recognition then produced a rapid cascade: Lithuania (20 May), Estonia (29 May), Denmark (9 June), Belgium (10 June) and Slovenia (7 September). Czechia now completes that list of seven.
The approvals cover only a modest share of the EU population, but they add political weight ahead of a 6 October vote by the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles. A qualified majority, at least 15 of 27 member states representing 65 percent of the EU population, could open the remaining markets, including large ones such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain that have so far preferred to wait for a bloc-wide decision.
For Czech Tesla owners, the immediate prize is access to the same supervised highway and city driving already available in the other six countries. For Tesla, each new market generates additional European driving data and strengthens the case that FSD Supervised can operate safely under the continent’s varied road rules. The Czech approval is therefore both a local milestone and another incremental step toward a wider European launch.
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Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has established a Temporary Flight Restriction over SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas, rocket development and test facility, a move widely viewed as preparation for Tesla’s October 1 Roadster reveal. The restriction took effect September 18 and runs through October 2.
NOTAM FDC 6/3825 covers a 1.5-nautical-mile radius around the site near Waco and extends from the surface to 10,000 feet above ground level. The FAA cited hazards under 14 CFR 91.137(a)(3) and barred aircraft and drones from the zone. Tesla’s invitation to reservation holders already placed the event in Waco, about 20 minutes from McGregor, making the timing and location more than coincidental.
A TFR has appeared around SpaceX’s McGregor Testing Site up to 10,000ft and runs through until the 2nd of October 👀 pic.twitter.com/rcZ4p4JkLm
— Niall Anderson (@INiallAnderson) September 18, 2026
What stands out is the altitude. Typical recent TFRs at McGregor for engine static fires and component tests have used far lower ceilings, often around 2,000 feet. Raising the limit to 10,000 feet is unusually high even compared with some Starbase restrictions and signals operations that go beyond a standard ground-level engine test.
That extra airspace has fueled speculation about the long-promised SpaceX Package for the Roadster. Elon Musk has described cold-gas thrusters that could deliver sub-one-second 0-60 times and, more dramatically, brief lift-off. Reports earlier this year indicated Tesla planned a remote-controlled demonstration at McGregor in which the car would leave the ground with no one inside; spectators kept hundreds of yards away because of the noise.
The 10,000-foot envelope would give operators a large safety buffer even if the vehicle only hovers a short distance.
Tesla has not confirmed a flight demo. The company has only used the phrase “Go for launch” and posted a teaser image of the car on what looks like a launch pad. The TFR itself mentions only hazards. Still, closing airspace this high and this close to the reveal date strongly suggests the event will include more than a static display.
Whether the Roadster actually hovers on October 1 remains to be seen. What is certain is that the FAA has cleared a large vertical slice of Texas sky for whatever Tesla and SpaceX intend to show. Reservation holders heading to Waco will be among the first to find out if the car can do more than drive.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk drops a surprise update on Boring Company’s next big dig
Musk says Boring Company could shrink the Austin to San Antonio drive to just minutes.
Elon Musk says The Boring Company is working on what he called “a simple, precursor Hyperloop” tunnel connecting Austin and San Antonio, targeting speeds above 200 mph and cutting a drive that can take up to two and a half hours down to a consistent under 30 minutes. Musk posted the idea on X Sunday, in a reply to a repost of an AI generated video imagining a science fiction future with human colonies on other worlds, which he shared with the line “This is the future we shall bring into being.”
This is the future we shall bring into being pic.twitter.com/8aD0w8MDVc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 20, 2026
The Boring Company’s own account picked up the idea in the same thread, adding a detail about how the trip would actually work: “Because Loop/Hyperloop is express (i.e. no intermediate stops), one could travel from an Austin parking lot to a favorite San Antonio restaurant in about 30 minutes. As long as they both have Loop stations.” That framing ties the proposed intercity link to the same station model the company already runs in Las Vegas, where riders enter the tunnel network through small, garage style stops rather than one central terminal.
This is not the company’s first run at the Austin to San Antonio corridor. Boring Company floated tunnels between the two cities as far back as 2021, and later competed for a separate San Antonio Loop project tied to the airport before that specific bid stalled. Pitches for tunnels in Chicago, Los Angeles, and a New York to Washington corridor have followed a similar pattern of big announcement without a shovel in the ground.
What is different this time is the balance sheet, especially since The Boring Company closed a 3 billion dollar funding round led by investors in the United Arab Emirates earlier this month at a valuation near 23 billion dollars, giving the tunneling company more capital to chase speculative projects than it had during its earlier Texas pitches. The company is also mid-build on two other intercity systems it has actually broken ground on, inc;luding a Nashville tunnel linking downtown to the airport, where a second boring machine finished commissioning in June, and its Las Vegas network, where the station count keeps climbing on paper faster than tunnels get dug.
That gap between announcement and execution is the reason to treat Sunday’s post as an opening bid rather than a project. A tunnel spanning roughly 80 miles between two metro areas, running at speeds Boring Company has not demonstrated over any real distance, would dwarf anything the company has built. For now, the Austin to San Antonio Hyperloop exists as a caption under an AI generated space video.