Tesla’s Cybercab appears to have another trick hidden in its full-width front light bar. After the vehicle recently appeared with a red, white and blue front lighting treatment at an autonomous vehicle event in Florida, a new Cybercab has now been spotted in Austin with its front strip glowing purple.
These two sightings seem to confirm that the Cybercab will actually include a light bar that’s capable of displaying multiple colors, although Tesla has yet to confirm it or explain what it’ll be used for.
Cybercab Appears With Red, White and Blue Lighting
The first clue arrived during Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ recent autonomous vehicle event at the SunTrax testing facility. The event included several autonomous vehicles, including Waymo vehicles and Tesla’s Cybercab.
Photos showed the Cybercab with what appeared to be red, white and blue sections across its front light bar. At the time, it wasn’t completely clear whether Tesla had changed the actual lighting or simply applied a decal over the light for the event.
Cybercab normally uses a continuous white front light bar. Unlike the new Model Y and the Cybertruck, the Cybercab integrates its headlights directly into the strip. We’ve previously covered the changes Tesla made to the production Cybercab, including the revised front lighting arrangement.
Colored Lightbar Spotted in Public
Now, David Moss has spotted a Cybercab in Austin with its front light bar illuminated purple, calling it the Cybercab’s “RGB Light Bar In Action.” The sighting makes a simple red, white and blue decal at the Florida event less likely to explain what we saw.
Tesla has experimented with unusual Cybercab lighting before. At the original Robotaxi event, the car projected patterns onto the ground that were initially thought to possibly have a technical purpose. A Tesla engineer later confirmed it was simply part of a light show, as we previously detailed in our look at Cybercab’s lighting.
Colors Could Help Riders
A programmable light bar could have practical uses for a driverless taxi. Tesla could potentially use different colors to indicate whether a Cybercab is available, occupied or out of service.
It could also make finding your ride easier in crowded pickup areas. Instead of relying solely on a license plate, the Robotaxi app could potentially tell a passenger to look for the Cybercab displaying a particular color.
However, there are regulatory limits to how Tesla could use such a system. White and amber are generally permissible for front auxiliary lighting, while colors such as red, green and blue can create confusion with other road or emergency signals.
That could mean some colorful effects are limited to parked vehicles, displays or private property. If the LEDs are individually controllable, Tesla could theoretically create animated effects as well, including a KITT-style sweeping light or show the percentage a vehicle is charged while it’s charging at a Tesla hub. For now, however, Tesla appears to at least be experiementing with different colors.
