Recently, Elon Musk announced that Tesla has completed the delivery of its first fully autonomous vehicle, a Model Y SUV that departed from the Texas Austin Gigafactory and drove itself to a residential area nearby. Tesla shared a video on the X platform showing the Model Y navigating Austin's public roads, including highways, without a driver or passengers on board.
Musk stated on X that Tesla has autonomously delivered the Model Y straight from the factory to customers' homes, completing the journey through cities and highways a day ahead of schedule. He praised the efforts of the Tesla AI team, particularly in software and AI chip design, highlighting that during this process, there were no people inside the vehicle and no remote operators controlling it. This marks a historic moment as it represents the first achievement of fully autonomous driving on public highways.
Tesla AI's head, Ashok Elluswamy, also mentioned on X that this delivery involved a randomly selected customer who ordered a Model Y in the Austin area. He pointed out that the delivered vehicle is identical to all Model Y cars produced at Tesla's factory, and revealed that the vehicle reached a maximum speed of 72 miles per hour (about 116 kilometers) during its autonomous delivery process.
Tesla's newly released video showcases the entire delivery process, kicking off with operations inside the Gigafactory. Throughout the journey, the Model Y travels completely unoccupied. The vehicle is then seen cruising on external roads, accompanied by a Cybertruck filming the scene. The footage captures the car weaving through residential neighborhoods and parking lots, ultimately arriving at the customer's home where the buyer awaits by the roadside, with a Tesla employee assisting with the handover. It’s worth noting that the red zones marked on the roadside indicate that this is a no-parking fire lane.
However, there are opinions suggesting that Elon Musk's mention of First Fully Autonomous Driving is not entirely accurate. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has been operating commercial robot taxi services in several cities across the United States and plans to offer fully autonomous driving services on highways in Phoenix in 2024, with further expansion to Los Angeles and San Francisco afterwards.
Last weekend, Tesla kicked off a pilot program for its robotaxi service in Austin, which will involve 10 to 20 Model Y SUVs equipped with autonomous driving technology. Currently, this service is only open to a select group of invited passengers, including some influencers and analysts who earn extra income by posting Tesla-related content on platforms like X and YouTube. These robotic taxis are equipped with a human safety supervisor sitting in the front passenger seat.
Source: YouTube
