Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that the company has completed what it claims is the first-ever fully autonomous vehicle delivery to a customer, marking a milestone in the company’s efforts to commercialize self-driving technology.
According to Musk, the vehicle departed from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas and arrived at the customer’s location without a driver or remote operator at any point during the trip. “There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fully autonomous drive with no people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway.”
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI and Autopilot, noted that the vehicle reached speeds of up to 72 miles per hour during the delivery. The trip reportedly occurred a day ahead of Tesla’s original schedule, with a video of the journey expected to be released.
Previously, Tesla vehicles have transported themselves from production lines to logistics areas within Gigafactory Texas, but this delivery marks the first known instance of an unsupervised, autonomous highway journey to a customer.
Tesla recently launched an early access Robotaxi service in Austin, which currently includes safety monitors in passenger seats. However, the self-delivery suggests a broader vision in which Tesla vehicles could eventually transport themselves directly to owners from local distribution hubs.
The company has hinted that more autonomous deliveries may follow, though full-scale deployment remains a longer-term goal. This latest milestone was one of two key announcements Musk said Tesla aimed to achieve before the end of Q2.
