Tesla celebrated a historic first on Friday when a brand new Mannequin Y left the manufacturing facility in Austin and—with out anybody within the automobile—drove itself to a ready buyer a half-hour away.
Already the second milestone this week after the industrial deployment of his robotaxi service, it marks an early birthday current for CEO Elon Musk. The entrepreneur had promised it to Tesla supporters for June 28, which is coincidentally when he turns 54 years previous.
“The primary absolutely autonomous supply of a Tesla Mannequin Y from manufacturing facility to a buyer residence throughout city, together with highways, was simply accomplished a day forward of schedule,” Musk posted on Friday. “There have been no folks within the automotive in any respect and no distant operators in management at any level. FULLY autonomous.”
Since that is utterly unsupervised full-self driving (FSD) in its first-ever sensible utility for the model, Tesla uploaded a video as proof. It paperwork from numerous angles the roughly 30-minute drive from the Austin manufacturing facility to 1515 S. Lamar Blvd. downtown, the place its new proprietor took possession.
Whether or not this supply is only a one-off take a look at or a part of a broader plan to revamp distribution stays unclear. Whereas it would in principle save on not less than a part of the $1,390 vacation spot price Tesla expenses, it dangers scratching or denting the automobile in transit—and even simply arriving on the buyer soiled, trying prefer it had simply been by a rainstorm.
First time {that a} automotive has delivered itself to its proprietor! https://t.co/xgZBRDaMiX— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025
Moreover, the Mannequin Y’s vary maxes out at an official 357 miles with actual world assessments indicating a decrease vary. Except it might drive from one Tesla service middle to the subsequent, in order that an worker might recharge it, the vary would restrict it to a radius inside Texas.
Lastly, laws on the bottom might make it outright unlawful as state governments at present decide beneath what situations autonomous autos, if in any respect, can drive on their roads.
Timing advantageous as Tesla poised to report steep Q2 gross sales drop
Within the case of Austin, for instance, metropolis officers advised Fortune they’d no say in what Musk’s firm did.
“Tesla made the Metropolis conscious of their intent to ship a completely autonomous automobile,” a spokesman for the Texas state capital mentioned. “Whereas the Metropolis doesn’t have the authority to manage these autos, we’ll proceed to work with the corporate to supply suggestions if public issues of safety come up.”
The autonomous supply additionally elicited skepticism as as to whether Tesla could be deceptive folks into believing the expertise is extra sturdy than it truly is. Some pointed to the actual fact the video was not livestreamed, however reasonably uploaded later.
As well as, the robotaxi service that started operation in Austin on Sunday nonetheless solely operates throughout sure hours, doesn’t drive to the airport, and encompasses a security monitor within the entrance passenger seat always.
World’s first autonomous supply of a automotive!
This Tesla drove itself from Gigafactory Texas to its new proprietor’s residence ~30min away — crossing parking tons, highways & the town to succeed in its new proprietor pic.twitter.com/WFSIaEU6Oq— Tesla (@Tesla) June 28, 2025
Furthermore, the timing is advantageous, as Musk has been trying to shift investor focus in the direction of the rollout of his robotaxi expertise and away from its struggling core enterprise of promoting EVs.
This coming week, Tesla is predicted to publish second-quarter international manufacturing and supply figures that present a 14% decline in deliveries to 383,000 autos, in line with the median estimate polled by the corporate’s investor relations staff.
Whereas a couple of skeptics are certain to stay mistrustful it doesn’t matter what, the suspicion is rooted partially in expertise.
Doctored ‘Paint It Black’ video one motive why suspicion lingers
Almost 9 years in the past, Tesla posted the same demonstration when it launched the “Paint It Black” video. It claimed {that a} automobile was driving fully by itself and the human behind the wheel was not even there to observe for security.
“The individual within the driver’s seat is just there for authorized causes,” it said within the video posted in October 2016. “He’s not doing something. The automotive is driving itself.”
Nope. Actually selected a random buyer who ordered a Mannequin Y within the Austin space. Automobile is strictly the identical as each Mannequin Y produced within the Tesla manufacturing facility.— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 28, 2025
Tesla’s AI director Ashok Elluswamy later testified in a sworn deposition the footage was not meant to be an correct illustration of the expertise. Each the video and the weblog put up have since been expunged fully from Tesla’s web site, however due to YouTube and internet archives they’re nonetheless viewable.
There was one other, more moderen instance, as properly. In October 2024, Musk showcased prototype robots interacting with human friends at an occasion with out telling anybody they have been tele-operated remotely by people.
Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark from Fortune.
However Elluswamy, who has risen the ranks at Tesla since engaged on the 2016 video, denied there was any trickery with the self-driving supply video on Friday.
“Actually selected a random buyer who ordered a Mannequin Y within the Austin space. Automobile is strictly the identical as each Mannequin Y produced within the Tesla manufacturing facility,” he replied to a query on X.
