Tesla has confirmed that the newly-launched Model Y codenamed ‘Juniper’ has a front bumper camera installed in customer delivery vehicles.
The confirmation of the Model Y Juniper front bumper camera came from the vehicle’s online car configurator. If you press the ‘Compare Models’ tab on the configurator, it will show a comparison between the new and old Model Y generations.
A particular point of interest is the mention of 7 vs 8 external cameras in the old vs new Model Y vehicles respectively. “8 exterior cameras (includes a new front-facing camera),” says the Tesla Model Y configurator for the Juniper generation.
After finding the information in Tesla’s online studio, I closely looked at the press photos of the new Model Y provided by the automaker. In the picture above, I have identified the new front bumper camera in installed in the vehicle.
Although Tesla showed it in its official promo photos, a written or verbal confirmation was still required. When the automaker launched the new Tesla Model 3 Highland in 2023 (China & Europe), some pictures of the vehicle emerged online with a front bumper camera. However, the production version of the new Model 3 did not have this specific camera in it.
2025 Tesla Model Y Juniper is the 2nd vehicle in the electric automaker’s lineup after the Cybertruck to have a front bumper camera. This new camera location will definitely improve the Autopilot Full Self-Driving (FSD) video data stack for neural net training. However, Tesla hasn’t confirmed yet if it will be used for Autopilot from the start or not.
Tesla Model Y electric SUV has an Off-Road Assist Mode. This feature allows the vehicle to navigate rough terrain and even slippery and snowy roads. The front bumper camera will also give a good view of the ground condition in front of the vehicle where the human vision can’t reach during tough off-road driving conditions.
Cybertruck’s front bumper camera has a self-cleaning washer integrated into it. Self-cleaning Autopilot cameras will improve the visibility of the vehicle while it’s running in Autopilot self-driving mode. Tesla Model Y Juniper’s front bumper camera will also have an integrated washer to help clean snow, salt, and dirt to clear the vehicle’s AI Vision.
The 8th external front bumper camera in Tesla vehicles is part of the Hardware 4 (HW4/AI4) suite. A teardown analysis of the HW4 computer revealed that it has a redundancy to support another camera and with the Cybertruck and now Model Y Juniper we have a front bumper camera for increased visibility for Autopilot FSD.
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