Tesla Extended Warranty No Longer Available in the UK

January 17, 2024

By Kevin Armstrong

UK Extended Coverage Not Offered

Tesla

Tesla owners in the United Kingdom have had the option to buy Tesla’s Extended Warranty option. However, a recent change has come into effect that alters the availability of these warranties for new customers (Thanks, Mark). As of December 31, 2023, Helvetia Global Solutions Ltd has ceased offering Tesla Extended Warranty insurance to new UK customers.

Tesla's Warranty Coverage

Tesla's Extended Warranty, previously available through Helvetia in the UK, offered additional protection for Tesla vehicles after the New Vehicle Limited Warranty expires. This coverage was an assurance against electrical or mechanical failures, excluding the vehicle’s Battery and Drive Unit, which are covered under separate warranties. Customers could easily buy the warranty through the Tesla app or their website, extending their vehicle's protection for up to an additional 4 years or 50,000 miles.

Now, when customers in the UK attempt to get a quote for the Extended Warranty through Tesla's website, they are redirected to a page stating that Helvetia no longer offers this insurance to new UK customers as of December 31, 2023. The page reassures existing customers that Helvetia remains committed to servicing their needs and directs them to an email address for further assistance.

Helvetia backs Tesla’s Extended Warranty coverage in other European countries as well, including Germany, Spain, and France. However, the extended warranties in those countries do not appear to be affected at this time.

Implications for Tesla Owners in the UK

This change primarily affects new Tesla customers in the UK looking to extend their warranty coverage beyond the initial period offered by the New Vehicle Limited Warranty. It appears existing customers with policies already in place will continue receiving Helvetia's support.

New Tesla owners seeking extended warranty coverage must look for alternative solutions, which may involve researching third-party providers or relying on Tesla's own separate warranties for specific components like the Battery and Drive Unit.

Tesla’s Battery / Drive Unit Warranty

Tesla’s battery/drive unit warranty is for eight years for all models but varies by maximum miles allowed based on the vehicle model. The RWD Model 3 gets up to 100,000 miles of coverage, while other Model 3 and Model Y variants are covered up to 120,000 miles. Tesla’s Model S and Model X are covered up to 150,000 regardless of trim level.

Tesla’s battery warranty will repair or replace the battery if it holds less than a 70% charge during this warranty period. Tesla brought back their Extended Warranty program in the U.S. in March 2023. The coverage in the U.S. and North America appears to remain the same at this time.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

June 15, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most significant here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety.

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets.

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.

Tesla FSD in Europe: June Update

June 14, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

The road to bringing FSD to Europe has been a long and complex one and filled with regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Elon Musk, as well as other members of Tesla’s AI team, have previously voiced their grievances with the regulatory approval process on X.

However, it appears that there is finally some progress in getting things moving with recent changes to upcoming autonomy regulations, but the process still seems slow.

Waiting on the Dutch

Elon commented on X recently, stating that Tesla is waiting for approval from Dutch authorities and then the EU to start rolling out FSD in Europe. Tesla is focusing on acquiring approvals from the Dutch transportation authority, which will provide them with the platform they need to gain broader acceptance in Europe. Outside of the Netherlands, Tesla is also conducting testing in Norway, which provides a couple of avenues for them to obtain national-level approval.

The frustration has been ongoing, with multiple committee meetings bringing up autonomy regulation but always pulling back at the last second before approving anything. The last meeting on Regulation 157, which governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems, concluded with authorities from the UK and Spain requesting additional time to analyze the data before reaching a conclusion.

Tesla, as well as Elon, have motioned several times for owners to reach out to their elected representatives to move the process forward, as it seems that Tesla’s own efforts are being stymied.

This can seem odd, especially since Tesla has previously demoed FSD working exceptionally smoothly on European roads - and just did it again in Rome when they shared the video below on X.

FSD Supervised testing in Rome, Italy

Pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/TXh3uQIfrx
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) June 12, 2025

DCAS Phase 3

While the approval process has been slow, Kees Roelandschap pointed out that there may be a different regulatory step that could allow FSD to gain a foothold in Europe.

According to Kees, the European Commission is now taking a new approach to approving ADAS systems under the new DCAS Phase 3 regulations. The Commission is now seeking data from systems currently operational in the United States that can perform System-Initiated Maneuvers and don’t require hands-on intervention for every request.

This is key because those are two of the core functionalities that make FSD so usable, and it also means that there may not be a need to wait years for proper regulations to be written from scratch. Now, the Commission will be looking at real-world data based on existing, deployed technology, which could speed up the process immensely.

What This Means

This new, data-driven regulatory approach could be the path for Tesla to reach its previous target of September for European FSD. While the cogs of bureaucracy are ever slow, sometimes all it takes is a little data to have them turn a bit faster in this case.

Alongside specific countries granting approval for limited field testing with employees, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for FSD in Europe, and hopes are that a release will occur by the end of 2025. With Europe now looking to North America for how FSD is performing, Tesla’s Robotaxi results could also play a role.