US electric car company Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced that a Tesla Model Y SUV has completed a driverless journey from the factory in Austin to a customer’s home.
Musk posted on the social media platform X that Tesla successfully delivered a Model Y to a customer’s home autonomously, covering a journey that “spanned towns” and included highways. Musk emphasized that there were no passengers in the car throughout the delivery process, and no remote operators controlling the vehicle.
This marks the latest demonstration of Tesla showcasing its autonomous driving technology.
Musk revealed that a video of this delivery will soon be released.
Tesla’s head of artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, Ashok Elluswamy, stated that the electric vehicle reached a top speed of 72 miles per hour (116 kilometers per hour) during the driverless journey to the customer’s home.
This delivery ahead of the initial scheduled autonomous delivery date set by Musk (June 28) by one day. Musk is set to celebrate his 54th birthday on the 28th.
A few days ago, Tesla launched its long-awaited autonomous driving rental car service on June 22, offering a fleet of small autonomous driving Model Y SUVs to a select group within limited areas in Austin.
Earlier this month, Musk previewed these two developments in a post on X, announcing the company’s plan to eventually put millions of autonomous driving rental cars on the road.
Musk aims to mass-produce autonomous driving rental cars and humanoid robots in order to pave the way for a new chapter in the electric car company’s history. Despite challenges in key markets such as North America and Europe, Tesla’s sales have yet to emerge from a downward trend.
This hands-free delivery service is an extension of a feature heavily promoted by Tesla in April this year, when the company released a video demonstrating how vehicles automatically move from the assembly line in Texas to the logistics area before shipment. It remains unclear whether autonomous delivery will become a significant component of Tesla’s operations.