Image: Joe T via X
Last December, it was reported that Tesla vehicles could drive themselves to superchargers as part of the supervised full self driving software in Tesla vehicles in the US.
Now just four months later, Tesla cars are driving themselves – without a driver – for multiple kilometers, straight off the production line.
According to Joe T, a drone pilot and Tesla enthusiast in Texas, newly produced Model Y and Cybertruck vehicles can drive for over 3 kilometers, right after coming off the production line.
This was shared on X, with Joe saying: “Breaking Giga Texas News! starting today, new vehicles (Model Ys & @Cybertruck are moving fully autonomously from the factory to the west outbound lot and without human supervisors!”.
These roads are not opened to public but still highlights the intelligence of the full self driving software to allow Tesla to remove drivers who would normally drive the cars from the production line to their designated parking spot in the factory’s outbound holding yard.
This news also comes just months after it was reported that Tesla had hit this milestone at its first factory, the Fremont plant in California.
That was a major achievement, and the company shared a video of it on Tesla AI’s X page a day prior to the Q4 earnings call.
Tesla’s self driving efforts have been picking up pace in recent months.
Less than a fortnight ago, the company shared that it will start full autonomous operation of the Cybercab in Austin, Texas, by June this year.
This is a major step in having unsupervised full self driving service taking passengers for trips around the city.
The initial fleet of self-driving cars is to include Model Y vehicles as well as it’s dedicated two-door Robotaxi, known as the Cybercab.
With unsupervised full self driving already underway at Tesla’s US factories, saving time and money in moving cars from factory production line to the outbound car park, it’s an efficiency gain few car companies can share.
This in the long term alone will save millions of dollars annually for the company as it plans to increase vehicle production significantly in the coming years.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
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