A Tesla Model Y was spotted driving through public streets in Austin, Texas, with no visible driver or passengers, a moment that quickly went viral and reignited debate over how close fully autonomous vehicles are to mainstream use.
The short video, shared widely on X, shows the vehicle navigating traffic on its own. The post gained further attention after it was retweeted by Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI and Autopilot, who wrote: “And so it begins.” The comment was widely interpreted as a signal of Tesla’s confidence in its autonomous driving progress.
Tesla has not officially confirmed whether the vehicle was operating in a fully autonomous mode or under supervised testing conditions. Still, the sighting marks one of the clearest public examples yet of a Tesla appearing to drive itself on open roads without anyone inside.
Austin has become a central hub for autonomous vehicle development. Tesla relocated its headquarters to Texas in 2021 and has said the city will play a key role in its planned robotaxi rollout. Texas regulations are also more permissive than those in many other states, making it an attractive testing ground for self-driving technology.
The timing of the sighting aligns with growing optimism on Wall Street about the future of autonomous ride-hailing. Bank of America recently said the sector could become a $1 trillion-plus market in the United States.
Today, ride-hailing accounts for only about 1 percent of the nearly 3 trillion miles Americans drive each year. Bank of America analysts estimate that if self-driving vehicles reduce costs to levels closer to owning a private car, autonomous ride-hailing could account for up to 20 percent of all miles driven over the next 15 years.
The bank added that traditional ride-hailing companies such as Uber could still benefit from this shift, maintaining strong growth and margins even as autonomous players like Tesla, Waymo and Amazon-backed Zoox enter the market.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has repeatedly said fully autonomous driving is approaching, though critics note that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system still requires human supervision and has faced regulatory scrutiny.
Even so, the Austin sighting, amplified by Elluswamy’s public endorsement, underscores how rapidly autonomous technology is moving from controlled tests toward everyday streets.