Tesla delivered its first vehicle fully autonomously from factory to customer on Friday, with a Model Y electric SUV driving itself from the company's Texas facility to a home in Austin without any human occupant or remote supervision.
The milestone, announced by CEO Elon Musk on X, represents Tesla's latest push into autonomous driving technology and comes just five days after the company launched its robotaxi service in the same city.
The Model Y traveled "across town" from Gigafactory Texas to the customer's residence, including highway driving where it reached a maximum speed of 72 mph, according to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's head of AI and autopilot12.
"There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!" Musk wrote on X, adding that the delivery was completed one day ahead of schedule13.
Musk claimed this was "the first fully autonomous drive with no people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway," though autonomous vehicle company Waymo has operated driverless vehicles on highways in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles3.
The autonomous delivery follows Tesla's June 22 launch of its robotaxi service in Austin, where the company deployed 10-20 driverless Model Y vehicles for select passengers in a limited area1. Unlike the robotaxi service, which includes safety monitors in the front seat, Friday's delivery operated without any human supervision.
Tesla has been moving vehicles autonomously within its factory grounds for months, making this cross-city journey a notable expansion of its autonomous capabilities2.
Tesla's autonomous driving technology has faced scrutiny from safety regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has investigated multiple crashes involving Tesla's Full Self-Driving system, particularly in reduced visibility conditions1. In December 2023, Tesla recalled nearly 2 million vehicles following an NHTSA investigation into approximately 1,000 crashes involving its Autopilot system1.
Critics have also questioned Tesla's classification of its Full Self-Driving technology as a Level 2 driver assistance system rather than full autonomy, with one analysis suggesting Tesla has "rolled out a fleet of 400,000 fully autonomous vehicles, without any of the regulations and testing that should apply"2.
Tesla's FSD fleet has accumulated over 1 billion miles of driving data as of April 20243. Musk promised video of Friday's autonomous delivery would be released soon45.
