Full Self-Driving May Be Hurting Tesla’s Reputation More Than It’s Helping

Good morning! It’s Friday, August 29, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you’ll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system may not be the PR win Elon Musk wants it to be, the European Union capitulates to the U.S. in the hopes of bringing auto tariffs down, GM cuts a shift for some of its biggest EVs and BYD actually hits a speed bump.

A new survey shows that more U.S. consumers are actually turned off by Tesla’s Full Self-Driving driver assist system. They say it actually pushes them away from the brand rather than drawing them to it. This flies directly in the face of CEO Elon Musk‘s fervent promotion of the tech as a key feature in his electric vehicles.

The Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report for August, which political consulting firm Slingshot Strategies published, polled 8,000 Americans. Just 14% of them said FSD would make them more likely to buy a Tesla. At the same time 35% said the tech would make them less likely,  the remaining 51% said FSD wouldn’t swing them one way or the other. You gotta love the average American consumer. From CNBC:

Nearly half of consumers surveyed by Slingshot said they think FSD technology should be illegal.

For Tesla, the troubling results land in the middle of a sales slump resulting from an aging lineup of electric vehicles and increased competition from rivals. There’s also reputational damage in response to Musk, his incendiary political rhetoric, work with the Trump administration and support of Germany’s far-right AfD party.

Sales of Tesla cars in Europe plunged 40% in July from a year earlier, the seventh consecutive month of declines.

[…]

For now, Tesla still relies on EV sales for the vast majority of its revenue, though Musk has touted FSD as one of the company’s big advantages over competitors.

Last month, executives suggested that Tesla has a market education problem when it comes to driving adoption of FSD.

Musk said Tesla reps would start telling customers about FSD when they bring in their cars for service, and they would begin reaching out to drivers, sending them videos of how the system works.

I don’t know, Elon. When you look at these numbers, it doesn’t really seem like an education thing. Sure, a lot of people haven’t made up their minds on FSD just yet, but it’s hard a “vast majority.” For the most part, folks know what the system is, and more importantly, what it isn’t.

The European Union is moving to eliminate all tariffs on industrial imports from the U.S. and expand access for American farm products. It’s being done in an effort to shield European automakers from higher duties on the vehicles they export to the United States. It’s a good first step that’ll have started retroactively on August 1. From The Wall Street Journal:

The proposals follow a joint statement last week in which Brussels and Washington agreed to cut levies on European autos to 15% from a provisional rate of 27.5%. In return, the EU committed to lowering tariffs on a range of U.S. goods.

[…]

That suggests the lower auto tariffs are expected to be backdated to the beginning of the month, shortly after the two sides struck a deal that will see a baseline 15% tariff applied to European exports to the U.S. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said last week that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has assured European officials of the retroactive application.

[…]

Under the EU’s proposal, tariffs on U.S. industrial goods would be scrapped entirely, while American seafood and certain non-sensitive agricultural products would receive preferential access to the European market. A separate proposal would extend tariff-free treatment for U.S. lobster, including processed varieties of the shellfish.

I know this will not completely fix the mess President Trump has made of the global economy when it comes to his ill-advised tariffs, but at least it seems like a step in the right direction. We shall see. For now, enjoy our shellfish, Europe. We’ll enjoy your Porsches.

General Motors is cutting about 360 employees at its Factory Zero electric vehicle plant in Detroit for at least a month in order to reduce production on both the GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Escalade IQ — two of the biggest EVs the company produces. One of two daily shifts building each of those vehicles will be idled from September 2 until October 6. However, these changes won’t impact the Chevy Silverado EV or GMC Sierra EV, which are also built at Factory Zero. From Automotive News:

The 360 affected employees include about 200 who were supposed to be on layoff during the week of Aug. 25 and return Sept. 2. Those workers now will remain off until Oct. 6.

In a statement, GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly said the shift reductions are “temporary adjustments to production to align to market dynamics.”

“General Motors updates schedules as part of our standard process of aligning production to manage vehicle inventory,” the statement said. “Impacted employees will be placed on a temporary layoff and may be eligible for subpay and benefits in accordance with the GM-UAW national contract.”

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Factory Zero has had temporary layoffs multiple times this year. In April, GM idled about 200 of the plant’s 4,000 employees. Roughly 150 have returned to work since then, the source said.

A move like this isn’t too much of a surprise. In the first half of 2025, GM sold 3,766 Escalde IQs and IQLs in the U.S. It sold a further 7,987 Hummer EV Trucks and SUVs. All of those numbers, like the rest of the EV market, are likely well below original expectations.

Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD’s quarterly profits fell for the first time in three and a half years, thanks to the government’s campaign against a price war the entire industry is embroiled in. Net profit at the world’s largest EV builder totaled $894.7 million in the second quarter of this year. That’s down a whopping 29.9% from a year earlier. The drop is even more alarming when you consider the fact that it rose 100.4% in the first quarter. 

Still, it’s not all bad news. Revenue managed to increase 14% to about $28 billion in the second quarter, and first-half profits were up 13.8% while revenue was up 23.3%. From Reuters:

The biggest Chinese rival to Tesla has faced challenges in recent months as Chinese authorities have called for a halt to a bruising price war in China that has pressured profit margins across the entire industry.

BYD has set a target to sell 5.5 million cars globally this year, but it sold 2.49 million in the first seven months of the year, meeting 45% of its goal.

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BYD, which generates nearly 80% of its sales in China, saw vehicle sales fall in its home market for the third straight month in July, while its production slid for the first time in 17 months.

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BYD was among major automakers that pledged in June to make payments to suppliers within 60 days after Chinese authorities ordered carmakers to make payments more promptly and to stop a price war.

The good times cannot last forever, I suppose, but I don’t expect this to be more than a blip for BYD.

History.com

After all of these years, Sarah Palin could still be the funniest to ever do it. Thank you, John McCain, for giving her to the world. It probably cost you the election (not that you really had a chance of winning anyway), but man, was it worth it. If you want to learn more about this complete debacle, head over to

History.com

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I’m feeling angsty today, friends. Join me. Let it flow through you.