Tesla Engineer Says Grok Tuned the Cybercab’s New Rearview Camera View

Credit: Ethan McKanna/X

A Tesla engineer says Grok helped tune the new rearview camera view that Cybercab riders can now open during a ride, to the point that he didn’t need to read the hardware datasheet. Yun-Ta Tsai, a senior staff engineer at Tesla Super Intelligence, the company’s AI team, shared the detail on X Saturday morning, two weeks after a Tesla UI engineer said rider camera views were in development.

Tsai wrote that the “(human) camera view tuning is optimized with Grok” and that it “implements part of the algorithm by directly programming the fixed-function hardware, so I don’t even need to check the datasheet.” Fixed-function hardware means dedicated chip blocks built for one job, like processing camera images, and engineers usually lean on the chip’s datasheet to set them up. That’s the step Tsai says Grok let him skip. His “(human)” tag appears to separate the view riders see from the camera feeds the car uses to drive itself.

The (human) camera view tuning is optimized with Grok and implements part of the algorithm by directly programming the fixed-function hardware, so I don’t even need to check the datasheet. 😀

— Yun-Ta Tsai (@yunta_tsai) October 24, 2026

His post quoted Sawyer Merritt, who wrote earlier Saturday that Tesla now lets riders “bring up the rearview camera view in the Cybercab during your ride.” Merritt added that it “sounds like” there’s also a new quiet mode that turns the whole Cybercab screen dark, for riders who want to relax or sleep, or who don’t want the big bright display on at night. The photo he shared, originally posted by Austin rider Ethan McKanna, shows a strip of live rear camera video across the top of the cabin screen, with another Cybercab following on a bridge and the downtown skyline lit up behind it.

Tesla now let’s you bring up the rearview camera view in the Cybercab during your ride. Sounds like there’s also a new quiet mode that makes the whole Cybercab’s screen dark if you’re just trying to relax, sleep or you don’t want the big bright display on at night.

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 24, 2026

The camera feature surfaced late Friday night, when McKanna posted from a ride that “You can now open the camera to view what’s behind you in Cybercab!” Evan, the Tesla UI software engineer who posts as @CarCoder, replied Saturday morning with a tip for riders: “You can also tap it to see more cameras, and swipe it up or down to hide and show.”

Riders spotted the quiet mode a day earlier. Austin rider Jackson Blatz posted a video Friday morning of the new Robotaxi interface in a Cybercab “with a quiet mode,” and said riders can also ask Grok to set the cabin temperature to match outdoor conditions in places around the world. Tesla hasn’t published release notes for either feature.

Rear camera access was one of the first rider requests after Cybercab rides opened in Austin. Earlier this month, a rider asked for on-demand rear and repeater cameras “especially for peace of mind,” and Evan answered “In development.” The camera view is now part of a wave of rider-side changes this week, alongside a redesigned Live Activity for iPhone and Apple Watch, a larger arrival time and live trip sharing.

Grok keeps turning up in Tsai’s Cybercab work. In September he said many FSD and Cybercab features he shipped were finished with help from overnight Grok agents, and earlier this month he said Grok Bot access was coming to the Cybercab in an upcoming update.

What Tsai didn’t say is which part of the algorithm Grok handled, which chip it programmed, or how that code was checked before it reached riders. It’s also unclear whether the camera view and quiet mode will come to Model Y Robotaxis, which now take ride requests until 1 AM in Austin, or stay on the Cybercab.

Would you trust a camera view tuned with Grok, and would you switch on quiet mode for a late-night Cybercab ride?