With the Canadian release of Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta hopefully just a few days away, a Model Y with Tesla’s California manufacturer plates has been spotted in Ontario, Canada.
What makes this sighting interesting is not that it had manufacturer plates, but that it was equipped with rooftop Lidar.
This same setup has been seen before in California and several other US states, but this is the first time one of these test vehicles has found its way north of the border.
This particular Model Y was seen this week at the intersection of Interchange Way and Hwy 7 in Vaughan, Ontario by Kenny Thach, who provided these photos to Drive Tesla.
Naturally the big question is why did Tesla send this car to Canada, and why now?
Based on previous sightings we know that these test vehicles are being used for ground truthing Tesla’s FSD, or in other words, to validate the information gathered by the vehicle’s cameras with what is being seen by the Lidar sensors.
This leads us to believe that Tesla is using this Model Y, and possibly other test vehicles like it, to do some last minute testing before releasing FSD Beta in Canada.
Hopefully it is just last minute testing, and that this sighting doesn’t mean there is another delay before a public release of the software.
UPDATE March 25 2:15pm PST: we have just heard from one of our readers that another Lidar-equipped Model Y was spotted this afternoon in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Unfortunately they were not able to get any photos of it.
Have you seen a Tesla car like this elsewhere in Canada? Let us know in the comments below, or reach out to us at tips@driveteslacanada.ca.
Tesla Model Y with LiDAR equipment spotted driving on Bay Area roads
