With the release of FSD Beta 11.3, Tesla has taken a massive leap toward realizing its dream of complete vehicle autonomy. The company even recently trumpeted its first driverless delivery of a new car to a customer. On June 27, CEO Elon Musk revealed that a Tesla Model Y SUV was autonomously driven from the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, to a nearby apartment building. This occurrence marks a historic progression for the car manufacturer. They are committed to realizing their electric vehicles (EVs) as fully autonomous killing machines.
Elon Musk shared on Twitter that the delivery was completed one day ahead of schedule. What was perhaps most significant was his emphasis that the whole trip was a completely driverless ride—no one inside the vehicle or remotely controlling it. He affirmed, “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.” The Model Y sped along the course, reaching jaw-dropping speeds of up to 72 miles per hour. This was a bit higher than Texas’s new 70 mile per hour maximum highway speed limit.
Yet despite the event’s undeniable success, Musk called for restraint. He cautioned against promoting this as the “first fully autonomous drive” on public highways. To unpack what’s going on here, his comments highlight a growing tension within the industry. This tension focuses on the big promises of complete autonomy and the reality of current self-driving operations.
During the years leading up to this achievement, Musk promised big. He promised that Tesla would achieve full autonomy on all existing EVs very soon, all via over-the-air software updates. And ever since 2016, Tesla got a free ride on that clarity of communication. This was perfectly illustrated by the recent dropping of the now-infamous “Paint It Black” Autopilot demonstration video. That footage was subsequently condemned for being theatrically contrived to overemphasize the autonomous strengths of Tesla cars.
Musk’s grand pronouncements have brought praise and scorn in equal measure. Back in 2019, he made the audacious claim that Tesla would have one million robotaxis on the road by 2020. That bold assertion in turn attracted $2 billion from institutional investors to fund it. As it stands, Tesla continues to navigate challenges in achieving these projections while competing with other companies in the autonomous driving sector.
Independent startup and Alphabet-owned Waymo began providing completely driverless rides to employees on Phoenix-area freeways in 2024. Since, Real Time has widened its net, adding services in Los Angeles and San Francisco. This competition underscores the relentless autonomous vehicle gold rush among tech companies to claim leadership in the development of AV technology.
We were able to get more context on the delivery process from Ashok Elluswamy, a key member of the Tesla AI team. He noted that Tesla “literally chose a random customer who ordered a Model Y in the Austin area,” further emphasizing the regularity and accessibility of this technology. He pointed out that the Model Y involved in this delivery was “exactly the same as every Model Y produced in the Tesla factory,” underscoring that no special modifications were made for this specific autonomous delivery.
This achievement is more than just moving the needle on technology advancement. To that end it ignites all sorts of critical inquiries regarding safety, regulation, and consumer acceptance of fully autonomous vehicles. Tesla is raising the bar on innovation here. Next, we look toward how regulators will respond and how consumers will adopt and accept these changes.