Tesla has reached a groundbreaking milestone in autonomous vehicle technology by completing its first driverless delivery to a customer. On June 27, a Tesla Model Y SUV navigated itself from the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, to a nearby apartment building, marking a historic moment in automotive innovation.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, took to social media platform X to share the exciting news. “The first fully autonomous delivery of a Tesla Model Y from factory to a customer’s home across town, including highways, was just completed!” Musk announced, praising the efforts of Tesla’s artificial intelligence teams responsible for software and chip design.
A video shared by Tesla showcased the Model Y smoothly traversing public roads and highways with no one in the driver’s seat. The vehicle skillfully maneuvered through residential streets and parking lots before arriving at its destination, where the customer, accompanied by Tesla employees, received their new car.
While Tesla did not reveal the specific software and hardware used during the delivery, this event signifies a major step toward the future of fully autonomous vehicles. Currently, Tesla’s most advanced driver-assistance system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and be ready to take control at any moment. This driverless delivery demonstrated a new level of autonomous operation.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, mentioned that the customer was randomly selected from those who had ordered a Model Y in the Austin area. He also noted that the delivered vehicle was identical to any other Model Y produced at the factory, suggesting that this autonomous capability could soon become standard across Tesla’s production line.
This milestone brings the dream of fully autonomous driving one step closer to reality, heralding a new era in transportation technology.
