Tesla celebrates first self-driving delivery to customer

Elon Musk on Friday announced Tesla had accomplished a major self-driving milestone: The company's first fully autonomous Model Y drove itself to its new home.

“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,” Musk posted on Friday. “There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous.”

Although the post didn't include any photos or videos, Musk said a video of the event would be released soon. Tesla's head of AI and Autonomous Driving, Ashok Elluswamy, stated that the car reached a top speed of 72 mph.

Tesla gambles on AI-powered driverless cars

While the Model Y's highway voyage makes it among the first passenger vehicles to drive itself on an interstate without a human operator, Waymo autonomous cars were granted regulatory approval to start testing their driverless capabilities on freeways in 2024, according to their website — however, while testing is underway, Waymo's robotaxis can't take riders on the highway yet.

Musk had hinted at both events in a previous post on X this month, indicating that the company eventually plans to deploy millions of robotaxi vehicles on the road.

He is counting on future mass production of robotaxi vehicles and humanoid Optimus robots to support the next phase of the electric vehicle company's journey. This comes at a time when sales have declined in key markets like North America and Europe, and the company is facing consumer backlash over Musk's role in the Trump administration. Several executives have also resigned in recent weeks.