Tesla News: Model 3 Owner Completes First Fully Autonomous Cross-Country Drive Across the U.S.

In a milestone widely hailed as emblematic of the autonomous driving era, Tesla owner David Moss completed the first-ever coast-to-coast journey across the United States without any human intervention—riding in his Model 3 while the car drove itself from the West Coast to the East Coast.

The feat, accomplished at the close of 2025, has made Moss the first person in the world to traverse the continental U.S. using only Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. The achievement sparked excitement across the Tesla community and drew public praise from both Tesla Inc. and company CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.

Moss began his journey at a Tesla-themed restaurant in California and concluded it at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina—a total distance of 2,732.4 miles (approximately 4,397 km). The entire trip took 2 days and 20 hours. Crucially, he did not take manual control at any point—not even during charging stops at Tesla Supercharger stations, where the vehicle autonomously parked itself.

For historical context, this modern triumph echoes a legendary automotive first from 122 years earlier: in 1903, pioneers Horatio Nelson Jackson and Sewall K. Crocker (accompanied by their adopted bulldog, Bud) became the first to drive across America—from San Francisco to New York—in a grueling 63-day odyssey meant to prove the automobile was more than a “passing fad.”

Moss documented his route in detail on a map, listing nearly 30 Supercharger stops along the way. Even more remarkably, he noted that not a single near-miss or safety incident occurred throughout the entire journey—a level of consistency rarely matched even by human drivers.

The timing of the challenge coincided with Tesla’s recent FSD v14 update, which introduced a new feature allowing users to review their FSD trip history. Public data confirms that Moss is also the first driver to accumulate over 10,000 miles using FSD without a single manual takeover.

The cross-country drive was powered by the latest FSD v14.2.1.25 software released in December 2025, which delivers smoother, more human-like acceleration and steering behavior—though Tesla still requires a driver to remain attentive and ready to intervene.

Moss’s accomplishment fulfills a long-standing ambition of Elon Musk’s. Since unveiling Autopilot 2.0 in 2016, Musk had repeatedly cited a fully autonomous cross-U.S. drive as a key milestone, originally predicting it would be achieved by the end of 2017.

The Tesla North America official social media account celebrated the feat, posting: “The first Tesla to drive coast-to-coast across the U.S. with zero human intervention—entirely on FSD.”

Elon Musk himself shared the news with a succinct endorsement: “Cool.”