Additional Coverage:
- Tesla’s first fully autonomous car drove itself to its new Texas owner, doing 72 mph on the highway, an engineer says (businessinsider.com)
Tesla Achieves Self-Driving Milestone with Autonomous Model Y Delivery
Elon Musk announced a significant achievement for Tesla on Friday: a fully autonomous Model Y successfully delivered itself to a customer’s home. This marks the first time a Tesla vehicle has completed a fully autonomous delivery, navigating city streets and highways without any human intervention.
Musk proudly shared the news on X, emphasizing that the Model Y drove itself from the factory to the customer’s residence with no one inside or remotely controlling the vehicle. He hailed the accomplishment as the first fully autonomous drive on a public highway with no human involvement whatsoever. Tesla engineer Ashok Elluswamy added that the vehicle reached speeds of up to 72 miles per hour on the highway, a pace Musk described as “zippy!”.
While Tesla’s achievement is undoubtedly a major step forward for self-driving technology, it’s worth noting that other companies have also made strides in autonomous driving, particularly in the freight and robotaxi sectors. Companies like Waymo and Aurora have been testing autonomous vehicles on highways, albeit with varying levels of operational freedom.
This successful delivery represents a significant milestone for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology, a feature that has faced repeated delays since its initial projected launch in 2017. While the exact route and speed limits of the Model Y’s journey remain undisclosed, the achievement signifies a potential turning point in the development and implementation of autonomous driving technology.