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Following yesterday’s news that the Tesla Robotaxi network is ahead of schedule and set to launch on June 12th, overnight, Elon confirmed that the Robotaxi network is far ahead of expectations.
With Elon back and working full-time at Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, we’ll likely receive a lot more updates on what these companies are working on. In this case, Elon confirmed that Tesla has been running autonomous Model Ys with no one in the driver’s seat on Austin’s public seats, with no incidents. According to yesterday’s report, there is still someone in the passenger seat just in case something comes up, but essentially “driverless.”
Elon also confirmed that Tesla’s ambitious plans to have a Model Y deliver itself directly from the factory to a customer, presumably in Austin, will also occur next month.
For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents.
A month ahead of schedule.
Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer.
While this will likely be geographically limited to the areas around Giga Texas, and potentially, Tesla’s Fremont factory in the future, it is still a great step toward reducing the cost of vehicles.
Public Access by End of June
In a reply, Elon also confirmed that anyone would be able to test out the Robotaxi network by the end of June. While in typical Elon fashion, he didn’t answer the question of whether the network will be invite-only at first, we expect this will likely be the case and it won’t just be anyone who can open the Tesla app and summon a robotaxi.
At the Q1 2025 Earnings Call, Elon stated that the Robotaxi service would only be available to the public in late June or early July, giving Tesla enough time to test with internal audiences, as well as invited testers. This timeline seems to be fairly concrete, but if you’re planning a trip to Austin to check out Robotaxi, we suggest looking at early July, as timelines can still shift.
Tesla’s Optimus X account recently dropped another video, following up on its previous dance routines. Previously, Optimus demonstrated impressive footwork, along with a level of agility and balance that has improved immensely since Optimus was first unveiled.
In a new video posted to X, Optimus is seen doing actual work. While it’s still in the early days, Tesla shows off how the robot is learning to perform small tasks.
The real focus of the video isn’t on the tasks Optimus is performing but on how it’s learning to perform these tasks. Optimus is learning by watching humans perform the work through a first-person view.
The video demonstrates Optimus tackling daily tasks that require a good degree of dexterity and environmental awareness, including vacuuming, cooking, and even taking out the trash. While the previous demonstrations were more of a showcase of Optimus’ physical capabilities, this one is more about the learning process.
The key breakthrough, which was emphasized by members of Tesla’s Optimus AI team, is the robot’s new ability to learn complex, bi-manual tasks largely from watching videos of humans performing them. This results in a reduction in direct teleoperation, where real humans control Optimus remotely to generate training data.
Murtaza Dalal, a member of Tesla’s Optimus AI team, shared his excitement about the development - and noted that while teleoperation doesn’t scale, training by watching video does scale — extremely fast.
First-Person Perspective
The ability to learn from human video (while currently focused on a first-person perspective) means Optimus can bootstrap new tasks much faster than before and with less human interaction required. Milan Kovac, an Optimus Engineering team member, elaborated on this, stating:
“We recently had a significant breakthrough along that journey, and can now transfer a big chunk of the learning directly from human videos to the bots... Many new skills are emerging through this process, are called for via natural language (voice/text), and are run by a single neural network on the bot (multi-tasking).”
What’s Next for Optimus?
The road doesn’t stop here. The Optimus team is already looking to see where they can push the barriers of learning, and is looking at having Optimus learn directly from internet videos of humans doing tasks. This means learning from third-person views rather than the more optimized first-person views that it is currently learning from today.
Once Optimus can translate the third-person perspective to the first-person, much like humans do, then it opens up a whole new world of training data. Optimus will be able to learn simply by watching the world around him.
All this rapid advancement is critical for Tesla. Elon has doubled down on Optimus being Tesla’s key to unlocking the biggest market in the world, and it is key to pushing Tesla’s new vision of sustainable abundance.
This is just the first step in a long process - we’re still years away from Optimus making its way to customer homes, but the journey has to start somewhere. For now, it’ll be working hard in Tesla’s labs and factories, and we expect to hear more about Optimus later this year once the production line is up and running.
![Tesla’s Optimus Is Now Learning by Watching — First Person Today, Third Person Tomorrow [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/2025/optimus_cleaning.png/bd519f7f31d9c3e7e25c2736ee284efb/optimus_cleaning.jpg)
