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Tesla boss Elon Musk said his firm has completed its first-ever driverless car delivery to a customer – a milestone that comes as struggling automaker scrambles to reverse a recent sales slump.
A Tesla Model Y SUV drove itself from the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas to a customer’s house last Friday. Tesla shared a time-lapse video of the journal and noted that the car drove about 30 minutes while “crossing parking lots, highways & the city to reach its new owner.”
“There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!” Musk wrote in an X post touting the accomplishment.
Tesla’s AI chief Ashok Elluswamy said the company “literally chose a random customer who ordered a Model Y in the Austin area.” The vehicle hit a max speed of 72 miles per hour.
“Vehicle is exactly the same as every Model Y produced in the Tesla factory,” he added.
Tesla shares were down about 1% in early trading Monday. The company’s stock has fallen more than 15% since the start of the year.
Musk’s firm has ramped up displays of its “Full Self-Driving” software in recent days during a significant rough patch in its once-booming business. Tesla has lost ground to Chinese electric vehicle makers such as BYD in key markets Europe and China.
Tesla has also faced investor questions over its aging car lineup and a brand image crisis related to Musk’s controversial work with President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency. In a potential sign of turmoil, Musk reportedly fired his longtime Tesla “fixer” Omead Afshar last week.
The self-driving vehicle delivery took place just days after Tesla launched its Robotaxi program on a limited basis in Austin.
While the test drew some positive reviews from influencers and analysts who participated in carefully-managed trial runs for Robotaxi, others pointed out that the autonomous vehicles occasionally struggled or failed to obey local traffic laws.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – which has scrutinized Tesla for years of the safety of its self-driving technology – said it asked the company for more information about its Robotaxi test.
Musk has suggested that autonomous driving technology can add $5 trillion to $10 trillion to Tesla’s market capitalization by transforming its vehicles into an instant productive fleet.
Tesla is directly competing with Google-owned Waymo and others in the self-driving car space.
English (US)