Amid a controversial and error-prone robotaxi rollout in Austin this week, Tesla claims it has completed its first “fully autonomous delivery” of a vehicle from the factory to a customer’s home.
According to Tesla’s official X account, the new Model Y traveled roughly 30 minutes from the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, across “parking lots, highways, and the city to reach its new owner.” Tesla engineer Ashok Elluswamy said in a separate post that the vehicle achieved a brisk 72 miles per hour on the highway.
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“There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!” CEO Elon Musk wrote on X. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fully autonomous drive with no people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway.”
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But several EV-focused publications, such as Electrek, dispute Musk’s claim that this is the first fully autonomous journey to take place on a public highway.
In January 2024, Waymo announced that employees could take fully autonomous trips on the freeway in Phoenix, Arizona. These services were later rolled out to San Francisco and Los Angeles, though they are only available to Waymo employees, not the general public. Meanwhile, autonomous freight firm Aurora says it’s been operating fully autonomous deliveries on highways between Dallas and Houston since May 2025.
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But it makes sense why Musk would want to play up Tesla’s autonomous victories. Only a few days into the robotaxi rollout, the new fleet has been hit with safety concerns from regulators. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told Bloomberg earlier this week it had contacted Tesla over videos of the company’s robotaxis breaking traffic laws.
One video showed a Tesla robotaxi driving into the wrong lane and then continuing to travel along the wrong side of the road for several seconds. Another, taken from a different car traveling alongside a robotaxi, showed the vehicle braking hard after traveling past a police car.
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About Will McCurdy
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