Tesla's FSD Approval in China: Regulatory Challenges and Potential

Tesla's incremental step in offering full self-driving in China is crucial for its business model, pending regulatory approval.

### Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) in China: Opportunities and Regulatory Challenges
* 🚗  Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) could be a **significant contributor** to their business in China, especially considering the **potential market size**.
* 🇨🇳  Unlike the U.S., Tesla is facing regulatory challenges in China, where they need to navigate a **more piecemeal approach to gaining approvals for FSD**.
* 🚦  Tesla has realized the importance of **obtaining regulatory approvals in China**, as seen through Elon Musk's visits and efforts to **align with Chinese EV makers**.
* 💸  There are questions about whether Tesla will continue to **charge the same price for FSD in China** based on the **capabilities approved by regulators**.
* 🇺🇸  The level of permissiveness from Chinese regulators regarding FSD remains uncertain, unlike the **more hands-off approach** seen in the U.S.
* 🤔  The U.S. has allowed driver assistance systems like FSD with **minimal restrictions** to promote safety, but whether China will adopt a similar stance is still **unknown**.

how important is this for FSD? How important is this for the Tesla business model? It's an incremental step, and I do think that there's some potential for what Tesla markets as full self-driving to be a more meaningful contributor to their business in China, which they could really use at the moment. But what we don't know is just how long it's going to take them to be able to offer this more widely. Even this incremental step that we're reporting on today really just applies to the city of Shanghai and potentially also Hong Joo, another city. And so we're not necessarily seeing China take the same sort of hands-off approach that we've seen in the US, where they've been able to offer FSD nationwide, and it wasn't all that much trouble for them to make this available to consumers. On the other hand, in China, they're really going to have to, sort of, in piecemeal

fashion, you know, hit the, sort of, tick the boxes that they need to with Regulators, in order for consumers to be able to activate this. And it feels as though Musk has realized that he needed these green lights coming from Regulators. He made Whistle-Stop tours to Beijing and actually, therefore, having to play alongside all the other Chinese EV makers. Yeah, that's right. And this has been, you know, months in the making even before that recent trip to Beijing that you mentioned. You know, this is a case of Tesla having, you know, offered the ability to buy this if you're a customer in China, but you know, not being able to actually activate it and, you know, be deployed, the sort of ability to turn this on. And so, you know, I think there are still a lot of questions about, you know, just how willing Tesla is to continue to charge as much as it has for this system, depending on, you know, how much, sort of, capability it's able to offer because

this is all going to be up to the regulators. And again, I think they're going to, you know, the likelihood that they're going to be as permissive as the US has been. You know, where Washington has taken this view that we don't want to stand in the way. We want to offer, you know, driver assistance systems, you know, plenty of leash to try and, you know, offer, uh, you know, the sort of safety benefits without, you know, getting in the way. That still remains very much an open question.

Tesla Gets Shanghai Approval to Test Advanced Driver Assistance

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The Potential Impact of Full Self-Driving for Tesla in China

Tesla's full self-driving could be a significant contributor to their business in China, which is much needed at the moment.

However, the current incremental step only applies to Shanghai and potentially Hong Joo, in contrast to the US where it was more widely available.

The timeline for offering full self-driving more widely in China is still uncertain.

Tesla's Struggle with Regulators for its Self-Driving Feature

Elon Musk realized the need for approval from Chinese regulators to activate Tesla's self-driving feature for customers in China.

The company had been unable to deploy the feature, raising questions about its pricing strategy.

Tesla's efforts to secure the green light from regulators involved Whistle-Stop tours in Beijing, putting them in line with other Chinese EV makers.

Regulators' permissiveness in the US has set a precedent for offering plenty of freedom for driver assistance systems.

The approach of not wanting to stand in the way has raised the question of how other regulators will approach the issue.

The balance between providing safety benefits and avoiding interference is still a significant and unresolved question in the regulation of driver assistance systems.