It appears that there could be a delay for Tesla in launching Full Self-Driving in China. Recently Tesla said they hoped to expand FSD to China and Europe in the first quarter of 2025, however that timeline may be shifting.
According to a source via China Daily:
The rollout progress is not expected to mirror the speed as the company itself planned.
Tesla first hinted that FSD was coming to China when Elon Musk said that the feature would soon launch in other markets, including Europe and China, by the end of the year during the company’s July 2024 earnings call.
That was followed by a post by the Tesla AI team on X in September that, pending regulatory approvals, FSD would launch in China and Europe in Q1 2025.
However, per the China Daily report, Tesla has not received regulatory approval and is still waiting for permission to collect additional video data and have direct access to train the Autopilot system. The hold-up is related to data security concerns. One workaround Tesla has proposed is for a government team to assess the video data before releasing it to Tesla.
While Tesla waits for full approval, the Chinese government is apparently willing to partial approval to test trial select FSD functions in some Chinese cities. However, for the full launch, the company will need additional training time for the system.
Neither Tesla nor Chinese officials have confirmed the report.
