Tesla's Viral ‘Autonomous' Car Delivery Video Is Splitting the Internet
Elon Musk loves a show. Tesla's marketing machine thrives on spectacle, and on June 27, the company delivered another bold display: a 30-minute video purporting to show the first-ever fully autonomous delivery of a Tesla vehicle, no driver, no remote control.
'The first fully autonomous delivery of a Tesla Model Y from factory to a customer home across town, including highways, was just completed a day ahead of schedule!!' Musk posted on X.
In a follow-up, the billionaire CEO escalated the hype: 'There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!' He added: '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.'
There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous!
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 27, 2025
Together, the tweets and accompanying videos amassed nearly 15 million views. Tesla first posted a three-minute timelapse teaser, followed by the full 30-minute video on June 28. In it, a Model Y is seen navigating city streets, highway interchanges, and intersections, from Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin to the home of the new owner.
The car stops at signs, yields at red lights, and maneuvers through real traffic, all without a human inside. The delivery ends with the new owner visibly excited as the Model Y rolls up, by itself, to his driveway.
Come hang out with us & Model Y for 30 mins
Full drive in 1x speed below https://t.co/lcClc85Hsn pic.twitter.com/3Ki7StYhsA
— Tesla (@Tesla) June 28, 2025But online, the reaction wasn't unanimous awe.
While Tesla fans praised the video as historic, many users on X, the platform Musk also owns, pushed back hard. 'Waymo has claimed fully autonomous drives on highways before,' one user wrote, linking to a January post from the Google-owned self-driving company. Waymo has quietly offered fully autonomous highway service to employees in select cities since earlier this year.
Waymo has claimed fully autonomous drives on highways beforehttps://t.co/iYxTm36OiM
— Jack Geldhart (@jackgeldhart) June 27, 2025Others mocked the presentation as a PR stunt.
'Stunning! So they've just illustrated what Robotaxi will be doing across the USA in 2026. Magnificent marketing, Tesla team!' one user quipped, pointing out that Tesla's robotaxi pilot launched days earlier in Austin, using only a dozen vehicles and a human 'supervisor' in the front seat. In contrast, Waymo and Cruise have offered public rides with no humans in the driver's seat for months.
Some users even asked Grok, X's built-in chatbot, to analyze the vehicle's level of autonomy. '@grok which level of autonomous driving is that out of how many levels?' asked one user, referring to the industry-standard SAE scale, which ranks self-driving capabilities from Level 0 (no automation) to Level 5 (fully autonomous in all conditions, no human input needed).
@grok which level of autonomous driving is that out of how many levels?
— P. I. (@pi1_618) June 28, 2025Still others captured the polarization that defines Tesla discourse online.
'This one's for the true fans! And for the most determined haters! 😂,' someone posted, capturing the tribal divide between Musk loyalists and skeptics.
This one's for the true fans! And for the most determined haterz!😂
— 𝕋𝕒𝕧𝕚 (@tavi_chocochip) June 28, 2025Tesla's status as one of the world's most polarizing tech companies is fully on display here. Enthusiasts hailed the video as the start of a new chapter in transportation. Detractors pointed to Musk's long history of broken promises around autonomy, a timeline that includes failed targets for robotaxi rollouts as far back as 2019.
To be clear: Tesla has made real progress with its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, a system that uses cameras, sensors, and neural networks to train its vehicles to respond like a human driver. But the system is still classified as Level 2 autonomy, meaning it requires driver supervision and isn't legally recognized as fully autonomous.
And that's the rub: Musk's latest claim is exaggerated at best. Waymo, Cruise, and several Chinese companies have conducted similar demos. Some, like Waymo, are already running driverless vehicles in complex environments like downtown San Francisco.
What Tesla pulled off here is impressive. But whether it represents a breakthrough or a carefully engineered stunt remains to be seen.
The real question now: can Tesla do this again tomorrow? And the day after that? At rush hour? In rain? Without rerunning the same pre-tested route?
Until those questions are answered, the skepticism will only grow.
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