TMTPost -- Tesla Inc. is confirming its roadmap to roll out its Full Self-driving (FSD) advanced driver assistant in China.

Credit：Tesla

Tesla will release FSD in China and Europe in the first quarter of 2025, pending for regulatory approval, according to a post of Tesla AI team at social media X. the timetable is true and the application for FSD rollout is waiting for Chinese regulators’ greenlight, a person from Tesla China later told Chinese national financial newspaper the Securities Times.

Recent updates about FSD the Tesla AI team disclosed include the FSD version 12.5.2 with three-time improved miles between necessary interventions and version 12.5.2 on AI3 computer (unified models for AI3 and AI4) will be launched this month. The software with Cybertruck Vision Autopark feature and Cybertruck FSD also will hit the market this year. The feature of unpark, park and reversion in FSD and version 13 with 6-time improved miles between necessary interventions will be released in October.

The latest roadmap suggests FSD could be available in China as early as in the coming four months, while Tesla may delay the original schedule of rollout. At an earnings call in July, Tesla CEO Elon Musk signaled his company may launch FSD in China this year.

“With 12.5, maybe 12.6 (version of FSD), but pretty soon, we will ask for regular regulatory approval of the Tesla supervised FSD in Europe, China, and other countries. And I think we are likely to receive that before the end of the year,” Musk told analysts. The billionaire cofounder of Telsa admitted the FSD capabilities that are deployed outside of North America are far behind that in North America. He suggested regulators will not block the FSD software if they find that supervised autonomous driving is much safer than human drivers in billions of miles of actual driving.  

Previous reports indicated Tesla is step up pushing for FSD launch in China, which would give a boost for the EV giant’s revenue and profits at a time when both are weighed by intense competition from BYD Co., Ltd. and other Chinese rivals.

Musk’s surprising visit in April has stirred speculation about looming FSD rollout in China. Musk was reported to meet officials in China about rollout of FSD system in China and permission to transfer data overseas, though the state-run media didn’t confirmed it yet. In his in-person meeting with Musk in Beijing, Chinese Premier Li Qiang hailed Tesla's development in China as a successful example of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, and said that China's vast market will always be open to foreign-funded enterprises, which he called indispensible participants in and contributors to China's development.

Following the meeting, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) released a list showing that the first batch of 76 vehicle models from seven automakers including Tesla are compliant with all of four China’s data security requirements. The top Chinese auto industry body said it had conducted the relevant test since last November under Several Provisions on the Management of Automobile Data Security (Trial) 2021 (2021 Automobile Data Provisions). The list of 76 models includes all the 2023 versions of Model 3 and Model Y made in Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai. Tesla then said various local authorities in China have gradually removed restrictions on the movement and parking of intelligent connected connected vehicles made by the company and other automakers.

Reuters’s sources then revealed Baidu, China's major Internet search company, reached an agreement with Tesla to grant the car company access to its mapping license for data collection on China's public roads. The deal was reported to clear a final regulatory hurdle for Tesla's driver assistance system. As part of the deal, Baidu would also provide its lane-level navigation system to Tesla, the sources said.

Baidu announced in June that it provided Tesla with mapping software for its vehicles. Version 20 of Baidu Maps, a desktop and mobile web-mapping application released in April, is available on Tesla's electric vehicles (EVs). The Wall Street deemed the news a tailwind for Tesla to launch FSD in mainland China. "This may be easier in China, given that it's joined forces with the Chinese search giant Baidu to use its navigation system," Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said following Tesla AI team’s post about FSD roadmap.