Tesla has pulled off the world’s first autonomous delivery of a vehicle, a car that drove itself to its new owner. The self-driving Tesla Model Y made the journey from the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, to a customer’s home about 30 minutes away, navigating highways, intersections, traffic signals, and city streets entirely on its own.
The milestone event was shared widely online, with Tesla first releasing a three-minute time-lapse teaser, followed by a full 30-minute video on Saturday.
The footage showed the Model Y departing from the Gigafactory garage with no one in the driver’s seat.Filmed from the back seat, the video captured the vehicle expertly maneuvering roads, executing turns, observing stop signs, yielding at red lights, and handling real-time traffic situations without any human intervention.Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI and Autopilot, confirmed that the vehicle reached speeds of up to 115 km per hour during the trip.
“The first fully autonomous delivery of a Tesla Model Y from factory to a customer home across town, including highways, was just completed a day ahead of schedule!!” Elon Musk wrote on X.
In a follow-up post, he wrote, “There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!” He added, “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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