Tesla’s Halloween Mode is out in software update 2026.38.3: the car’s on-screen avatar wears a ghost costume, and a Trick or Treat setting plays spooky sounds and flickers the lights when someone walks up to the parked car. Tesla announced it on October 6 with a new light show, wraps, a lock sound, a photo booth, and a way to speak through the car from the app.
The Five Additions in Tesla’s Halloween Mode
Tesla’s October 6 post on X lists five additions:
- “Ghost costume on your car’s avatar”
- “Enable Trick or Treat to play spooky sounds & flicker the lights when visitors approach”
- “New haunting light show, wraps & lock sound”
- “A rather chilling Photobooth”
- “Frighten people remotely by speaking through the app…your car will say it in a voice of its own”
“This spooky update turns your Tesla into a haunted house on wheels,” Tesla wrote in the post, which ends with the line “Side effects may include neighborhood notoriety.”
Green Cars and Skeleton Pedestrians on the Touchscreen
The driving display shows the car as a white sheet ghost with red eyes, the other cars on the road in green, and the pedestrians on the sidewalk as skeletons, in the first of the three screenshots on Tesla’s post. On the parked screen, the car sits under a sheet with eye holes in a graveyard with jack-o’-lanterns, a haunted house and a full moon.
A switch on the parked screen reads “Trick or Treat Enabled,” and the text under it says, “When you exit the vehicle, Model 3 will play spooky sounds when visitors approach.”
The third screenshot shows two Photobooth frames of people making scared faces in the car, captioned “Happy Halloween” and “Trick or Treat.”
How to Get Update 2026.38.3
Update 2026.38.3 arrives over Wi-Fi: Tesla’s support site says a notification appears on the touchscreen when an update is ready, and the Software tab on the touchscreen and the Tesla app both show whether one is available. Tesla named the version in a reply to its post, “More updates w/ 2026.38.3.”
Tesla’s post does not say which models get Halloween Mode or how long it stays, and the screenshot with the Trick or Treat switch is from a Model 3.
Rivian’s Ghostbusters Mode and Home Depot’s Talking Skelly
Rivian’s Halloween mode for 2026 is a Ghostbusters theme made with Sony Pictures, and it also has a Trick or Treat mode, which greets costumed visitors with Ghostbusters sound effects and lights. It runs through November 1, and my Rivian Halloween mode article has its six features and the showroom event dates.
Home Depot’s 12-foot Skelly has app-controlled voice modulation this year, and it is in my guide to the 2026 Halloween animatronics.
Halloween Mode has been rolling out since October 6. Tesla’s post, with all three screenshots, is on its X account.
