An 'autonomous' Tesla fleet will be featured in a documentary film project

In Tampa, Florida, an expressway bridge was temporarily shut down to film a unique documentary which included a fleet of self-driving Tesla Model 3s. One of the volunteers involved with the project (and a Model 3 owner) Blaine Johnston posted the story on Reddit and provided us some stunning images from the shoot (photo gallery below).

Above: Nine Tesla Model 3 volunteer owners with their cars on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway in Tampa, FL for the filming of a documentary (Source: Blain Johnston/Reddit - all photos posted with express written permission)

So who's behind this documentary film? The company is called 'Diamond View' — a Tampa-based creative studio. Mr. Johnston explains, "There were nine Tesla Model 3s there for a 3x3 caravan of 'autonomous' Model 3s. It was filmed by a drone and camera truck with a boom camera. Officially, the shoot was for an upcoming documentary about the future of transportation in Tampa. Unofficially, it seems like a pretty big production for that, but maybe these guys just go big, and it was fun to be a part of."

Some of the details and photos of the event were shared by a local film and digital media commission in the following tweet (see below).

Twitter: Film Tampa Bay

The purpose of the film was to record the Model 3s moving without any driver input. However, according to Blaine, they did not use FSD (Full Self-Driving) — only Tesla's Autosteer and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC) features. Tesla's FSD still seems to be a few more years away. Therefore, in reality, these cars were really semi-autonomous. That said, it's conceivable they'll be portrayed as fully autonomous if the documentary is showcasing the future of driving in Tampa.

The name of the forthcoming film project from Diamond View is Building Tampa. It's slated to be multi-episode documentary focusing on various aspects of Tampa's rise as one of the most forward-looking cities in the United States. The film project will also highlight Tampa's rich history, arts, culture, and nightlife.

It turns out that Florida is one of the most densely populated states of Tesla owners (right behind California). It's also home to one of SpaceX's launch sites, Kennedy Space Center, where Elon Musk's rocket company is preparing for the sixth mission of the Falcon 9 Starlink launch later this month.

Photo Gallery

Above: Recording of the Tesla Model 3 autonomous fleet on an expressway in Tampa - Click/Tap to open high-res images in new tab (Source: Blain Johnston via X Auto)

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Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published on X Auto.