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Tesla Semi-truck due to arrive in September, “Seriously next level”
Elon Musk is on the loose again tweeting important details about Tesla’s future product lines. The multi-billionaire tech entrepreneur has announced that the Tesla semi-truck will be unveiled this September and will be “seriously next level”. He had previously spoken about a semi-truck that would be far better than anything on the road, and by reading into the statement one can presume that the next level he’s referring to is Level 4 or Level 5 autonomy.
Tesla Semi truck unveil set for September. Team has done an amazing job. Seriously next level.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2017
Musk also previously stated in February that the “Model 3 is the overwhelming priority” but is making good progress with the semi-truck development. Former VP of Worldwide Sales and Service Jerome Guillen is now leading the development of Tesla’s Trucks and Programs initiative which began over a year ago. Guillen was previously General Manager of New Product development at Freightliner, an American truck manufacturer best know for its heavy duty class 8 diesel trucks. His LinkedIn profile lists his current position at Tesla as VP of Trucks and Programs.
“Jerome is driving the Tesla Semi & and is doing a great job with his team. At Daimler he lead the most successful semi truck program ever.” said Musk last year in reply to a tweet asking about Jerome’s return to Tesla.
Jerome is driving Tesla Semi & doing a great job with his team. At Daimler, he led their most successful semi truck program ever.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2016
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The semi-truck market could be a huge market for Tesla, as 70% of US freight move through semi-trucks. We previously analyzed how Tesla could target the semi-truck market and the potential development issues. Though the potential market for Tesla is staggering, it’s also fraught with a lot of implications. Semi-trucks typically drive millions of miles and are some of the largest polluters in the world. Tesla’s electric truck could take thousands of these dirty trucks off the road, making our air cleaner and quieter, but battery technology and Tesla’s charging network would need to be able to support the extreme long distance travel and weight often associated with this industry.
One of Tesla’s co-founders, Ian Wright, has been targeting the commercial trucking industry for over a decade had been working on hybrid powertrains to help curb costs and emissions. Wrightspeed was founded in 2005 and has raised $40M in venture capital funding since. Ian Wright left Tesla when Elon Musk came onboard. The thought of an electric sports car didn’t resonate and he wanted to pursue an electric vehicle that solved larger pollution issues – trucks.
Ryan Popple, CEO of Proterra, the electric bus maker, speculates that the Tesla semi-project could be more for internal use than initially expected. “A fairly reasonable idea would be to move battery packs from the Gigafactory downhill to the assembly plant in Fremont, California. The reason I say that could be viable is they’re fundamentally transporting battery packs. They could build battery packs and put them into a truck that’s optimized for the shipment of those packs, charge them with solar as a way of validating the pack, and transport them at maybe 50 or 60 percent state of charge.”
Only time will tell what Elon has envisioned for the future of the trucking industry.
Tesla has started to deploy the 2026 Summer Update to owners across its fleet, and among the biggest changes are improvements to Navigation, a new startup animation for the Model 3 and Model Y, Caraoke scoring, and new capabilities for Grok.
As the update has started making its way to some cars, we can now see a few of the features operating in real-time. We will show you what some of the new features look like in this article, along with some additional details on what changed.
Not all of the new features in the 2026 Summer Update have quite made an appearance, but some of them have, so we’ll show those here:
New Animation Screen for 3/Y
Tesla is rolling out a new startup animation for Tesla Model 3 and Model Y owners. This is present in Launch Edition and Performance Model 3 and Model Y, but other trim levels do not have anything like this.
The new animation screen on Model 3/Y with the 2026 Summer Update
Apparently color will also be customizable: pic.twitter.com/wSdwggtG3S
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 27, 2026
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Owners can adjust the color associated with the startup animation to suit their preferences. It is a surprise that more automakers do not focus on this animation for their vehicles; it can be a great first impression piece and make the car immediately feel more luxurious.
Tesla has included this on more premium trims, but it is nice to see it on the Model 3 and Model Y.
Grok Improvements
Grok can now adjust more things in the car outside of the Navigation system. Now, drivers can adjust anything from climate to driving settings by simply speaking to the AI assistant in the car:
@Tesla‘s AI assistant (Grok) with its new vehicle commands in action.
Set the climate, your destination and vehicle settings all in one go! pic.twitter.com/0bBTqaAk6G
— Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp) July 28, 2026
You don’t even have to push a button, either. Instead, you can just say “Hey, Grok,” if you have it enabled. That feature rolled out with the 2026 Spring Update just a few months back.
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This is a great feature, especially pertinent for the Robotaxi platform, as there will be no buttons inside the Cybercab when it eventually starts giving rides to the public. It also broadens Grok’s capabilities, which were relatively limited in terms of vehicle setting adjustments beforehand.
Tesla briefly offered one Robotaxi part in its Parts Catalog for your personal car, only to remove it just a short time after it was first noticed.
Tesla’s Robotaxi camera washer apparatus was briefly available for purchase on the company’s Online Parts Catalog. The camera washer was first noticed on Model Y Robotaxi vehicles about six months ago in Austin.
🚨 Tesla looks to have installed Camera Washers on the side repeater cameras on Robotaxis in Austin
pic.twitter.com/xemRtDtlRR— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 23, 2026
First noticed by Not a Tesla App, the Camera Washer entries appeared for the new “Juniper” Model Y under a category called “Halo,” which has also now disappeared. Interestingly, Halo probably is related to Tesla’s internal “Project Halo,” which was a project that aimed to retrofit customer-owned Model Ys into functional Robotaxis.
This hardware addition would likely be required for the vehicle to operate as a Robotaxi, as the Camera Washer seems to be a non-negotiable part of the vision-based system Tesla utilizes for self-driving efforts.
However, this part has since been removed and is no longer visible on the EPC.
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Now the true question lingers: Why would Tesla add this Camera Washer to the Model Y parts catalog? Is it planning to make it available for owners to utilize on their own cars for personal use, or will it become a prerequisite for Robotaxi operation in customer-owned cars?
While discussing the upgrade options for Hardware 3 vehicles during the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had said that the company could establish small, satellite shops that would upgrade cameras and self-driving computers. Perhaps this same strategy could be utilized for vehicles that want to be included in Robotaxi but do not have the correct hardware.
AI4 is currently represented as capable of unsupervised self-driving, and the same was said about HW3 at one point, only for Tesla to admit last quarter that it would, unfortunately, not be possible. Perhaps AI4 vehicles might need this camera washer as a prerequisite, just as HW3 cars will need that camera and computer upgrade.
This could be the first hint of that’s where we are headed.
Tesla has started rolling out a broader change to the ride experience for its Robotaxi fleet by silencing turn signals, but the change is certainly polarizing.
Tesla has generally made it clear that its purpose-built ride-hailing platform, Robotaxi, will cater to the rider in nearly every way possible. This includes having climate preferences, music, and other personal settings loaded up in the car as the rider enters.
But Tesla is taking it a step further by muting turn signal chimes altogether, a change that appears to be a way to make the ride more peaceful:
Tesla has finally turned off the blinker/turn signal noises in their Model Y Robotaxis.
This is a small update, but will definitely be noticeable for riders. It didn’t really make much sense to leave the turn signal sound on when it’s Unsupervised. pic.twitter.com/ITwx60PAMO
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 27, 2026
However, there are a handful of people who are not thrilled about this change. Turn signals are a conditioned part of the human mind for those who ride in a car regularly.
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Taking a turn without one feels strange and odd, and not hearing it click while activated could set off some alarms for riders, who might use the noise as confirmation that other drivers know of their intention to turn.
I kind of like it being on, threw me off when riding with Zoox who has had it disabled
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) July 27, 2026
Turn signal noises are still audible in customer cars, so if you use FSD in your personal vehicle, you will still hear the turn signal.
The move is certainly one that is unique, but not one that separates it from other ride-sharing services. In a normal car, the clicking sound confirms to the driver that the blinker is active. In a fully driverless Robotaxi, that feedback serves no purpose for passengers, other than peace of mind.
Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
