Tesla starts testing autononomous drive system in London

In its latest annual report, Tesla confirmed its intention to introduce a new version of ‘Full Self Driving Supervised’ in China and Europe this year. Now the company has published a video of the latest test drives in London, from a Model 3 Highland that comes standard with the hardware.

Tesla seems to be serious about its announcements regarding its robotaxi launch, as the company continues to prepare for an imminent market launch of the FSD system, albeit still “supervised,” meaning that a driver must remain in constant control of all decisions made by the FSD software. Following tests in Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Berlin and Madrid, Tesla has now published two videos of journeys through England.

In London, they also passed sights such as Big Ben, Parliament Square and Whitehall – but not as a sightseeing tour, as this route is ‘characterised by many roadworks, pedestrians, cyclists and motorists’, according to Tesla. The Model 3 “handled the situations with ease” with FSD Supervised. It also drove through “one of the most complex junctions in the UK,” the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, with five mini-roundabouts around a large central island.

“FSD (Supervised) navigated this environment by continuously adapting to vehicles coming from different directions, demonstrating its ability to handle unpredictable and challenging driving situations,” says Tesla. “To demonstrate the flexibility of FSD (Supervised) in this notoriously confusing scenario, the test vehicle drove through the magic roundabout three times – just for fun.”

In fact, the Model 3 completed the highly complex roundabout without any dangerous driving manoeuvres. However, it is of course not known how many attempts Tesla has made to complete the three roundabouts without error. Autonomous driving systems are now very advanced. However, videos of Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin have also emerged in which the vehicle makes some blatant mistakes, such as crossing into the oncoming lane at an intersection.

The drives took place with a standard Model 3 without hardware modifications, in the state in which the vehicle will be delivered to customers. However, the software used is still a test version that has not yet been publicly released. This is precisely what Tesla has linked the announced launch this year to: approval by the local authorities is required in Europe as well as in China.

Source: Info via email, x.com (Swindon), youtube.com (London)