Alphabet-owned self-driving company Waymo is reportedly in discussions with Hyundai about a potential partnership to manufacture self-driving vehicles, as one local media outlet reported last week.
South Korean publication Electronic Times reported the news on Thursday, noting that officials from each company had already held over three meetings to evaluate plans to use the Hyundai Ioniq 5 for Waymo’s next-generation driverless vehicles (via Reuters). The report also said that officials are considering the Ioniq 5 as a potential replacement for electric vehicles (EVs) from Geely’s Zeekr, the Chinese automaker Waymo is currently planning to work with on its next-gen platform.
Waymo is now giving over 100,000 paid self-driving rides per week
In a statement to Reuters, Waymo declined to comment on the report but said the company was still developing the Zeekr platform as planned:
“We’ll decline to comment on speculation, but I can share that we are hard at work validating the 6th-generation Waymo Driver on the Zeekr platform and intend to introduce it into our fleet when ready.”
Zeekr also responded to the report, saying that plans for the Waymo partnership remained unchanged:
“There is no change to Zeekr’s partnership with Waymo. [We are] actively working together to deploy the vehicles.”
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Waymo has been giving paid driverless rides in Jaguar I-Pace units, though the company announced the next-gen Zeekr platform, dubbed Driver, last month. The Waymo One service has also been expanding throughout California this year, with the company no longer requiring users in San Francisco to join a waitlist before hailing rides, and now operating services around a handful of Los Angeles neighborhoods.
The statements come as the U.S. and other countries have been considering high import tariffs on Chinese EVs and battery materials, with the Biden administration set to enact a 100-percent import tax on EVs from the country on September 27. On Thursday, reports also suggested that officials from China and the European Union (EU) came to an agreement on lower import taxes than initially planned, now landing at about 35.3 percent on Chinese EVs.
The rumors also come as other companies, including Tesla and the General Motors (GM) self-driving subsidiary Cruise, are looking to launch their own self-driving platforms. Last week, Cruise announced plans to re-launch autonomous driving tests later this fall, after the company’s self-driving permit was suspended following an accident involving a pedestrian and one of its robotaxis last October.
Meanwhile, Tesla will hold a Robotaxi unveiling event on October 10, with the company expected to debut a ride-hailing platform based on the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD). Many Tesla supporters have touted FSD’s camera-based, neural network-trained AI, arguing that the software will be a more globally scalable solution to autonomy than those utilizing area mapping, like Waymo and Cruise.
Tesla AI team publishes release roadmap for FSD features, global rollout
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.
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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 Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
Tesla briefly offered this Robotaxi part for your personal car
