Tesla delivers driverless Model Y to customer to showcase robotaxi

Tesla recently completed what CEO Elon Musk described as the first “autonomous delivery” of a customer vehicle. A Model Y SUV drove itself roughly 15 miles from Tesla’s factory to the new owner’s apartment complex in Austin, Texas, without anyone inside or remote assistance.

This feat followed Tesla’s launch of a limited robotaxi service in Austin, using similar self-driving software. However, the delivered Model Y was downgraded upon arrival to Tesla’s commercially available Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system. This system still requires drivers to stay alert and be ready to take control.

The journey, captured in a 30-minute video (with a sped-up 3.5-minute version also shared), navigated challenging real-world scenarios including highway merges, right turns on red, roundabouts, and unprotected left turns. These maneuvers had been difficult for autonomous systems just a few years ago, marking significant progress in Tesla’s self-driving capabilities.

Industry Comparisons and Questions Raised

Tesla is not alone in tackling such mixed urban and highway environments. Competitors like Waymo operate autonomous vehicles in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco (though currently limited to employee use). Similarly, Zoox showcased a driverless ride in Las Vegas on roads with speeds up to 45 mph earlier this year.

Despite Tesla’s public display, important questions remain:

• What preparations did Tesla make before sending the car on this route?
• Were pre-mapped routes or external sensors like lidar (previously spotted in Austin) involved?
• Can the software repeat this drive safely hundreds or thousands of times without human or remote intervention?

Tesla has not responded to media inquiries about these details.

Reflecting on Tesla’s Past Claims

Tesla’s 2016 video of a self-driving car navigating the Bay Area—later admitted to be staged and heavily prepped—looms over this new milestone. Elon Musk was closely involved in that earlier production, which portrayed possibilities rather than current capabilities.

The promise Musk made years ago about Tesla cars driving autonomously coast-to-coast from Los Angeles to New York remains unfulfilled. The current autonomous delivery hints at progress but leaves open questions about scalability and reliability.

Criticism and Context

Tesla’s self-driving software continues to attract critics. Dan O’Dowd, a vocal opponent of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, noted in an email that the Model Y ended its journey stopped in a fire lane outside the customer’s apartment, a minor flaw in an otherwise impressive demonstration.

Notably, this critique is modest compared to O’Dowd’s recent controversial actions, such as using child-sized dummies to test Model Y responses.

Tesla’s driverless delivery of a Model Y showcases a significant advancement in autonomous vehicle technology, demonstrating complex navigation without human intervention. However, questions about preparation, repeatability, and scalability persist. The journey marks a milestone, but the road to fully reliable, mass-deployed robotaxi services remains long and uncertain.