Elon Musk’s Tesla dropped a 30-minute video designed to electrify fans and agitate debate. Posted on June 28, the clip shows what Musk claims is a historic milestone: the first Tesla model y to drive from factory to a customer at home, without a person inside and without remote operation.
“The first completely autonomous delivery of Tesla Model Y from factory to customer home through the city, including highways, was just completed a day before the schedule !!” Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) on 27 June.
The Model Y, the world’s best -selling vehicle, sails parking spaces, roads, intersections and city streets, following traffic signals and stopping for pedestrians. The destination? A very happy home of owner about 30 minutes away from Tesla’s Austin Gigactory.
Come hang with us & model y for 30 minutes
Full drive in 1x speed below https://t.co/lcclc85hsn pic.twitter.com/3ki7styhsa
– Tesla (@tesla) June 28, 2025
Musk didn’t hold back at all: “There were no people in the car and no remote operators at any time. Totally autonomous!” He continued: “To our knowledge, this is the first completely autonomous drive with no people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway.”
There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators at any time. Totally autonomous!
To our knowledge, this is the first completely autonomous drive without people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 27, 2025
Fans on X were ecstatic. “Thank you for changing the world and how we work” wrote one.
Thanks for changing the world and how we work – really phenomenal to testify to the story. Only curious: If Tesla now has the Te Techniko, where a car can drive itself completely autonomously from a factory to the customer’s home through the city (even on roads!), Could you help us …
– aiagent (@ai_voiceage) June 27, 2025
“Fantastic to see this happening,” said another.
Wonderful to see this happening and just shy of the 5th anniversary of the start of building a giga Texas! Historical!
– Joe rotmeyer 🚀 🤠🛸😎 🤠🛸😎 🤠🛸😎 🤠🛸😎 🤠🛸😎 🤠🛸😎 (@joetegtmeyer) June 27, 2025
It is the kind of video that makes you believe that the future has finally arrived. But this is Elon Musk and Tesla, which we are talking about with a long history of over-promising and sub-delivery of self-driving technology. To understand what really happens, you need to understand the high, multi-million dollar races to build a really autonomous car.
The Technical Wars: Cameras vs Lasers
In the heart of the self-driving race are two fundamentally different philosophies.
On the one hand, you have Tesla. Its “full self-driving” (FSD) system depends almost exclusively on cameras and AI. The approach, known as “Tesla Vision”, argues that if people can drive with only two eyes, a car must be able to do the same with eight cameras by providing a 360-degree view. The car’s computer “sees” the world and makes decisions based on a huge amount of video data it has been trained. It is visibly impressive and lower cost, as it avoids expensive hardware.
On the other hand, you have companies like Waymo (owned by Google’s parent company, alphabet). Waymo’s system also uses cameras and radar, but its key sensor is LIDAR (light detection and scope). Lidar units turn around, firing millions of laser beams for a second to create a hyper-precise, real-time 3D map of the outskirts of the car. This gives the car superhuman ability to “see” distances, shapes and objects with precise detail, day or night. It is more expensive but widely regarded many in the industry as a more robust and redundant system.
The cuttings are colossal: the company that splits true, level 5 autonomy – where a car can drive anywhere, anywhere, without any human intervention – will not rule only the car industry, but will also revolutionize logistics, transportation and urban life.
Reach Control: Deconstruct the Hype
With that background, let’s watch Tesla’s video again. The model Y impressively handles various real-world scenes. But Musk’s claims about historical first are, characteristically, exaggerated. A few days ago, on June 22, Tesla launched A very limited version of its robotaxi service in Austin. Not only did it involved a small number of cars and handmade customers, but each vehicle had a human supervisor in the passenger seat and was limited to “geophile” (geographically limited) area.
Plus, Musk claims that this is the “first completely autonomous drive without people in the car … on a public highway” is obviously false. Waymo already offers driver rides that include road trips to its employees in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los -English. Although not yet available to the public, the capacity has worked for some time. The core difference is that Waymo has spent years collecting data and validating its security in these areas with its Lidar-equipped fleet, while Tesla seems to be quick to create a public perception of leadership.
Our take: open or carefully choreographed stunt?
This Tesla video is a PR -victory. But considering Musk’s trace, a healthy dose of skepticism is guaranteed. It is very likely that this specific 30-minute route was scrupulously mapped and tested by Tesla in ideal conditions to ensure perfect performance for the video. The true test of autonomy is not whether a car can carry out one perfect, pre -planned trip; It is whether it can handle thousands of unpredictable trips, safely, over millions of miles.
The most narrating question remains: if Tesla’s system is really “fully autonomous” as claimed in this video, why is its trading robotaxis still require a human supervisor?
Musk is a brilliant seller, and this video is his newest, most compelling ad. It sells a vision of the future, which is so close. But as we saw again and again, with Tesla, the gap between advertising video and daily reality can be extensive. Until these cars navigate countless cities without a human security network, this “historic” is first little more than bright, but probably rough, marketing.
