No Comments Just when you thought the most exciting tech news was about soundbars or the best open-ear headphones for 2025, Elon Musk has decided to change the channel. His latest party trick? A Tesla Model Y apparently drove itself, ghost-in-the-machine style, from its Austin, Texas, factory to a customer’s driveway on June 27. No driver, no remote control, just pure, unadulterated robot freedom. Sweet as. Or is it? Musk, in his usual understated fashion on his social media platform X, trumpeted it as a “FULLY autonomous” journey and an industry first, with the car hitting speeds of 72 mph on public highways. To which we say, hold your horses, mate. This grand “first” comes just days after Tesla launched its robotaxi service in the same city on June 22, a service that, funny enough, requires a human “safety monitor” in the passenger seat and remote operators watching from a control centre. Meanwhile, the quiet kids over at Waymo have had their cars pottering around cities autonomously for years and are already testing on highways for employees. So, a “first”? Maybe with a few asterisks the size of a Model Y’s panel gaps. You also have to admire the timing; it’s pure theatre. After a solid decade of promising that full autonomy was just around the corner, this magical, hands-free delivery happens just days before Tesla is scheduled to post its second-quarter sales numbers on July 2. Analysts expect those numbers to show a significant drop. It’s a classic case of “Look at the shiny object!” while you quietly shove the financial reports under the rug. Nothing to see here, just a revolutionary autonomous delivery, definitely don’t look at the delivery figures that might be about to fall off a cliff. The whole thing hinges on that slippery phrase, “fully autonomous.” Musk is adamant there were “no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point” for this specific trip. That’s a suspiciously precise denial from a company whose main robotaxi service relies on exactly those human backups. It’s a cool milestone, no doubt, but until our Tesla can autonomously navigate a Pak’nSave car park on a Saturday morning, we’ll reserve our full applause. While Tesla goes for headline-grabbing sprints, competitors like Waymo have been running a marathon, methodically getting their tech right for public use. So, what have we really got? A clever, undoubtedly impressive, but likely very carefully choreographed drive across town. Is it the watershed moment for autonomy we’ve been waiting a decade for? Probably not. It feels more like a spectacular piece of PR designed to distract from looming bad news. It’s a great story for the headlines, but we’ll be keeping our eyes on the road… and the sales figures. Tags: