Tesla’s 2025.44.25.1 update introduces Unreal Engine visuals

Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update, labeled 2025.44.25.1, is now rolling out to owners and adds new navigation tools, 3D Supercharger maps, and an updated Santa Mode experience. At the same time, an unlisted upgrade has started to appear on 2021 and newer Model S and Model X vehicles, Unreal Engine-based visualizations on the main display.

Unreal Engine visualization - Holiday Update — @iQtedar_C | X

This change builds on groundwork Tesla laid earlier in 2025, when internal binaries for Unreal Engine began shipping to certain cars but were not yet visible to most drivers.

Video: Unreal Engine-based visualizations, HW3(Ryzen)

Loving the unreal fidelity and smoothness. Makes this "old" HW3(ryzen) feel new and relevant again! pic.twitter.com/O4Bo2iePI7
— Black Tesla (@blktsla) December 10, 2025

From Godot to Unreal Engine

For years, Tesla relied on the open-source Godot engine to render driving visualizations that represent nearby vehicles, road markings, and objects around the car. Now the company is pivoting to Unreal Engine that game consoles like PlayStation 5 already use. It widely used for high-end video games and automotive demos.

In August 2025, firmware builds starting with version 2025.20 began to contain Unreal Engine components that were active only on AMD-powered Model S and Model X vehicles.

Hardware advantage of Model S And X

Unreal Engine demands far more graphics performance than the older setup, so Tesla is only enabling it on cars with the strongest infotainment hardware. The 2021+ Model S and Model X use Tesla’s MCU3 system, which pairs an AMD Ryzen processor with an AMD Navi 23 discrete GPU that can deliver up to about 10 teraflops of performance, similar to modern gaming consoles.

By contrast, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with MCU3 rely on an AMD Ryzen APU without a separate discrete GPU. Owners and teardown reports have confirmed that these cars lack the dedicated graphics card that the flagship models use, which limits their ability to run the full Unreal Engine feature set.

What drivers can see after the update

The official 2025.44.25.1 release notes focus on visible features such as new Grok-based voice and navigation tools, refreshed 3D Supercharger site maps, improvements to Dashcam review, and a revised Santa Mode. Yet owners of 2021+ Model S and Model X report richer effects and smoother animations in visual elements tied to holiday features, which point to Unreal Engine rendering behind the scenes.

Beyond holiday graphics, Unreal Engine can change how Autopilot and Full Self-Driving visualizations look and feel on the screen. With more rendering headroom, Tesla can draw more precise vehicle shapes, better lane geometry, and richer roadside objects such as cones, barriers, raised curbs, and construction elements.

Previous reports noted that Tesla’s software could detect many items that never appeared in the visualization, partly because the existing engine lacked a flexible library of models and effects. Unreal Engine gives Tesla a framework to expand that library and to introduce smoother transitions as objects move through the field of view. Over time, owners may see a closer match between what the car’s neural networks perceive and what is rendered on the display.

Why only some cars get the upgrade

This update raises questions about who gains access and who is left out. Since Unreal Engine visualizations depend heavily on the discrete AMD GPU in the 2021+ Model S and Model X, cars without that hardware will likely stay on the older visualization stack. That includes many Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, along with Cybertruck units built with current infotainment boards.

Owners of Intel Atom-based MCU2 vehicles already face software limits in several newer features, and this graphics change draws another line between legacy and current hardware.

For now, the most visible changes are in festive features like Santa Mode and 3D Supercharger maps, but the underlying graphics shift is much larger than a seasonal tweak. As updates continue through 2026, 2021+ Model S and Model X owners are in the best position to benefit, since their AMD-based MCU3 hardware and discrete GPU give Tesla room to keep expanding Unreal Engine-based visualizations over time.

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