A Tesla emblem outdoors the corporate’s Tilburg Manufacturing unit and Supply Middle.
Karol Serewis | Getty Pictures
Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned the automaker accomplished its first driverless supply of a brand new automotive to a buyer, routing a Mannequin Y SUV from the corporate’s Austin, Texas, Gigafactory to an house constructing within the space on June 27.
The Tesla account on social community X, which can be owned by Musk, shared a video in a single day displaying the Mannequin Y traversing public roads in Austin, together with highways, with no human within the driver’s seat or entrance passenger seat of the automotive.
Tesla didn’t say which model of its software program and {hardware} had been put in and used within the automotive proven within the clip — or if and when that expertise can be commercially out there to its prospects.
A Mannequin Y house owners’ guide, out there on the Tesla web site, says that with a purpose to use Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) possibility — which is the corporate’s most superior, partially automated driving system out there at present — house owners should hold their palms on the wheel, and stay able to take over steering or braking at any time.
The automobile in Tesla’s video was proven working with out a driver on the freeway, passing by way of residential streets and round parking tons earlier than arriving and stopping for a handoff to a buyer. The customer was ready by the curb at an house constructing alongside Tesla workers, some sporting logo-emblazoned shirts. (The curb was painted purple, indicating it’s a no-stop fireplace lane.)
In 2016, Tesla shared an Autopilot video — often called the “Paint It Black” video — that had been staged in a fashion which exaggerated its automobiles self-driving capabilities, depositions later revealed.
The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Tesla over doable security defects of their FSD programs, and just lately sought extra info from the corporate about its robotaxi debut after its automobiles had been seen violating some site visitors guidelines.
In posts on X on Friday, Musk wrote: “The primary totally autonomous supply of a Tesla Mannequin Y from manufacturing unit to a buyer residence throughout city, together with highways, was simply accomplished a day forward of schedule!! Congratulations to the @Tesla_AI groups, each software program & AI chip design!”
He additionally wrote, “There have been no folks within the automotive in any respect and no distant operators in management at any level. FULLY autonomous! To the very best of our information, that is the primary totally autonomous drive with no folks within the automotive or remotely working the automotive on a public freeway.”
Musk’s declare concerning the “first totally autonomous drive” on a public freeway was not correct. Alphabet-owned Waymo, which is already working business robotaxi providers throughout a number of U.S. cities, has been providing workers totally autonomous rides on Phoenix freeways since 2024, and has since expanded these rides to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Head of AI at Tesla, Ashok Elluswamy, mentioned in posts on X that the automaker “actually selected a random buyer who ordered a Mannequin Y within the Austin space” to take part. He additionally mentioned the automobile delivered is “precisely the identical as each Mannequin Y produced within the Tesla manufacturing unit.”
Elluswamy additionally famous in a publish on X that the Mannequin Y within the driverless supply traveled at a “max pace of 72 mph.” Most highways in Texas have a most pace restrict of 70 miles per hour, in keeping with the Texas Division of Transportation web site.
Individually, Tesla started a robotaxi pilot program in Austin final weekend involving 10 to twenty of its Mannequin Y SUVs geared up with expertise, about which Tesla has revealed little to the general public.
The Tesla robotaxi service is out there solely to pick, invited riders who’ve largely been influencers and analysts, lots of whom generate earnings by posting Tesla-fan content material on platforms like X and YouTube. The Tesla robotaxi automobiles run with a human security supervisor on board within the entrance passenger seat, and are remotely supervised by workers in an operations heart.
Since 2016, Musk has been promising that Tesla would quickly be capable of flip all of its present EVs into totally autonomous automobiles with a easy, over-the-air software program replace. In his Grasp Plan, Half Deux, he outlined a future the place each Tesla proprietor would be capable of add their automotive to a “Tesla shared fleet simply by tapping a button on the Tesla cellphone app,” enabling their automotive to generate earnings for them whereas they sleep.
In 2019, Musk mentioned Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis on the highway by 2020 — a declare that helped him increase $2 billion on the time from institutional traders.
Whereas Tesla has not fulfilled these guarantees to date, the driverless supply in Texas this week has elicited pleasure amongst believers in Musk and his imaginative and prescient.
In the meantime, Tesla is battling a model backlash in response to the CEO’s typically incendiary political rhetoric, his endorsements of Germany’s far-right extremist social gathering AfD, and his work for the Trump administration.
Tesla gross sales have declined year-over-year in key markets, particularly all through Europe, within the first 5 months of 2025 partly on account of that backlash. The corporate can be going through elevated competitors from EV makers, notably Chinese language manufacturers akin to BYD, Nio and Xiaomi, providing extra reasonably priced and newer fashions.
Tesla is predicted to reveal its second-quarter automobile manufacturing and supply numbers on July 2.
