Overview

• On June 27 a Tesla Model Y drove itself about 15 miles from the Austin Gigafactory to a customer’s home with no human driver or remote operator in control.
• A 30-minute video released June 28 captures the car navigating parking lots, traffic lights, intersections, highways and parking itself under the owner’s building.
• Tesla’s head of AI and Autopilot, Ashok Elluswamy, confirmed the vehicle reached speeds up to 72 mph during the autonomous journey.
• Observers point out that Waymo has been running fully driverless highway services for over a year, raising questions about Tesla’s claimed novelty.
• Tesla’s invite-only robotaxi pilot remains active in a geofenced area of Austin with human safety monitors under Texas regulations, and regulators have flagged early safety-critical incidents.