On June 27, Tesla marked a milestone with its first fully driverless Model Y delivery, autonomously driving from the Gigafactory in Austin to a nearby apartment complex without a human in the front seats.
In a celebratory post on X, Elon Musk wrote: "The first fully autonomous delivery of a Tesla Model Y from factory to a customer home across town, including highways, was just completed!" He lauded Tesla’s AI teams for the feat.
Video footage released by Tesla shows the SUV handling highways, residential streets, and parking maneuvers—proof of its advanced navigation capabilities. This landmark event underscores a major leap toward autonomous mobility.
Today, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system still demands driver vigilance. Yet this autonomous run demonstrated a more independent level of operation, even though the exact software and hardware versions remain under wraps.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI, revealed the customer was randomly chosen from Model Y orders in the Austin area. Since the delivered vehicle is identical to standard production models, Tesla could roll out this fully autonomous feature across its entire fleet.
Looking beyond Austin, this milestone hints at new possibilities: seamless delivery services, robotaxis, and more personalized travel experiences—transforming mobility for everyone, from city dwellers to globe-trotting digital nomads.
As Tesla charts this new path, one question remains: are we ready to let algorithms steer our daily journeys?
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
