Tesla's graphics are about to get Unreal
Tesla vehicles could soon offer a significantly enhanced visual experience, particularly for their advanced driver-assistance systems, as evidence suggests a potential shift to Epic Games’ powerful Unreal Engine. This anticipated upgrade, initially reported by Not a Tesla App based on findings by the well-known Tesla hacker “greentheonly,” indicates that the change is present in Tesla’s 2025.20 firmware, specifically for Model S and Model X cars equipped with AMD processors.
Unreal Engine is globally recognized as a premier development tool for high-fidelity video games, celebrated for its capacity to render incredibly realistic and complex graphical environments. In recent years, however, its creator, Epic Games, has aggressively expanded its reach into the automotive sector, positioning Unreal Engine as a versatile solution for advanced in-car displays and user interfaces. Currently, Tesla’s in-car visualizations, which provide crucial real-time feedback for features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, reportedly rely on the Godot engine. A transition to Unreal Engine would represent a substantial leap in graphical capability.
This move would align Tesla with a growing cohort of prominent automakers already integrating Epic’s sophisticated engine into their vehicles. Companies such as Rivian, Ford, GMC, Volvo, and Lotus have embraced Unreal Engine to power everything from their infotainment systems to detailed digital instrument clusters. For Tesla, this could translate into a more fluid, detailed, and immersive representation of the vehicle’s surroundings—visualizing traffic, road conditions, and obstacles with unprecedented clarity and dynamism, thereby enhancing driver comprehension and trust in the autonomous systems.
The potential adoption of Unreal Engine also highlights a broader industry trend: the increasing demand for intuitive and visually rich in-car experiences that go beyond mere data display. Given that Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance systems constantly process vast amounts of real-time environmental data, the ability to render this information with cinematic quality could significantly improve user interaction and the overall driving experience. This wouldn’t be the first connection between the two companies; Epic Games notably featured Tesla’s Cybertruck within its popular game Fortnite last year, indicating a pre-existing relationship. While neither Tesla nor Epic Games has yet commented on the potential integration, the discovery points towards a future where interacting with a Tesla’s dashboard becomes a more visually compelling and intuitive experience.