Overview

• On June 28, a Tesla Model Y drove itself from the Austin Gigafactory to a customer’s home, covering about 15 miles in 30 minutes with no occupants or remote control.
• The video shows the car autonomously navigating parking lots, suburban streets, intersections and highways using its vision-only Full Self-Driving system.
• Federal regulators opened an NHTSA probe into Tesla’s robotaxi pilot after incidents of wrong-way driving and emergency braking in early trials.
• Tesla’s camera-and-AI approach contrasts with Waymo’s lidar-equipped fleets, which have provided employee-only, driverless highway service for over a year.
• Analysts caution that the pre-mapped, geofenced route and Tesla’s continued use of safety monitors in its robotaxis suggest the demo may not reflect everyday conditions.