Tesla appears to be updating the exterior side-mounted and rear-facing cameras used in its FSD kit and other safety features, including Sentry Mode. Changes seem to be part of preparations for Tesla’s next hardware platform, AI5. As noted by CEO Elon Musk, AI5 will debut on a limited number of vehicles next year, while broad, large-scale deployment is expected to begin in 2027.
At present, Tesla’s production vehicles built on the AI4/HW4 platform rely on Sony’s IMX963 sensor, a 5-megapixel camera. Compared with the 1.2 MP cameras used in Tesla’s earlier HW3 platform, IMX963 provides substantially better dynamic range and low-light performance, key improvements for vision-based autonomy and real-world perception.
Tesla now seems to be planning a further upgrade. Well-known Tesla hacker researcher Green uncovered a new image sensor referenced in Tesla’s backend logs and code, labeled “IMX00N”. Sony has not yet released detailed public specifications for IMX00N. Even so, given Tesla’s long-standing view that AI5 will be the first truly autonomy-focused, next-gen hardware platform built to support fully unsupervised self-driving, early revisions to external camera hardware follow clear technical logic: stronger sensors mean higher-quality data for training and more reliable perception at scale.
Green’s post to X states: “Looks like Tesla is changing (upgrading?) cameras in (some?) new cars produced. Where as HW4 to date used exterior cameras with IMX963, now they (might potentially) have something called IMX00N.”
Tesla has repeatedly stated that its AI4/HW4 fleet is capable of supporting autonomous driving. However, AI5 is expected to deliver notable improvements not only in raw compute efficiency, 40x performance boost coming to power next-gen FSD, but also in how the system collects and interprets data from the physical world. The company’s last major external-camera upgrade occurred in early 2023, when Tesla transitioned to 5-megapixel sensors using Sony IMX963. More recently, Tesla’s new Model Y introduced an additional front bumper camera in January 2025 to further enhance FSD performance, marking another step toward richer sensor coverage and higher confidence perception.
Tesla’s autonomous ambitions are clearly coming into focus, one sensor at a time.
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