Tesla Cars Now Drive Themselves Through Their Own Final Factory Checks

Tesla just gave one of the clearest looks yet at how much automation now runs its factory floor.

In a new interview, Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy explained that fresh vehicles now drive themselves through the final quality checks at the end of the line.

That includes the bumps, squeaks, and rattles section, where a car is put over rough surfaces to shake out any manufacturing flaw before it ships.

The cabin microphones listen while the car does it, then report any problems back to the Tesla team.

Lars says in a new interview that new Tesla vehicles drive themselves over the bumps, squeaks and rattles section at the factory and the microphones in the cabin listen and report back any issues to the Tesla team.

Lars also says Tesla’s first Optimus production line has landed… https://t.co/01wDzcybGu

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 1, 2026

Not a Tesla App has the main manufacturing details from Moravy’s interview with Herbert Ong and Jeff Lutz.

The report says new Tesla vehicles are already using Full Self-Driving to handle the end-of-line validation run. Instead of a worker driving each car through the bumps, squeaks, and rattles course, the vehicle moves itself through that final check before it leaves the factory floor.

The clever part is what happens during the run. The built-in cabin microphones listen for unwanted sounds as the car crosses the rough section, then send the issue back to Tesla’s teams so a rattle, crack, or other assembly problem can be caught before delivery.

Moravy also described Tesla’s work on a specialized AI layer called Full Self-Hearing.

The goal is to move the car through the track while training the system to recognize small imperfections more consistently. That turns quality control into something the vehicle helps perform on itself.

That fits with the broader factory picture in the same report. Tesla is using internal AI agents across engineering, supply chain, service, and manufacturing quality control, while also running early-life failure testing to validate new components and processes.

People still matter in the process. The win is more practical: Tesla is using the same sensor-and-software mindset behind its vehicles to make the build process faster, tighter, and more repeatable.

The same conversation revealed a second piece of news that Tesla fans have been waiting to hear.

Benzinga added the Fremont and Optimus context around Moravy’s comments.

Its report says Elon Musk posted from the Optimus production line in Fremont, while Moravy said Tesla’s first Optimus production line has landed and installation has started at the facility.

Moravy described the line as modular, which matters because Optimus is not built like a car. Benzinga notes his point that the robot is smaller than a vehicle, so the bring-up can move quickly, but the system still involves many sub-lines because of the number of actuators and detailed assemblies inside the robot.

The same report also confirms the factory-audio detail: vehicles can drive themselves from the end of the line toward the logistics yard, run over the bump, squeak, and rattle track, listen for noises and cracks, document what needs to be fixed, and feed that information back to the facility.

Moravy called it Full-Self Hearing, while also acknowledging that the system still needs training and human intervention.

That keeps the timeline grounded. The real story is Tesla turning factory inspection into another software loop.

The full sit-down came from Herbert and Jeff, who walked through the engineering details with Moravy.

Here is Herbert's and Jeff's full interview of Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy. https://t.co/lLqHyaWnHZ

— S.E. Robinson, Jr. (@SERobinsonJr) July 1, 2026

Both of these stories point in the same direction.

Tesla keeps pushing more of its own AI, sensors, and automation into the way its cars and now its robots get made.

A car that tests itself for rattles and a robot line sharing space with the Model S and Model X are the kind of quiet manufacturing wins that add up over time.