Tesla has put a new date on the oldest promise attached to Full Self-Driving. On its third-quarter earnings call on 21 October 2026, AI chief Ashok Elluswamy said the first customer-owned cars could drive unsupervised "somewhere around Q2 next year". They would do it as part of Tesla's Robotaxi fleet, not as cars that take their owners anywhere.

What Tesla said

The question came from retail shareholders. "When can we anticipate FSD unsupervised in customer cars?" was one of the top submitted questions, backed by about 1.1 million shares, Electrek reports.

Elluswamy said the Cybercab and the Robotaxi Model Y run the same software, and that Tesla plans to release it to customers as part of FSD v15. The remaining step is letting owners' cars into the geofences and fleet management Tesla uses for its own driverless vehicles. "We suspect somewhere around Q2 next year is when we can turn on some of the first customer vehicles to be part of the robotaxi fleet," he said, as quoted by Tesla North. He added that v15 brings Tesla's own AI-based mapping and navigation, integrated with voice.

Narrower than the old promise

In July 2025, Elon Musk told investors that unsupervised FSD would be available "for unsupervised personal use by the end of this year in certain geographies". The new answer is narrower. An owner's car would drive itself only where Tesla's Robotaxi already operates, and on Tesla's terms. That means six US metros today, mostly small parts of each city, and the Bay Area service still carries safety drivers.

Elluswamy called the service "technology limited". Tesla will move towards 24/7 operation, higher-speed roads and more weather conditions as the software allows, according to Shacknews' call notes. Hardware 3 cars are not on this path: v15 is expected to be HW4-only, and Tesla still has no firm plan for HW3 owners.

Cybercabs for customers this year

Vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy gave the Cybercab a delivery target: "In short, we're trying to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year, 2026." Every Cybercab built in Texas so far has gone to Tesla's own fleet, he said. Musk then added that "the vast majority of the Cybercab stuff will be essentially Tesla-owned and transport as a service".

Neither said who the first customers would be. In September Tesla opened an interest form for fleet buyers. Electrek points out that a car with no steering wheel, delivered before owners get unsupervised software, would have nothing to do outside Tesla's zones.

Elluswamy also said the Cybercab will launch in Dallas "next month", its first city after Austin. CFO Vaibhav Taneja said more cities would follow before the end of the year.

What it means in Europe

None of the unsupervised timeline reaches Europe, where Tesla runs no Robotaxi service. The European question is FSD (Supervised), which Tesla's European websites now call Tesla Assisted Driving. On that, Musk hedged: "It's hard to predict but maybe within a few months but I would be surprised if it takes longer than Q1 but obviously that's not a time frame we control," he said of EU-wide approval, as quoted by Drive Tesla.

The system is approved in nine EU countries, most recently Slovakia. The EU committee that can extend the Dutch approval is due to decide in December. Germany's transport minister wants it approved EU-wide, while Norway says it will wait for that decision. For Musk's Q1 hope to hold, the December vote, or a later one before the end of March, has to pass.