Tesla’s Viral ‘Autonomous’ Automotive Supply Video Is Splitting the Web

Elon Musk loves a present. Tesla’s advertising machine thrives on spectacle, and on June 27, the corporate delivered one other daring show: a 30-minute video purporting to point out the first-ever totally autonomous supply of a Tesla car, no driver, no distant management.

“The primary totally autonomous supply of a Tesla Mannequin Y from manufacturing unit to a buyer house throughout city, together with highways, was simply accomplished a day forward of schedule!!” Musk posted on X.

In a follow-up, the billionaire CEO escalated the hype: “There have been no folks within the automotive in any respect and no distant operators in management at any level. FULLY autonomous!” He added: “To the perfect of our information, that is the primary totally autonomous drive with no folks within the automotive or remotely working the automotive on a public freeway.”

There have been no folks within the automotive in any respect and no distant operators in management at any level. FULLY autonomous!

To the perfect of our information, that is the primary totally autonomous drive with no folks within the automotive or remotely working the automotive on a public freeway.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 27, 2025

Collectively, the tweets and accompanying movies amassed practically 15 million views. Tesla first posted a three-minute timelapse teaser, adopted by the total 30-minute video on June 28. In it, a Mannequin Y is seen navigating metropolis streets, freeway interchanges, and intersections, from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin to the house of the brand new proprietor.

The automotive stops at indicators, yields at purple lights, and maneuvers via actual site visitors, all with out a human inside. The supply ends with the brand new proprietor visibly excited because the Mannequin Y rolls up, by itself, to his driveway.

Come hang around with us & Mannequin Y for 30 minutes

Full drive in 1x pace beneath https://t.co/lcClc85Hsn pic.twitter.com/3Ki7StYhsA

— Tesla (@Tesla) June 28, 2025

However on-line, the response wasn’t unanimous awe.

‘Magnificent Advertising and marketing,’ or Misdirection?

Whereas Tesla followers praised the video as historic, many customers on X, the platform Musk additionally owns, pushed again laborious. “Waymo has claimed totally autonomous drives on highways earlier than,” one consumer wrote, linking to a January submit from the Google-owned self-driving firm. Waymo has quietly supplied totally autonomous freeway service to workers in choose cities since earlier this yr.

Waymo has claimed totally autonomous drives on highways earlier thanhttps://t.co/iYxTm36OiM

— Jack Geldhart (@jackgeldhart) June 27, 2025

Others mocked the presentation as a PR stunt.

“Gorgeous! So that they’ve simply illustrated what Robotaxi will probably be doing throughout the USA in 2026. Magnificent advertising, Tesla staff!” one consumer quipped, stating that Tesla’s robotaxi pilot launched days earlier in Austin, utilizing solely a dozen automobiles and a human “supervisor” within the entrance seat. In distinction, Waymo and Cruise have supplied public rides with no people within the driver’s seat for months.

Some customers even requested Grok, X’s built-in chatbot, to research the car’s degree of autonomy. “@grok which degree of autonomous driving is that out of what number of ranges?” requested one consumer, referring to the industry-standard SAE scale, which ranks self-driving capabilities from Degree 0 (no automation) to Degree 5 (totally autonomous in all situations, no human enter wanted).

@grok which degree of autonomous driving is that out of what number of ranges?

— P. I. (@pi1_618) June 28, 2025

Nonetheless others captured the polarization that defines Tesla discourse on-line.

“This one’s for the true followers! And for probably the most decided haters! 😂,” somebody posted, capturing the tribal divide between Musk loyalists and skeptics.

This one’s for the true followers! And for probably the most decided haterz!😂

— 𝕋𝕒𝕧𝕚 (@tavi_chocochip) June 28, 2025

Our Take

Tesla’s standing as one of many world’s most polarizing tech corporations is totally on show right here. Fanatics hailed the video as the beginning of a brand new chapter in transportation. Detractors pointed to Musk’s lengthy historical past of damaged guarantees round autonomy, a timeline that features failed targets for robotaxi rollouts way back to 2019.

To be clear: Tesla has made actual progress with its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software program, a system that makes use of cameras, sensors, and neural networks to coach its automobiles to reply like a human driver. However the system remains to be categorized as Degree 2 autonomy, that means it requires driver supervision and isn’t legally acknowledged as totally autonomous.

And that’s the rub: Musk’s newest declare is exaggerated at finest. Waymo, Cruise, and a number of other Chinese language corporations have performed comparable demos. Some, like Waymo, are already working driverless automobiles in complicated environments like downtown San Francisco.

What Tesla pulled off right here is spectacular. However whether or not it represents a breakthrough or a fastidiously engineered stunt stays to be seen.

The actual query now: can Tesla do that once more tomorrow? And the day after that? At rush hour? In rain? With out rerunning the identical pre-tested route?

Till these questions are answered, the skepticism will solely develop.