Pending
Pending
New Tesla Roadster demo postponed to October 15, 2026
“New Tesla Roadster Unveil 10.01”
goalposts: 2026-10-01 (New Tesla Roadster Unveil 10.01) → 2026-10-15 (postponed by 2 weeks / QT Tesla Oct 15) · moved 1×
Elon Musk promised Complete autonomy in approximately two years by the end of 2017. The deadline passed and it didn't happen.
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“We're going to end up with complete autonomy, and I think we will have complete autonomy in approximately two years.”
— Elon Musk · Dec 21, 2015 · Fortune interview, Dec 21 2015 ↗
What actually happened
Musk told Fortune in December 2015 that Tesla would have complete autonomy in about two years. By end of 2017 Autopilot was a driver-assist system, and no Tesla drove without supervision. Electrek Sep 2025 — Tesla changes the meaning of 'Full Self-Driving' ↗
The Progression
Dec 21, 2015
The promise: “We're going to end up with complete autonomy, and I think we will have complete autonomy in approximately two years.” · Fortune interview, Dec 21 2015 ↗
Dec 31, 2017
Deadline passed. Musk told Fortune in December 2015 that Tesla would have complete autonomy in about two years. By end of 2017 Autopilot was a driver-assist system, and no Tesla drove without supervision. Electrek Sep 2025 — Tesla changes the meaning of 'Full Self-Driving' ↗
Today · Oct 12, 2026
Status: Missed · 3,207 days past due. Never happened.
In a December 2015 Fortune interview Elon Musk said Tesla would have complete autonomy in approximately two years, with regulators lagging behind. Ten years later, Tesla's system still needs a supervising driver.
Receipts
LAST CHECKED 2026-10-11- [SOURCE] Fortune interview, Dec 21 2015
Tesla’s record
Delivered
70
53% of resolved claims delivered.
Missed
63
Deadline passed, still no-show.
More Full Self-Driving predictions
- FSD v15: Elon promises a full rewrite by end of 2026Pending
- How many Teslas have FSD? Elon predicts millions autonomous by 2026, still pendingPending
- Unsupervised FSD release date: hundreds of thousands by 2026? still pendingPending
- Tesla Semi self-driving: Elon says by Mar 31, 2027Pending
- Talk to Grok in FSD within ~3 monthsMissed
- FSD in Europe: supervised approval promised by Feb 2026Delivered · Late
- Tesla cross-country self-driving: promised for 2017Partial
- FSD Unsupervised: TX and CA in 2025, partly deliveredPartial
- Tesla Banish: auto-parking after drop-off, partly deliveredPartial
- FSD update: the 'step-change' Elon promised for Sep 2025Delivered · Late
- FSD v14: Elon promised 10x the parameters by Sep 2025Missed
- Tesla unsupervised FSD: promised for owners by 2025, missedMissed
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← A Tesla that can do full autonomy in about three years (Oct 2015)
'Less than two years away from complete autonomy' (Code 2016) →
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