Tesla is testing a goofy camouflaged Robotaxi prototype ahead of reveal
Tesla is gearing up for its October 10 Robotaxi unveiling, which will take place at Warner Bros. Studio, and it’s currently running a fleet of (normal) cars around the lot to map the area.
But one of the cars, photographed late yesterday by a lot employee, stands out – and it stands out because it seems to be a heavily-camouflaged version of the heretofore-not-seen Robotaxi.
The photo was taken and first posted by u/boopitysmopp on reddit. It shows an oddly-shaped, bright yellow vehicle on what looks to be the Warner Bros. lot, leading in front of a another Tesla. It seems to be passing by the costume department and heading in the direction of “Warner Village,” a fake street of suburban houses.
The yellow coloring looks to be automotive camouflage pasted onto the vehicle, along with additional pieces of bodywork to obscure the shape of the vehicle body. Instead of going with camouflage of zebra-like line patterns like vehicles often do, Tesla looks to be having some fun with it and making quite a cartoony-looking vehicle.
While the photo was taken at night from a distance, so it’s somewhat noisy, we can still tell a little bit from it.
u/boopitysmopp also said that the rear end had a Cybertruck-like taillight that went across the whole rear of the car, but that they didn’t get a picture of it. They were also asked if there’s a steering wheel, and they responded that they couldn’t tell. Although, by boosting the exposure of the photo, there does seem to be something like a steering column in the vicinity of the driver’s seat.
Overall, the camouflaged prototype does look a lot like the concept render we’ve seen of the Robotaxi, which we used for the featured photo of this article. The general shape with the low nose and swept windshield/rear end are all roughly visible in the camouflaged vehicle.
There is a large boxy… thing in the back, but that looks like kind of like Tesla bolted a box onto the back of the vehicle just to make it look different.
It also looks smaller than the car following behind, though it’s hard to tell from the perspective of the photo. Rumors suggest that the Robotaxi will be a 2-door, 2-seat car, and a smaller size would fit with this. u/boopitysmopp described the vehicle as “tiny,” which fits with this observation.
The final prototype – if what’s under the camouflage is indeed the version that Tesla intends to reveal – probably doesn’t look exactly like the concept render, from what we can see. For example, the rear end may actually be flatter, once you take away the boxy shape in the back… but some of the general lines seem to be there.
(Frankly, it looks like if the box were removed, it might look like a Ute, which are popular in Australia. But that feels like it can’t be right, given the concept and intent of the vehicle…)
The camouflaged Robotaxi also has strangely dark wheels, and it’s tough to figure out the design from the photo. Perhaps the car was just moving at the time (though it’s at a stop sign, and the one behind is not moving), or maybe the Robotaxi’s wheels look quite solid, just like the concept drawing above.
Is that a LiDAR bump? (*probably not)
Another feature the spotted prototype sports is a small bump near the center of the roof, at the top edge of the windshield. While this could be a visual artifact or part of the camouflage, it could also be a “LiDAR bump” – which would be very interesting indeed.
There are various ways for vehicles to incorporate LiDAR into their designs, but one of the popular methods is to go with a bump at the top of the windshield, somewhat reminiscent of the bump of a taxi sign. Placing the LiDAR up high increases visibility as compared to putting it down low in the bumper.
If it is a LiDAR bump, this would be a big departure, given that Tesla has consistently said over the years that LiDAR is not necessary for autonomous operation. Tesla has always focused on either vision-only or vision-plus-radar, always taking the position that LiDAR sensors are expensive overkill.
It would also perhaps put into question whether the rest of Tesla’s vehicles, which Tesla has been saying have the hardware to be capable of full self-driving since 2016, will ever actually gain that promised capability. Tesla has been backing off from these promises (which it nevertheless made and owes to its customers) lately, possibly finally seeing a dead end for vision… but this is highly speculative, given that the “bump” in the photo could be nothing at all.
But, one thing we do know from this: Tesla is testing something like a Robotaxi, at Warner Bros., where lots of people with cameras work, so we expect to see more along these lines, perhaps in full daylight, soon enough.
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Trails of Iranian ballistic missiles light up the night sky as seen from Gaza City during renewed missile strikes launched by Iran in retaliation against Israel on June 15, 2025.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
Tehran will “pay the price” for its fresh missile onslaught against Israel, the Jewish state’s defense minister warned Monday, as markets braced for a fourth day of ramped-up conflict between the regional powers.
Fire exchanges have continued since Israel’s Friday attack against Iran, with Iranian media reporting Tehran’s latest strikes hit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, home to a major refinery. CNBC has reached out to operator Bazan for comment on the state of operations at the Haifa plant, amid reports of damage to Israel’s energy infrastructure.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said overnight it deployed “innovative methods” that “disrupted the enemy’s multi-layered defense systems, to the point that the Zionist air defense systems engaged in targeting each other,” according to a statement obtained by NBC News.
Israel has widely depended on its highly efficient Iron Dome missile defense system to fend off attacks throughout regional conflicts — but even it can be overwhelmed if a large number of projectiles are fired.
The fresh hostilities are front-of-mind for investors, who have been weighing the odds of further escalation in the conflict and spillover into the broader oil-rich Middle East, amid concerns over crude supplies and the key shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Oil prices retained the gains of recent days and at 09:19 a.m. London time, Ice Brent futures with August delivery were trading at $73.81 per barrel, down 0.57% from the previous trading session. The Nymex WTI contract with July expiry was at $72.7 per barrel, 0.38% lower.
Elsewhere, however, markets showed initial signs of shrugging off the latest hostilities early on Monday.
Spot prices for key safe-haven asset gold retreated early morning, down 0.42% to $3,417.83 per ounce after nearly notching a two-year-high earlier in the session, with U.S. gold futures also down 0.65% to $ 3,430.5
Tel Aviv share indices pointed higher, with the blue-chip TA-35 up 0.99% and the wider TA-125 up 1.33%.
European stock markets opened higher Monday, meanwhile, and U.S. stock futures were also in the green.
Luis Costa, global head of EM sovereign credit at Citigroup Global Markets, signaled the muted reaction could be, in part, attributed to hopes of a brisk resolution to the conflict.
“So markets are obviously, you know, bearing in mind all potential scenarios. There are obviously potentially very bad scenarios in this story,” he told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Monday. “But there is still a way out in terms of, you know, a faster resolution and bringing Iran to the table, or a short continuation here, of a very surgical and intense strike by the Israeli army.”
U.S. response in focus
As of Monday morning, Israel’s national emergency service Magen David Adom reported four dead and 87 injured following rocket strikes at four sites in “central Israel,” reporting collapsed buildings, fire and people trapped under debris.
Accusing Tehran of targeting civilians in Israel to prevent the Israel Defense Forces from “continuing the attack that is collapsing its capabilities,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, a close longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a Google-translated social media update that “the residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”
The IDF on Sunday said it had in turn “completed a wide-scale wave of strikes on numerous weapon production sites belonging to the Quds Force, the IRGC and the Iranian military, in Tehran.”
CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.
The U.S.’ response is now in focus, given its close support and arms provision to Israel, the unexpected cancellation of Washington’s latest nuclear deal talks with Iran, and President Donald Trump’s historically hard-hitting stance against Tehran during his first term.
Trump, who has been pushing Iran for a deal over its nuclear program, has weighed in on the conflict, opposing an Israeli proposal to kill Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to NBC News.
Discussions about the conflict are expected to take place during the ongoing meeting of the G7, encapsulating Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., along with the European Union.
— CNBC’s Katrina Bishop contributed to this report.
A Tesla Model 3 got stuck on a train track and was hit, albeit slightly, by a train in Sinking Spring, PA. The driver claimed it was in “self-driving mode.”
According to the fire alerts in Berks County, a Tesla Model 3 drove around a train track barrier near South Hull Street and Columbia Avenue and got stuck in the tracks.
The driver was able to exit the vehicle, but a train hit the car, reportedly snapping off the side mirror.
The fire commissioner ordered to stop all train traffic as the emergency services worked to get the Model 3 off the tracks using a crane.
Spitlers Garage & Towing, performed the recovery and shared a few pictures on Facebook:
The Tesla driver reportedly claimed that the vehicle was in “self-driving mode” leading up to getting stuck on the train tracks.
Tesla claims that all its vehicles built since 2016 will be capable of unsupervised self-driving with software updates; however, this has yet to occur.
Instead, Tesla has been selling a “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) package for up to $15,000 that requires the driver to constantly supervise the vehicle, with the driver remaining responsible for the car at all times.
Electrek’s Take
There have been instances of Tesla drivers engaging in reckless behavior and then attributing it to the Full Self-Driving (FSD) features.
I’m not saying it’s the case here, but it’s a possibility.
On the other side, I’ve seen FSD try to navigate around construction barriers. It’s possible that it tried to do that in this case, here and then got caught on the tracks.
We would need more data.
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