Tesla pauses smart driving feature in China pending regulatory approval

Published 24/03/2025, 12:14
© Reuters.

Investing.com -- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) announced on Monday that it plans to introduce its smart driving-assistance feature in China, following the completion of regulatory approval. This comes after the company faced complaints for temporarily pausing a limited-time free trial of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) service.

Tesla’s customer support, in a social media post on Weibo (NASDAQ:WB), stated that all parties are actively advancing the process and will push the feature as soon as it is ready. The company is also eagerly anticipating the launch, urging customers to wait patiently. This message was posted as a comment under Tesla vice president Grace Tao’s Weibo feed.

Last Monday, Tesla had said that it would initiate the free trial of its FSD service in China from March 17 to April 16. The FSD service is a suite of driving-assistance technologies developed with generative artificial intelligence to handle more complex traffic conditions.

The company’s goal for this year is to fully roll out FSD, and it is collaborating with Chinese tech giant Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) to enhance the system’s performance.

Tesla has previously offered such trials in the United States. In the U.S., the FSD system does not necessitate navigation maps to be accurate or current, as local training of the AI helps improve the technology’s driving capabilities.

However, in China, Tesla has been unable to train the system with data from its 2 million electric vehicles due to the country’s data laws.

In late February, China’s industry ministry established new rules requiring autonomous driving-related over-the-air software upgrades to receive regulatory approval.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

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