Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made a bold statement regarding the progress of the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, claiming that Tesla has “pretty much solved” unsupervised FSD. During a virtual Q&A session at the xAI hackathon in Palo Alto, Musk confidently addressed the long-awaited unsupervised version of FSD, providing one of his most optimistic timelines yet for driverless Teslas.
According to Musk, Tesla is on track to launch Robotaxis without safety monitors in Austin in approximately three weeks. This development would represent a significant advancement from the current pilot program, which operates with no driver in the driver’s seat but still requires a safety monitor in the passenger seat. Musk had previously committed to removing these monitors by the end of the year, and based on his recent comments, it appears that Tesla is on course to meet this deadline.
“We’re just going through validation right now,” Musk explained, noting that unsupervised operation will initially be implemented on a smaller FSD model. He also hinted at a much larger version, expected to debut in January or February 2026, which will incorporate more advanced reasoning and reinforcement learning capabilities. This larger model is seen as a crucial step towards achieving scalable autonomy for Tesla vehicles.
In a surprising turn of events, Musk also mentioned the possibility of Tesla needing to construct its own chip fabrication facility to support the increasing demands of artificial intelligence. He emphasized that existing industry capacity may not be able to keep up with the hundreds of gigawatts of AI compute required annually by Tesla.
These recent developments come shortly after Musk’s assurance to shareholders that Tesla was just “a few months away” from achieving unsupervised FSD. Throughout 2025, Tesla has been actively refining its FSD technology, introducing enhancements aimed at enhancing both capability and adoption. The latest update, FSD 14.2.1, even allows drivers to text while driving under certain conditions, indicating Tesla’s confidence in its progress towards unsupervised autonomy.
As Tesla Robotaxis edge closer to becoming fully rider-only in Austin, with a larger FSD model on the horizon and discussions of a potential Tesla chip fabrication facility, Musk’s unwavering confidence suggests that Tesla is rapidly approaching a milestone it has been pursuing for nearly a decade. The future of autonomous driving technology appears to be closer than ever for Tesla.