Musk says he hopes China will approve fully self-driving cars by the end of the year
Tesla’s vehicle sales in China fell 5.4% in the first half of the year, although the company still held the third position in new energy vehicle sales, behind BYD and Geely, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
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BEIJING – Tesla CEO Elon Musk has once again touted its upcoming rollout of advanced driver assistance software in China, after reports Another quarter of disappointing earnings.
Since last year, Driver assistance has become a selling point for cars in China’s fiercely competitive electric vehicle market. Tesla’s Autopilot mode for navigating highways is available locally, but not its Full Self-Driving mode, which uses cameras and artificial intelligence to let cars park themselves, change lanes and slow down at stop signs.
“We will be seeking regulatory approval for FSD under Tesla supervision in Europe, China and other countries very soon. And I think we can get approval before the end of the year,” Musk said during a Q2 earnings call on Wednesday, Beijing time, according to FactSet minutes.
Full Self-Driving is currently only available in the United States and Canada. China accounts for about 22% of Tesla’s sales.
In April, Musk said that the deployment to China “could happen very soon,” according to him. answer the question about X.
About a week after the social media post, Musk made a surprise appearance in Beijing to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the city’s first major auto show in four years. Local authorities also lifted restrictions on Tesla cars after the company’s Chinese-made vehicles passed domestic data security requirements.
China’s driving assistance competition
Companies ranging from tech giant Huawei to electric vehicle startups Xpeng sells driver assistance capabilities in China. Xpeng in March 2023 expanded Shanghai street driving assistance software and then Beijing.
“Tesla’s current FSD technology is somewhat behind that of its Chinese competitors,” said Shay Natarajan, North America partner at Mobility Impact Partners, a private equity fund that invests in the transportation sector.
“When I compare Tesla’s FSD with other L2 self-driving services in China, I see two main points,” she said. “Nio is a leader in self-driving technology. Their sensor inputs include cameras, radar, LIDAR, and ultrasonic sensors. This is the best of all worlds and leads to a very high level of accuracy and redundancy in sensing the surrounding environment.”
Natarajan points out that Nio charges about $55 a month for driver-assistance features, which is about half of what Tesla charges for FSD in the U.S.
