Photo: Rikard Fredriksson via LinkedIn
Elon Musk canceled a planned trip to India earlier this month but cleared his agenda for an unexpected trip to Beijing. Musk signed the papers to clear the last hurdles preventing Tesla's FSD launch in China. In Europe, Tesla offers FSD demo drives to country regulators, showing promising progress outside North America.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had an epiphany with the launch of FSD V12.3, which made him announce a series of controversial decisions. Musk considered the latest FSD builds so good that he removed the beta label and called it a breakthrough in autonomous driving. He immediately steered Tesla off its planned course and made autonomous driving and driverless robotaxis the centerpieces of its renewed strategy. Now, everything is about full self-driving and robotaxi, as revealed during the first-quarter earnings call.
Although Musk and other Tesla executives dodged questions about the robotaxi, the company teased a ride-hailing service integrated into the Tesla app. Tesla announced a robotaxi event on August 8, or 8/8, which is considered a lucky number in the Chinese culture. This suggested that Musk sees China as the most important market for the Tesla robotaxi, and likely where the August 8 event will take place.
However, there is one important roadblock for robotaxi testing and homologation outside North America, as the European Union and China have stricter rules for autonomous vehicles than North America. That would have made the robotaxi impossible (or at least extremely difficult) to deploy in those countries unless local authorities give their seal of approval.
China appears to be on board with Elon Musk's plans after Tesla's CEO flew to Beijing for an important meeting with Chinese authorities. Musk was supposed to visit India last week but canceled the trip, claiming urgent matters required his presence in the US. However, at the end of the week, Musk unexpectedly flew to China, undoubtedly making Indian authorities angry. Musk was expected to give Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi an image boost in the upcoming elections, and going to China instead is not something he would forgive easily.
Judging by the reports from China, the visit paid off, as Tesla cleared a key hurdle to introduce Full Self-Driving in the country. Tesla partnered with Baidu to use its data for mapping and navigation functions. According to a Bloomberg report (paywall), the partnership will allow Tesla to deploy its autonomous driving services on the basis of lane-level navigation and mapping provided by the Beijing-based internet company.
Baidu has already been Tesla's partner for mapping data since 2020, but the renewed partnership aims to address mapping concerns for more advanced self-driving features. Musk's Beijing visit also helped Tesla clear another key data security and privacy requirement. This is instrumental to Tesla's release of FSD in China, as it helps ease concerns over Tesla's data security issues in the country.
Tesla China declined to offer a timeline for the FSD deployment in China. However, it confirmed that the self-driving software "could launch quickly in the not-too-distant future." Tesla also changed the wording in the Tesla app, where it sells the FSD upgrades. Whereas previously, the upgrade was listed as "Coming later," now it says "Coming soon."
Not only China but also Europe is opening up to FSD deployment. Rikard Fredriksson, a Senior Advisor from the Swedish Transport Administration, posted on Facebook about his experience with Tesla FSD in Germany. Although the self-driving software has not been approved for customer rollout, Tesla is actively testing it on European roads. Fredriksson revealed that FSD was impressively smooth and natural on German roads, and it could be released in several countries without much hassle if regulators allow it.
Although Musk and other Tesla executives dodged questions about the robotaxi, the company teased a ride-hailing service integrated into the Tesla app. Tesla announced a robotaxi event on August 8, or 8/8, which is considered a lucky number in the Chinese culture. This suggested that Musk sees China as the most important market for the Tesla robotaxi, and likely where the August 8 event will take place.
However, there is one important roadblock for robotaxi testing and homologation outside North America, as the European Union and China have stricter rules for autonomous vehicles than North America. That would have made the robotaxi impossible (or at least extremely difficult) to deploy in those countries unless local authorities give their seal of approval.
China appears to be on board with Elon Musk's plans after Tesla's CEO flew to Beijing for an important meeting with Chinese authorities. Musk was supposed to visit India last week but canceled the trip, claiming urgent matters required his presence in the US. However, at the end of the week, Musk unexpectedly flew to China, undoubtedly making Indian authorities angry. Musk was expected to give Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi an image boost in the upcoming elections, and going to China instead is not something he would forgive easily.
Judging by the reports from China, the visit paid off, as Tesla cleared a key hurdle to introduce Full Self-Driving in the country. Tesla partnered with Baidu to use its data for mapping and navigation functions. According to a Bloomberg report (paywall), the partnership will allow Tesla to deploy its autonomous driving services on the basis of lane-level navigation and mapping provided by the Beijing-based internet company.
Baidu has already been Tesla's partner for mapping data since 2020, but the renewed partnership aims to address mapping concerns for more advanced self-driving features. Musk's Beijing visit also helped Tesla clear another key data security and privacy requirement. This is instrumental to Tesla's release of FSD in China, as it helps ease concerns over Tesla's data security issues in the country.
Tesla China declined to offer a timeline for the FSD deployment in China. However, it confirmed that the self-driving software "could launch quickly in the not-too-distant future." Tesla also changed the wording in the Tesla app, where it sells the FSD upgrades. Whereas previously, the upgrade was listed as "Coming later," now it says "Coming soon."
Not only China but also Europe is opening up to FSD deployment. Rikard Fredriksson, a Senior Advisor from the Swedish Transport Administration, posted on Facebook about his experience with Tesla FSD in Germany. Although the self-driving software has not been approved for customer rollout, Tesla is actively testing it on European roads. Fredriksson revealed that FSD was impressively smooth and natural on German roads, and it could be released in several countries without much hassle if regulators allow it.
We believe version 12 is ready for supervised FSD in LHD countries. RHD will take a bit longer.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2024
Excited to introduce the new Baidu Maps V20! Now your navigation on cars is as user-friendly as that on your smart phones. Plus, in partnership with automotive brands like JIYUE, Tesla, and Huawei, it's revolutionizing the driving experience. https://t.co/8LoAq4t8bT
— Baidu Apollo (@BaiduApollo) April 26, 2024
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