Tesla hedges bet on AVs after unveiling Cybercab

Musk expressed his own personal belief that self-driving vehicles, also termed autonomous vehicles, would be safer than those driven by people. The autonomous vehicle industry has certainly been keen to reinforce this belief as one notable company in this space, Wayve, concluded a $1.05 billion funding round in May of this year. Wayve, which was founded in 2017, has said previously that it was the first to develop and trial an end-to-end AI autonomous driving system on public roads, with the overall aim being that self-driving cars will become as commonplace on our roads as those operated by individuals.

Not everyone is so positive about what autonomous vehicles might mean. Apple has reportedly cancelled its Autonomous Vehicles Program Manufacturer’s Testing Permit, which is necessary for vehicle manufacturers to test their automated vehicles on the roads. The permit, which would have run until 30th April 2025, marks the official end of Apple’s Project Titan, which has seen the company spend billions on creating a fully autonomous electric vehicle. 

Reportedly, the company wrote: “Facing ongoing setbacks, the company’s most recent approach to salvage its EV division was pushing back the car’s eventual launch to 2028 and reducing the self-driving benchmark from Level 4 to Level 2+ technology, turning the car into more of a standard EV than a truly autonomous machine. But even with those concessions, it was not to be.”

Additionally, the value of Tesla’s stock has tumbled to more than 8%, at $219, as of Friday 11th October. The day prior, it was $239.

Regulation on autonomous vehicles 

Musk’s claim that autonomous vehicles are safer than those manned by people is a point of controversy, as was his reported statement that he expected to see permission for fully autonomous, unsupervised technology available in Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y in Texas and California.

In the United States, there are currently 21 states that allow autonomous vehicles to be deployed, six that refer to semi trucks and 13 states that are currently researching these vehicles in order to draft laws accordingly. Of the 27 states with legislation referring to autonomous vehicles, 12 stipulate the level of autonomy of the vehicle and in some a driver is required to be behind the wheel; showing that there remains to be concerns about allowing a vehicle that can drive itself on the roads.

In the UK, in May 2024 the government passed the Automated Vehicles Act into law - importantly, this was under the Conservative government, and Labour have previously expressed that the introduction of automated vehicles cannot lead to ‘deindustrialisation’ and job losses.

The AV Act, when it was passed, aimed to put the UK at the forefront of self-driving technology regulation with the hopes that autonomous vehicles will improve road safety by reducing human error, stipulating that these vehicles have to achieve a level of safety as careful and competent human drivers - although at the time of the announcement, it was not clear how this would be assessed.

In spite of the critiques levied at the autonomous vehicles industry, it has continued to grow, in a big question about what our future roads may look like.