It is no secret that the first half of 2025 has not been smooth sailing for Tesla, with profits falling due to a lethal cocktail of fierce competition from Chinese manufacturers and the public fallout from CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly polarising entanglement in US politics. Tariffs imposed on foreign markets by US President Donald Trump have also inevitably hurt Tesla’s popularity abroad. However, amidst the turmoil that is plaguing the EV behemoth, news has emerged that suggests a change in direction for Tesla and a pivot away from selling conventional EVs.
Tesla recently posted two videos of a Model 3 driving around the bustling streets of London, including the notoriously chaotic Magic Roundabout in Swindon. In these videos, there was no driver, with the only human present being a supervisor in the passenger seat. This demonstration exhibited Level 2 autonomous driving, which is when a self-driving vehicle is left to its own devices. Still, there is someone in the front passenger seat to assume manual if necessary.
The American manufacturer has been developing its autonomous technology for some time and bringing the idea of self-driving cars from the realm of sci-fi into reality. After years of research, development, and setbacks to the project, it seems now, from the successful tests around Londo,n that Tesla may finally be on the cusp of launching a “Full Self Driving” EV.
According to Tesla, the Model 3 which featured in the videos was equipped with identical software to all other Tesla vehicles available for purchase. Therefore, rather than being incarnated in dedicated models, Tesla’s self-driving technology will instead be provided via a simple software update that will allow customers to quite literally hand the wheel to the on-board system. Included in this update will be a feature that utilises AI to allow the vehicle to negotiate an unmapped car park.
These developments have suggested that the launch of Tesla’s Robotaxi service in the UK may not lie too far in the future. Tesla is currently piloting this in the US, with the Model Y being entrusted with autonomous taxi duty instead of the Model 3.
Tesla are not the only company to invest considerable financial resources into producing a fully self-driving vehicle. Silicon Valley tech giants Apple, until the project’s unceremonious collapse in February 2024, infamously ploughed billions into a similar project. Moreover, Uber are preparing to introduce their own self-driving taxi service in London in the first half of 2026.
The growing noise around self-driving vehicles has inevitably conjured a mixture of excitement and apprehension. Despite the obvious benefits and unique opportunities created by autonomous vehicles, concerns regarding safety and how these cars will handle all possible situations are hard to silence. In response, the UK government has announced that a consultation has been started to draft a series of requirements and regulations needed to be satisfied by the incoming wave of self-driving taxis.
Consequently, as Tesla struggle to match the output of Chinese companies such as BYD, and their sales and profits flounder, the fully autonomous Cybercab, which is currently in development, forecast a future for Tesla centred around ridesharing and driverless taxi services. Clearly, the autonomous vehicles that a few years ago seemed confined to the imagination or at best a couple of decades away, are now knocking on the door.