diff --git a/test/dataset_utils.py b/test/dataset_utils.py
index 430d125..4b99a19 100644
--- a/test/dataset_utils.py
+++ b/test/dataset_utils.py
@@ -2,14 +2,18 @@
 import unittest
 from typing import Any, Dict, Union
 from unittest.mock import patch
-
+import pytest
 import numpy as np
+import os
+
+# Location of the files to be saved and extracted by the datasets during testing
+TEST_LOCATION_ON_SYSTEM = "~/../../tmp"
+TEST_LOCATION_ON_SYSTEM = os.path.expanduser(TEST_LOCATION_ON_SYSTEM)
 
 
 class DatasetTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     DATASET_CLASS = None
     FEATURE_TYPES = None
-
     _CHECK_FUNCTIONS = {"check_md5", "check_integrity", "check_exists"}
     _DOWNLOAD_EXTRACT_FUNCTIONS = {
         "download_url",
@@ -41,8 +45,7 @@ def inject_fake_data(
         )
 
     def create_dataset(self, inject_fake_data: bool = True, **kwargs: Any):
-        tmpdir = "/tmp/"
-        info = self._inject_fake_data(tmpdir)
+        info = self._inject_fake_data(TEST_LOCATION_ON_SYSTEM)
 
         if inject_fake_data:
             with patch.object(self.DATASET_CLASS, "_check_exists", return_value=True):
@@ -81,7 +84,7 @@ def test_feature_types(self):
         assert len(data) == len(self.FEATURE_TYPES)
         assert len(target) == len(self.TARGET_TYPES)
 
-        for (data_piece, feature_type) in zip(data, self.FEATURE_TYPES):
+        for data_piece, feature_type in zip(data, self.FEATURE_TYPES):
             if type(data_piece) == np.ndarray:
                 assert data_piece.dtype == feature_type
             else:
@@ -93,6 +96,9 @@ def test_num_examples(self):
 
     @classmethod
     def setUpClass(cls):
-        cls.KWARGS.update({"save_to": "/tmp"})
-        shutil.rmtree("/tmp/" + cls.DATASET_CLASS.__name__, ignore_errors=True)
+        cls.KWARGS.update({"save_to": TEST_LOCATION_ON_SYSTEM})
+        shutil.rmtree(
+            f"{TEST_LOCATION_ON_SYSTEM}/" + cls.DATASET_CLASS.__name__,
+            ignore_errors=True,
+        )
         super().setUpClass()
diff --git a/test/torch_requirements.txt b/test/torch_requirements.txt
index fd14302..00faaa7 100644
--- a/test/torch_requirements.txt
+++ b/test/torch_requirements.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu
-torch==2.1.0
-torchaudio==2.1.0
-torchvision==0.16.0
-torchdata
+torch==2.3.0
+torchaudio==2.3.0
+torchvision==0.18.0
+torchdata<=0.8.0
diff --git a/tonic/dataset.py b/tonic/dataset.py
index db44a3b..4ec16d1 100644
--- a/tonic/dataset.py
+++ b/tonic/dataset.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ def __init__(
         target_transform: Optional[Callable] = None,
         transforms: Optional[Callable] = None,
     ):
-        self.location_on_system = os.path.join(save_to, self.__class__.__name__)
+        self.location_on_system = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser(save_to), self.__class__.__name__)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.transforms = transforms
diff --git a/tonic/download_utils.py b/tonic/download_utils.py
index e613557..91386ed 100644
--- a/tonic/download_utils.py
+++ b/tonic/download_utils.py
@@ -159,9 +159,9 @@ def _extract_zip(from_path: str, to_path: str, compression: Optional[str]) -> No
     with zipfile.ZipFile(
         from_path,
         "r",
-        compression=_ZIP_COMPRESSION_MAP[compression]
-        if compression
-        else zipfile.ZIP_STORED,
+        compression=(
+            _ZIP_COMPRESSION_MAP[compression] if compression else zipfile.ZIP_STORED
+        ),
     ) as zip:
         zip.extractall(to_path)
 
@@ -313,12 +313,10 @@ def download_and_extract_archive(
     md5: Optional[str] = None,
     remove_finished: bool = False,
 ) -> None:
-    download_root = os.path.expanduser(download_root)
     if extract_root is None:
         extract_root = download_root
     if not filename:
         filename = os.path.basename(url)
-
     download_url(url, download_root, filename, md5)
 
     archive = os.path.join(download_root, filename)