A team led by Alex Roy has achieved a milestone by driving a 2024 Tesla Model S autonomously from Los Angeles to New York City using Full Self-Driving software, with no human interventions. The 3,081-mile journey took 58 hours and 22 minutes, navigating snowstorms without disengagements. This fulfills a long-standing promise by Elon Musk from 2016.
In a significant demonstration of autonomous vehicle technology, Alex Roy, a General Partner at NIVC and former contributor to The Drive, along with co-drivers Warren Ahner and Paul Pham, completed a transcontinental trip in a 2024 Tesla Model S equipped with Hardware 4 and Full Self-Driving (FSD) version 14.2.2.3. The drive began on Tuesday from Redondo Beach, California, aiming to reach midtown Manhattan by Thursday morning, but winter weather extended the timeline.
The route followed Interstate 10 eastward into Arizona, then shifted north onto Interstate 40 through Oklahoma City and St. Louis, covering 3,081 miles at an average speed of 64 mph. The team encountered an advancing Midwest storm system, including snow squalls in the Northeast, yet the vehicle handled the conditions autonomously. Charging stops accounted for 10 hours and 11 minutes of the total 58 hours and 22 minutes.
Roy emphasized the expertise of his companions: Ahner, an AI executive and former autonomy leader at a major automaker, and Pham, a self-driving enthusiast. The trip marked the first zero-intervention "Cannonball Run" on this route, surpassing a recent coast-to-coast drive from Los Angeles to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Dedication to the test was evident when the team executed a 90-minute detour to retrieve a stranded member at a Pennsylvania rest stop without disengaging FSD.
Only one brief disengagement occurred, caused by Roy accidentally touching the steering wheel. The entire journey was documented on video. Roy shared updates during the drive, including: "CRAZIEST events in snow – but FSD did it! Holy s**t," and "Snow performance and recovery is unreal." He added, "The video will be crazy."
This achievement comes nearly a decade after Elon Musk's 2016 pledge for a similar demonstration by the end of 2017, which went unfulfilled at the time. Roy's team plans further tests as Tesla's software evolves.
