It’s not every day that your new car drives itself to your front door straight from the factory floor. But that’s exactly what Tesla says it can do.
In what the company is calling a “world-first”, a 2025 Tesla Model Y was recently delivered from its Gigafactory Texas factory to a customer’s home in Austin, Texas, without a human in the car. The electric SUV reportedly navigated its way through parking lots, highways and even downtown Austin, thanks to Tesla’s new Robotaxi software.
Yes, a car delivered itself. And no, this isn’t a concept – it was posted by Tesla on X (formerly Twitter), complete with footage.
While it’s still unverified by independent authorities, Tesla claims the trip took around 30 minutes and was entirely handled by its Robotaxi autonomous driving system, a more advanced version of Full Self-Driving (FSD).
Once the car reached its destination, it reverted back to FSD, the version of the software that owners can currently use.
So, what’s the Tesla Robotaxi?
The Robotaxi software is Tesla’s next big bet on autonomous cars. Unlike FSD, which still requires human oversight, Robotaxi is designed to enable Level 4 or 5 autonomy – the highest level on the self-driving scale. In theory, it means a vehicle can handle any driving task in any condition without a human driver. Think: no pedals, no steering wheel – just summon and go.
However, for now, Robotaxi isn’t available to customers. Tesla has only just begun rolling it out in a limited Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, invite-only, with safety drivers still present.
Tesla driving tech Down Under
While Tesla already offers the full suite of FSD to buyers in the USA, it has started testing its supervised self-driving tech on Australian roads. In May 2025, a Tesla was spotted handling the city’s notorious hook turn — a local driving oddity involving right turns from the left lane (yes, really).
But don’t expect your Tesla to deliver itself anytime soon. As of now, Level 2 autonomy is the highest allowed in Australia – features like adaptive cruise and lane-keep assist, where the car can help, but the driver must stay in control.
What’s next?
Elon Musk believes this is just the beginning. In a recent earnings call, he predicted “millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously in the second half of next year”, a bold claim, especially considering the company also reported a 66% year-on-year drop in revenue in the same quarter.
Still, the idea of skipping the dealership entirely and having your car drive itself to your driveway? That’s a future many would be curious to try – even if we’re not all ready to trust it just yet.
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