Tesla Robotaxi surprises LA drivers with bizarre windshield wiper trick

A man sitting in a Tesla Robotaxi in Los Angeles was left impressed by a neat trick the EV’s windshield wipers did during the ride.

The much-talked-about autonomous taxi service has now officially been launched in Austin, Texas. 

With Tesla currently working away on its Cybercab, it launched the service using its Model Y. 

And one user recently spotted a neat feature that’s been added to the Robotaxi Model Y vehicles.

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The Tesla Robotaxi has a never-before-seen windshield feature

The newly launched Tesla Robotaxi service works much like a traditional ride-hailing service. You use an app on your phone to book a car, but instead of a driver turning up, an autonomous vehicle arrives. 

The concept isn’t new. Autonomous taxi companies, like Waymo, have been operating for a while now. 

But, of course, Tesla is using its own vehicles for the Robotaxi service.

A purpose-built Cybercab is set to be launched in the future, but for now the autonomous service is using Model Ys. 

And it seems the Model Ys have been slightly modified for the new job and now feature a neat little windshield wiper trick. 

The cars have been equipped with a camera cleaning feature, so they can clean their two primary front-facing cameras while on the move. 

The car uses the cameras to ‘see’, so keeping them clean is vital. 

The new feature uses a unique wiper and spray sequence that directly targets the portion of the windshield where the camera is and can clean away dirt, grime, or dead bugs. 

It only cleans the small area where the cameras are located, which measures around 6 inches by 4 inches, as the rest of the windscreen isn’t needed.

A couple of guys out and about in one of the new autonomous taxis were left impressed by the smart feature. 

Robotaxi special camera cleaning ability! pic.twitter.com/92FWDmQnqj— Dirty Tesla (@DirtyTesLa) June 23, 2025

“Look at this, it’s cleaning off the cameras, specifically,” one of the riders in the clip said.

“It doesn’t need the whole windshield, it just needs that one little area.”

Rolling out the Robotaxi

Tesla initially soft-launched its Robotaxi service in certain cities, exclusively for the use of its employees.

Then, following weeks of speculation, it was rolled out to the public in Austin, Texas. 

Looking to the future, the EV maker plans to bring it to more cities, including Los Angeles and San Antonio.

Before launching in any city, Tesla will need to ensure it has the proper permits in place.

The Austin rollout has kicked off with just a handful of cars, but Tesla boss Elon Musk has previously said he thinks the company will ‘probably be at a thousand [vehicles] within a few months’.The post Tesla Robotaxi surprises LA drivers with bizarre windshield wiper trick appeared first on Supercar Blondie.